Skydio CEO, Adam Bry, joins the podcast to discuss the company's newest product, Skydio 2—the world's smartest drone. Bry explains the big differences between R1 and Skydio 2, the underlying technology, and commercial applications from partners like Ware, who build on top of Skydio 2 to automate warehouse inventory tracking. In the second half of the episode, Host Ian Smith is joined by Guillaume Delépine, Skydio's Public Safety Lead, to discuss the company's focus on public safety and first...

Dr. Ernest Earon is EVP of Artificial Intelligence at REIN, AKA DroneInsurance.com.

Impossible Aerospace is a US startup that manufactures an all-electric, high-endurance multirotor drone called US-1. The drone platform is marketed mainly towards first responders—law enforcement, firefighters, and more. US-1 boasts a flight time of 78 minutes on a total vehicle weight of 17 pounds. Keenan Johnson, one of Impossible Aerospace's co-founders, joined me on this podcast that was recorded at AUVSI's 2019 XPONENTIAL Conference in Chicago, IL.

Ian Smith is joined by Michael Chasen, CEO of PrecisionHawk. The two discuss the latest from PrecisionHawk and the drone industry as a whole.

Joshua Resnick is CEO of Parallel Flight Technologies. Parallel Flight Technologies make hybrid powertrain, heavy-lift drones for commercial applications. Joshua is an ex-Tesla engineer who worked on their semi-truck. He created an incredibly novel powertrain for drones that gives hours of endurance.

Drew Baustian, Business Development Manager at MicaSense, joins Ian to explain the finer points of multispectral drone cameras and imagery for precision agriculture. The pair discuss data capture, the science behind the tech, and use cases where multispectral imagery has been a difference-maker for agriculture end users. MicaSense recently released their Altum multispectral sensor.

LAFD is one of the largest fire departments in the world. Derrick Ward, a firefighter with 30 years of experience, is spearheading the use of drones as Lead UAS Pilot at LAFD. As Derrick reveals, there are many ways to use drones in fighting fires and on search and rescue missions. But the way to truly supercharge them is by sticking thermal cameras on them. Enter FLIR: the world leader in thermal imaging technology.

Hear from Avi Lozowick, VP Policy & Strategy at ParaZero, on how to conduct drone operations over people, legally, with ParaZero's drone parachute systems.

Travis Mason is VP and Head of Certification & Regulation, Urban Air Mobility at Airbus. Travis most recently was MC at AUVSI's XPONENTIAL Conference 2019. He's passionate about policy—and that's key—as he is charged with helping Airbus' Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology launch globally. Travis and Ian discuss a variety of issues and challenges around drones, on-demand urban aerial transport, and even the omnipresent urban scooters.

LAFD is one of the largest fire departments in the world. Derrick Ward, a firefighter with 30 years of experience, is spearheading the use of drones as Lead UAS Pilot at LAFD. As Derrick reveals, there are many ways to use drones in fighting fires and on search and rescue missions. But the way to truly supercharge them is by sticking thermal cameras on them. Enter FLIR: the world leader in thermal imaging technology.

AirMap is a California-based startup that has raised $43.6M to help companies coordinate and scale drone operations in ever-changing airspace conditions. David Hose is AirMap's current CEO. Ian and David discuss: AirMap's history and current offerings. LAANC, BVLOS, Remote ID, UTM. DJI replacing AirMap with PrecisionHawk's airspace product. AirMap's stance on Federal vs. municipal/local regulation. ...and much more

Indoor drone inspections have become an enormous ROI booster for energy companies who own and operate industrial assets. Patrick Thevoz is CEO of Flyability, a Swiss company who specializes in building indoor inspection drones. Their latest drone, Elios 2, is an impressive feat of engineering. Patrick joins Ian to discuss the value that indoor inspection drones are bringing to their large enterprise customers. He also explains the engineering designs and decisions that went into the making...

You’re about to hear an in-the-field, or rather, “around-the-pool” compilation of quick-take interviews with people with different backgrounds from 15 drone companies at Commercial UAV Expo 2018. This audio is from the Poolside Happy Hour from Commercial UAV Expo 2018. A big thanks to everyone who chatted with me.

Jono Millin is co-founder and Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at DroneDeploy, a software company that specializes in building solutions for mapping business assets with drones.

Can you imagine yourself buzzing around the urban landscape in a flying car in 2025? Bell—and companies like Uber and Airbus—really want you to be. Whether you call it a flying taxi, a flying car, eVTOL aircraft, passenger drone, or air taxi, it all means the same thing—the future of urban mobility is approaching and it will manifest in electric aviation. Bell, one of the world's largest helicopter manufacturers, showcased their Nexus prototype hexacopter eVTOL aircraft (flying car) at CES...

All about on-demand, risk-based drone insurance, featuring Brandon Packman, Head of Business Development at SkyWatch.AI. SkyWatch.AI is an innovative startup offering customers a new twist on drone insurance.

Why did Verizon, a $30+ billion telecommunications company, acquire Skyward, a 4-year-old drone startup out of Portland? Mariah Scott, President of Skyward, joins Ian to discuss exactly that—the decision behind the Verizon acquisition, her thoughts on the direction of the drone industry in 2019, and why the future of UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) is so critical.

Ian is joined by Greg Agvent, the Senior Director of CNN's Aerial Imagery and Reporting Unit—known as CNN Air. When evaluating drones for business, it's easy to think of all the things they can replace. For aerial journalism and newsgathering, helicopters are the first thing that come to mind. But if you think national media organizations are going to fire the helicopters in place of drones... think again. Drones aren't replacing traditional manned aircraft any time soon.

Join Kespry's CEO, George Mathew, and host, Ian Smith, for a deep dive into Kespry's enterprise drone hardware and software offerings and outlook on where the industrial use of drones is heading. And would you like to know what the CEO of one of Airware's direct competitors thinks about them going out of business? Listen on and find out.

Colin Snow, AKA "The Drone Analyst", joins the podcast for the 3rd year in a row to talk about his company, Skylogic Research's, annual report on the drone industry for 2018. Colin and Ian dive into five topics and key insights: • DJI's 70%+ market share • Customers buying more expensive drones • Drone service providers reporting little revenue • High-accuracy mapping techniques are not being adopted quickly • Drone fleet sizes are small and number of flights are lower than anticipated

In September 2018, Parrot Group's senseFly released some exciting new professional drones - the eBee X and the ANAFI Work - along with several new camera options. Jean-Thomas Célette, Chief Strategy & Product Officer at Parrot Group, joins Ian to provide an overview of the new drones and camera options from senseFly. New senseFly products include: eBee X drone ANAFI Work drone Aeria X camera Duet T camera S.O.D.A. 3D camera

Experience the story behind the expedition to capture the world's first thermal, radiometric images of humpback whales' blowholes with drones. This is Expedition: Too Hot For Snot.

Josh Ziering (JZ) and Josh Pruitt of San Francisco software startup, Kittyhawk, join Ian for a roundtable discussion. The trio discuss recent drone industry news like Section 336, the company's recent $5 million funding, and what the future has in store for Kittyhawk and the drone industry as a whole.

Ian Smith, host of Commercial Drones FM podcast, joins Randy Goers' Drone Radio Show as a guest to talk about what has happened in the commercial drone industry over the past 2-years from 2016 to 2018.