Evolution of the ATM Business Line within Ebeni
Ebeni’s success and growth over the last few years have been made possible thanks to the quality of its experienced safety engineers, and a very high level of customer satisfaction. The strong relationship with our customers and partners and the noteworthy work ethic of our team carried us through the difficult Covid-19 crisis period, which had a significant impact on aviation and particularly ATM.
Ebeni’s ATM Business Unit continues to thrive and is in a good position to diversify. Whilst engineering safety services and support to our ATM customers remains at the heart of the business, our focus is expanding into the future of aviation; Future Air Mobility (FAM). In their July 2023 report (“AAM – UK economic impact study”), PwC expect drones to be the vanguard for much of future aviation technologies. For example, ubiquitous commercial drones could pave the way for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) to become socially desirable and for other pivotal future aviation technologies such as Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM).
At Ebeni we have made headway in several areas already. We are working with the UK CAA on drone and AAM safety, managing the roll-out of the Future of Flight initiative, which includes support to CAA and DfT actions relating to regulatory and industry developments. We are leading on operational and holistic safety aspects to influence regulatory enablers for Project BLUEPRINT, a government-funded Future Flight Challenge consortium of companies investigating industry “blueprints” for integrating BVLOS and crewed operations supported by UTM. With our partners Cranfield University and Neuron Innovations we have launched the National Drone Innovation Gateway, whose aim is to provide end-to-end support to the drone ecosystem in the UK, and beyond.
Our FAM team is led by Glen Smith (experienced drone pilot and operational safety consultant), supported by Sarah Lay (operational safety, SMS consultant and former Air Traffic Control Officer) and Joseph Taylor (Aviation Analyst with Private Pilot Licence). We are also in a unique position to reach into the wider Ebeni business for capabilities in engineering safety, software assurance, airworthiness, design and certification, sustainability and cybersecurity.
Our aim is to be one of the leading consultants for the safe and efficient integration of drones and AAM in the UK ecosystem. Our customers, be it Local Authorities, Regulators, Drone Manufacturers or operators, Airports, ANSPs, UTM-SPs, Test Centres or Technology providers, will benefit from our demonstrated capabilities and experience in: end-to-end safety assessments, Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), Regulatory support, Airspace Change Management, Safety Management System consultancy, to name but a few.
Please watch out for our next posts here and on LinkedIn, providing an in-depth analysis of some of the key services we provide from vision to operation, and which can support all stakeholders within the drone and AAM ecosystem.