Autonomous Flying Aimed By Boeing, Creates New Internal Division


07/17/2018



US based Aircraft making giant Boeing is now all set to get into the fast growing market of autonomous flight. The company has recently announced the creation of a separate internal division in the company that would look into the prospects of this market segment.
 
The division has been named Boeing NeXt. The company said that this newly created division would strike up partnerships with firms outside of the company to work together in its quest for developing and building unmanned vehicles. In addition, the project would also include other objectives such as resolving of air traffic control issues with unmanned aircrafts and the construction of on the ground model infrastructure.
 
There is enough technological expertise residing with Boeing for it to safely and efficiently give shape to the new technology, said Boeing’s Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop while speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow on Tuesday.
 
“The development of these flying vehicles is going to arrive in the next few years. Transportation has to be multi-modal,” said Hyslop.
 
“The idea is that there is an emerging autonomous market out there and that is why we are creating Boeing NeXt to solve the problems in developing that.”
 
A new partnership has also been struck by the company with the artificial intelligence (AI) firm SparkCognition, announced the aerospace giant on the same occasion.
 
The company announced that the new partnership with the AI firm is aimed at making use of blockchain technology and AI for the development of new and developed system for efficient air traffic management which would be able to keep a continuous track of an unmanned vehicle during its flight path and throughout the whole flight. Traffic routes and corridors would also be allocated by the new system that Boeing is aiming to develop through the partnership.
 
The international market for urban aerial transport has been pegged by experts to be worth around $3 trillion annually, said Amir Husain, founder and CEO of SparkCognition, in a statement and added that the market value is representative of the “largest new market in our lifetimes.”
 
The necessary resources for the new division of Boeing - Boeing NeXt, would be sourced from throughout the company, Boeing said. if the venture proved to be an initial success, Beoing could even spin it off as a separate company, it said.
 
The new partnership venture would be headed by Steve Nordlund – the vice president of Boeing HorizonX, the firm’s venture capital arm, who would simultaneously oversee both the offices.
 
(Source:www.cnbc.com)