Unifly Flies High with Three Advisory Board Drone Veterans

Belgian drone company Unifly has announced the appointment of three major players to the firm’s advisory board.

Former FAA Director of Airspace Management John Walker is Senior Partner at the Padina Group; while Jules Kneepkens, advisor to the CAA of Qatar, is the former Rule-making director at EASA, as well as the former Director General at the CAA of Belgium and former Director at the CAA of the Netherlands.

Finally, entrepreneur Guy Broddin is the founder of Finserve Aviation, previously one of the largest independent aviation insurance brokers on the European continent. Broddin also is director at JLT-Belgibo, shareholder/director of AeroCircular and former Board Member of EBAA (European Business Aviation Association) and former President of AMAC (EBAA Associate Members Advisory Council)

“Guiding and channeling aviation activities in the U-space is a one of the biggest challenges of aviation in the coming decades. In accommodating all (future) users, safety is of course the priority,” Kneepkens said. “Unifly is a frontrunner in this activity and that is why I’m a member of the Advisory Board of Unifly.”

“The combined knowledge and experience that John, Jules and Guy bring to the table is quite unique,” Unifly CEO Marc Kegelaers said.

“Their willingness to contribute their international expertise to the story of Unifly illustrates how top executives in the aviation industry value our technology as a key factor in the safe integration of unmanned systems into the airspace.”

In March, Unifly and Danish start-up Integra Aviation Academy announced a partnership to launch a new Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system that can detect, monitor and document drone flights near key infrastructure locations (especially airports) on a national scale.

The term UTM describes a broad range of concepts and solutions designed to facilitate air-traffic management among drones and manned aircraft in an effort to avoid potential crashes or other dangers.

Integra and Unifly will collaborate with MyDefence and Reseiwe to create a system capable of communicating with both manned and unmanned pilots, alerting them of any emergent threats. The system will oversee the entire workflow from permitting to perimeter creation to pervasive monitoring.