A common question that comes up is, "Why do you work out of an airport hangar?". I understand, a hangar is an unorthodox place to set up an office and manufacturing facility. But here are the top five benefits to manufacturing UAVs and measuring equipment at hangar 7.
1. The biggest reason relates to the type of product that we manufacture. Since most of our products, especially drones and LIDAR, are used in outdoor measurement - we need easy access, and hangar 7 provides just that. With the push of a remote, an entire 60 by 25 ft wall can disappear. Getting fast outdoor access speeds up real world testing and puts our products in the same environment in which they will be used. Removing the wall also welcomes in GPS and other GNSS satellites which most of our products use.
2. Another unique characteristic of a hanger is the height. The ceilings in hangar 7 are 25+ feet, which opens the door to indoor flying. This is one of the only places inside class D airspace at Executive air where you can fly, typically multirotors. Once again, it's easy access to a controlled testing environment.
3. One of the initial reasons to move to an airport was the idea that airports would be a place where drones could fly, with the way the FAA regulations have played out, drone flights out of airports are not yet a norm. However, there is still hope that things will open up for UAV flights out of municipal and city airports, which would make our product development, testing and training more efficient and practical.
4. Can you think of a more secure place than an airport?
5. Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD) is a fun place to for our customers to visit, whether aviation enthusiast or not. There is always something going on that can be appreciated.
