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Negative Ghost rider, the pattern is full: Skyward releases first version of air-traffic control for drones

For now, most drone adoption has come from the hobbyist community. But the commercial applications are fairly intuitive—and becoming more of a reality every day. And as more and more commercial drones take flight, the skies could get kind of crowded and difficult to manage.

That’s why Portland startup Skyward has been working on services that will help those commercial drones operate more effectively in shared airspace. And now, they’ve publicly launched some of their first services for commercial drones.

Regulators and insurers across the world need to know the who, what, when, where, and how for flight operations. Skyward is the first integrated solution to address this need for drones, and makes it easy for operators to track the specific information and airspace data needed for business, insurance or regulatory requirements. Over 150 operators are already using Skyward in the US, Canada, Caribbean, Australia, and South Africa, for applications like agriculture, industrial inspection, construction, oil and gas surveying, as well as real estate and cinematography. Skyward is a partner in NASA’s UTM program, and a board member of the SUAV Coalition, working with Verizon, Amazon, Google and others to define the future of this industry.

“As the leading provider of UAS insurance in the US, we’ve recognized the overwhelming need for a complete flight management system,” said Terry Miller, President of Transport Risk Management. “Skyward developed the solution we’ve been searching for, and we will be incorporating it into our insurance underwriting process.”

For more information, visit Skyward.