* Michael Healander, Co-founder, President & CEO of Airspace Link in Detroit

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning. You're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael
Patrick Shields.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
My name is.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Scott ellis the executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association,
and I'm sitting in today my next guest. You know,
we've been talking a lot of drones and how this
is just changing the world. And my next guest is
the founder and CEO of Airspace Link out of Detroit,
and they do not build drones, they do not fly drones,
but they control the airspace. Good morning, Michael, How.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Are you good morning? Doing great well?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Michael Helander again, CEO and founder of airspace Link. Can
you tell me a little bit about what airspace Link
does and explain why it's so important.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I think you kicked it off pretty good. There is
that we are helping integrate drones but also monitor them
within our national airspace. And the easiest way to say
that is air track Control, or I tell my grandparents
for are the Google Maps for drones. And we're supporting
drone operations from a recreational pilot here in the United

(01:08):
States all the way up to the Department of Defense
or Department of War. A platform that's helping integrate all
these different types of operators into the airspace, and.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
You know, you say a platform and different operators kind
of explained to me, I mean, who are you monitoring
and are that many? They're that many drones out there
as we know, I mean we look in the sky,
I don't always see them, but are there that many
out there? And are they flying in what's kind of
coming in the industry as far as amount of drones.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, to give you a scale of what we're seeing
in our platform, and I'll explain a little bit more.
We're seeing about forty five thousand airspace safety checks authorizations
every day, So that is a lot of people, about
one hundred thousand pilots every month in our system, operating
in our national airspace. So that's the scale of what

(01:58):
it is. If you were to go to the FA
website and say, hey, I want to fly drone the
United States, there is a system called before you Fly
Airspace Link provides that interface into how do I fly
wherever I'm standing. We keep track of controlled airspace temporary
flight restrictions, so we are trying to handle recreational and
then we get into part one our seven commercial, which

(02:19):
is you know, I do weddings, I do roof inspections,
I do bridge inspections, and our system has a way
of allowing them to fly with different rules, and then
we work with police departments to allow them to start
to use another set of rules for flying drones of
the first responder. And then ultimately we're working with package
delivery companies to fly goods to you. And then at

(02:40):
the largest systems is managing a department of fence drones
around their air bases. All that has to be secured
as well. So our platform is supporting all those people
in this data exchange of the airspace, and our job
is to coordinate that well.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
And that's what I was going to say. I mean,
we're going to see, you know, right now look out
the window and not see a drone. But you know,
in the next few years or the next year or so,
we're going to see more and more drones flying. You know,
Amazon and I believe it's CBS and others are starting
commercially to do this. And are there rules coming down
from the Federal Guardment, like who has authority and how
does this work? It seems kind of like the wild
West right now.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
It is the Wild West. There are rules, great rules
in place for visual lina site that's Part one O
seven and recreational and those rules aren't set. Every drone
in the United States has to broadcast its location above
a half a pounds, So there's a process. What's happened
is we see the value of drones and now they

(03:38):
can fly beyond visual line site under a waiver or exemption. Well,
now we have all these exemptions and it's very hard
for public safety or anyone to know is that drone
following the rule or do they have an exemption? And
if they do, how do I know that? So that's
where the Wild Wild Lesson is starting to be built
up again and there is sweeping rules coming down. It's
called Part one LA. It was just published, actually was

(04:00):
just finished its last phase last night, going back to
the FA for final rule making. But that will make
it more rule based operations across the entire United States.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
So there are rules coming well, that's great. And obviously
if there's rules, we have to have someone management and
manage it. And I know there's jurisdiction issues, and you
and I have talked, but you know, do me a
little favorite explained to me what you've done in the
city of Detroit and what you have going on down there,
and the name of the group down there that you're
working with, and what you've brought into the city into
the state.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah. So we started a program about two years ago
called Detroit Air Advanced Aerial Innovation Region, and we created
an area where we could bring down the price to
fly in Michigan and a track business. I think seventeen
businesses have moved to Michigan in the past eight nine
months because of the ability to fly advanced operations. What

(04:52):
we did in the state through md and m ABC,
we were able They're able to fund air spaces, link
to put in the radar systems, communication networks, the security,
the drone detection, all of the systems required to safely
integrate drones, and now companies are coming here to access
that network and fly, basically building out the roads the

(05:13):
detect and avoid. In the process of doing that, we
actually built out a security system for a drone to
fly beyond their line site. We have to know everything
that's happening before that drone takes off. It needs to
know there's not a helicopter, there's not another drone in
the same vicinity, as me. So that same system that's
used for managing pretty complex drone operations is also used

(05:35):
for security guards of the facility or Detroit Police Department
to know, okay, that is a drone flying. I have
an app that can communicate to know who that is,
almost like a license plate reader, and that's basically setting
the foundation for the state and the country.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, yeah, so what you did in Detroit is one
of the first and it's an infrastructure that you are
setting up now. And we love the word infrastructure with
row and everything, but now you're setting up what you said,
those roads in the sky, so now business can come.
And I know you have one down there and we're
running out of time, but I know you have one
down there that builds three D bikes and they take
one part, they build the parts and then fly it
over another building in the city of Detroit and assemble.
Is that correct? And is that one of the ones

(06:14):
that moved out to Michigan.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, they moved from Ecuador and now flying about seven
hundred flights so far this summer, and they can fly
up to six miles within an urban environment, which means
we can scale that company throughout the entire state. Of
Michigan as we expand the network all right.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
In about twenty seconds. What do you see coming in
the next six months to a year in the drone
space or at least in the airspace.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
There's going to be just a massive amount of integration
of drones here in Michigan. We got Amazon coming, which
is going to be in forty cities and they're going
to start operations in the next few weeks. So there's
an example. Those cities need to start to get ready
right now to be able to know who's who and
how they're going to operate their own drones.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
It's important about what you guys do. Is that alone
as all those flights, but we also going to have
public safety flights up there, and we have to make
sure that they don't collide, that the airspace is clear
for public safety. So, Michael Helander, the present and founder
of Airspace Link, thank you very much for what you've
do for the state, the city Detroit, and our skies.
This is Scott Ellis filling in on Michigan's big show
for Michael Patrick Shields.

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