TECHNOLOGY
In the current mining industry , one that is faced with cost reductions and , according to a McKinsey report in June 2016 , is 28 percent less productive than a decade ago , Airware and the acquisition of Redbird is a breath of fresh air and offers optimism for the future of the industry . Airware was founded by Jonathan following a combination of his passion for aviation , through his father teaching him to fly in his childhood , and engineering and developing electronics and software solutions through high school and college .
Downey also worked as a commercial air pilot for some time and was involved directly with Boeing on the development of a 6,000 lb fully autonomous world record breaking helicopter . Following his time as a pilot , Jonathan founded Airware after seeing a shift in the focus of technology solutions in the industry .
“ I saw technology was becoming available in a smaller form factor and at a price point where it could address commercial flight applications through drones ,” he says .
“ But I also saw an industry that was focused on the drones themselves and not on the enterprise software
required to make the data collected by these drones actually actionable by large enterprises ,”
Airware provides exactly that – enterprise solutions in which large enterprises can utilise the data collected through drones . The company has worked in a number of sectors across Europe and America , but it has only been recently that Downey has decided to take Airware into the mining industry
“ We ’ ve had our eye on the mining industry for some time but only from a far . Through Redbird we have finally entered that space and acquired all the visualisation and data analytic applications and platforms associated with that vertical ,”
With commercially flying drones
8 March 2017