Australian drone manufacturer Carbonix is partnering with global firm Skyports Drone Services to scale its beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) capabilities across the country.
The partnership will see international Skyports pilots embedded within Carbonix to perform data acquisition missions for the latter’s mining and energy clients. The pilots will aim to improve Carbonix’s operational capabilities over the long term.
Skyports has already supported Carbonix on more than 85 missions around Australia for clients including Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, and Charles Darwin University.
“Skyports Drone Services fills a gap with their scalable end-to-end operational experience in flying fixed-wing VTOL UAVs. We look forward to having their pilots enhance our BVLOS capabilities and forging a lasting partnership that sees both companies exchange knowledge and expertise,” said Carbonix CEO Philip van der Burg.
This will be Skyports’ first commercial project in Australia, having provided logistics, survey and monitoring operations across Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Skyports drone services director Alex Brown says his company is a leader in regulation, compliance, safety management, airspace, and stakeholder management.
“Our partnership with Carbonix will apply this knowledge to boost operational capabilities and enable the company to scale its infrastructure inspection services. Proving the safety case for drone operations is crucial to the long-term growth and success of the industry,” he said.
“We look forward to sharing our operational knowledge to support Carbonix and promote the adoption of drone operations.”
Listen to our April interview with Carbonix co-founder Dario Valenza on the Australian Aviation podcast.