Commercial Drones Take Flight

Science and innovation are the foundation to many airline mission critical systems, including revenue management.Airlines have been discussing artificial intelligence for several decades, but only recently are many of them implementing the real-life applications for AI to drive value to their business.

In just a few short years, the operation of unmanned aircraft has gone from a rarity to big business. According to the FAA’s newly released Aerospace Forecast, the total number of commercial UAS in the United States is expected to triple by 2023. Much of this growth is expected to come from a dramatic increase in the number of businesses offering “drones as a service.

When designing a new aircraft configuration, predicting the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance early in the program is important. Numerical procedures such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can help addressing this challenge. However, wind tunnel testing is necessary to validate these predictions for single aircraft components as well as the overall configuration. Testing the aircraft configuration on a scaled model can bring additional engineering insights long before the aircraft can actually fly.

5G is a new wireless standard that is set to vastly improve connectivity between people, devices, and things. It is no wonder that rapid advances in network technology are quickly approaching and airports are increasingly challenged to keep up with strategies for the 5G world. Dallas Love Field (DAL) Director of Aviation Mark Duebner and Boingo Senior Vice President of Business Development Doug Lodder will explore how 5G technology will change the airport landscape and cover what executives need to do now to prepare for this new era in wireless.