A leading Japanese drone and advanced air mobility company has made its first major move to enter the U.S. market and further its efforts to create a global air traffic control system for unmanned aircraft known as Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management, UTM.Indeed development of a global UTM system has taken on increased urgency as the number of low-altitude aircraft such as drones, vertical takeoff and landing craft and short-hop air taxis grows.
Aloft previously secured investments from Boeing's Corporate Venture Capital and Travelers Insurance and is a top provider of Federal Aviation Administration-certified umanned aircraft system services. “Aloft has over 80% share in the market, which is quite dominant, I would say,” explained Ueno. “It’s not a big company. It's like only maybe 15 people or so, but it's a really solid and focused company and we believe the founders are really visionary people.”
Described by the FAA as a “living document,” it will be updated periodically. Key features of Innovate28 are:The creation of Innovate28 is a testament to the rate at which UAM is growing in the U.S.—especially as compared with Terra Drone’s home nation of Japan.“We started doing UTM back in 2016,” said Ueno.