Both pilots and companies are navigating a thin line between security and innovation. Host Grant Guillot talks with leaders, influencers, and experts across the drone industry to guide us through the complex web of technology and policy in the United States.

 

Whether it’s agriculture, construction, energy, surveying, recreation—what have you—drones are providing fantastic opportunities for businesses and people alike. With the ability to safely and quickly gather data and access previously inaccessible locations, companies are finding that drones can be used in unique ways, elevating a business’ capabilities while boosting revenues. Simply put, the sky is the limit. However, during the pandemic, drones have performed crucial functions, including public space monitoring and guidance during lockdown and quarantine, and on the medical front lines as well.

Named by Drone Experts as the #1 drone service provider in America and the first company to secure FAA permission to fly UAS for business in North Dakota, SkySkopes is a professional service provider with a highly qualified operations and geospatial team aimed at becoming the most trusted end to end solutions provider and positively impacting the world through innovative solutions. Operating a wide variety of advanced sensors and aircraft for transmission and distribution line inspections, oil and gas applications, and many other innovative use cases that focus on adding value, SkySkopes thinks outside the box to provide clients with the best data solutions possible.

And on this episode of Drones in America, lifelong aviation enthusiast and SkySkopes CEO and Chairman, Matt Dunlevy, joins host Grant Guillot to discuss not only how the company was founded and its core business, but also regulatory restrictions, the BEYOND program—which is replacing the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP)—and the role UAS technology has played during the COVID-19 crisis.

In a coalition that included the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University and the Research Institute for Autonomous Systems (RIAS), SkySkopes tested the leveraging of drones for medical supply delivery, to sense body temperatures remotely and to spray disinfectants in both indoor and outdoor spaces.

“We were very satisfied with the results of our tests. It was clear that there’s a practical use for drones in COVID. But there is also an increase in the social acceptance of UAS because of COVID,” remarked Dunlevy. “Drones are inherently tools of social distance.”

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