Drones are set to take over.
While the industry has been hovering in its growth stage, drones have quickly become irreplaceable tools across industries, delivering products and conducting surveillance in hard-to-reach and rural areas. During COVID, drones were used to deliver medicine, combat emergencies, broadcast safety messages, and more. By 2025, the industry market size for these small machines is set to balloon to over 60 billion USD, according to Business Insider.
Yet regulation doesn’t move as fast as flight, and this is where smaller companies like AirMarket are filling in the gaps.
Today, AirMarket is one of the pioneering names in Canadian airspace. Their products ensure large-scale enterprises can confidently and easily manage regulatory compliance, and behind the scenes, their experts spearhead the technology and thought leadership getting unmanned aerial vehicles safely airborne. This will be invaluable in keeping Canadian industries competitive and able to serve Canadian communities.
When the company was launched in 2015, they needed to be able to translate ARINC 424 files into different kinds of data, with its various dimensions intact.
This solution, though simple, proved difficult to find. CEO and founder Lindsay Mohr searched online for partners with aviation expertise and found Spatial DNA through a partner site in 2016, and realized their experience with ARINC and Esri made them the ideal candidate.
After filling out a consult form, Spatial DNA and AirMarket began their first project: transforming a sample set of ARINC 424 data to a GIS-supported data specification.
AirMarket began using the ARINC 424 Connector, which would later become a part of Spatial DNA’s Aviation Data Engine.
This initial project expanded into a lasting partnership. Four years later, Spatial DNA and AirMarket have worked together on data that feeds into all their services, across FlySafe (an enterprise drone fleet management platform), Aviation Data, and Comply (which helps plan and record compliant RPAS missions and flights). Initially a translation partnership, it’s expanded to mapping, consulting, and helping make their data more comprehensive.
Neil Hellas, Spatial DNA’s Director of Solution Delivery explains that AirMarket and Spatial DNA have created an enduring partnership by combining their strengths. “[Mohr] knows what his clients need, and they come to him with questions. Then when it’s specific to data, or mapping or visualization, then he’ll come to us and ask, ‘what do you think? How can we get there?’”
Off the shelf, AirMarket gained the ability to decode an ARINC file — a necessity when operating an international flight business. They’ve been able to maintain that capability, without hiring additional staff, while having the reliability of an expert that knows their team, industry and audience.
“They’re good guys,” summarizes Mohr of his partnership with Spatial DNA’s team, “They’re talking about enterprise integration, and they have specific knowledge around airspace, which is f**ing priceless.”
Navigating today’s airspace may feel overwhelming, but Spatial DNA has designed a solution to make the Digital Sky accessible. The ARINC 424 Connector for FME and the Aviation Data Engine enable automated solutions that provide up-to-date air navigation geodata files and services for aviation companies to integrate into their systems and products.
Want to learn about how you integrate the power of FME into your aviation company? Get in touch! Ready to see what we can do? You can also submit your own sample ARINC 424 file and receive back a KML file that you can visualize in Google Maps or any other mapping platform here: https://spatialdna.com/aviation/