Kittyhawk Changes Its Name but Not Its Mission: Introducing Aloft Technologies Inc.

Airspace awareness and UTM platform provider Kittyhawk changes its name to Aloft Technologies, Inc.

Kittyhawk began in 2014 to enable the burgeoning drone market: it seemed appropriate to the founders to pay homage to the origin of manned aviation as they embarked on a project tackling the next frontier of flight. Now, the company has grown and evolved: “the market leader in drone airspace systems & UTM technologies has been renamed to Aloft Technologies, Inc,” says a company press release.  “Aloft represents the core company mission of powering and enabling safe and compliant drone flights through a powerful combination of enterprise UTM applications, security and compliance solutions and AI.”

Kittyhawk formed a partnership with the FAA in 2019, reworking the B4UFly app in a public private partnership that benefited the drone community.  But as Kittyhawk changes its name, the company emphasizes that the core of their business is their UTM platform, including remote ID technology: and their commercial drone management platform, which launched last year.

Today, Aloft is the largest UTM network of airspace users and stakeholders, and powers more than 50% of all LAANC airspace authorizations. While the company was founded in 2015, 2018 marked a significant new expansion by building our now patented Dynamic Airspace platform, with patented XID system for remote identification technologies. These early UTM capabilities are enabling the full spectrum of drone users to take flight today, while setting the stage for the second century of aviation that spans drone delivery, air taxis, and beyond.

…Aloft’s enterprise platform Air Control which launched in Q4 2020 is now the primary customer platform driving higher frequencies of flights and higher rates of compliance along with added security and compliance features. In the last 60 days, Aloft enterprise customers flew 20K flights in industries like oil & gas, insurance, utilities and public safety.

In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Jon Heagranes writes:

Safety, security and compliance have been foundational to the technologies we’ve developed over the last six years, resulting in what is now the most widely used drone operation and airspace management network. Today Aloft’s patented airspace system powers over 50% of all airspace authorizations via LAANC in the US, and we’re building on these early UTM capabilities with a single focus of enabling the next generation of flight. Advanced flight and BVLOS operations to drone delivery and air taxis will require a new level of airspace infrastructure and the Aloft team, investors, and partners could not be more excited to continue executing on our mission with you.