Uncrewed Views

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins goes solo to preview Commercial UAV Expo 2026, taking place September 1-3 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. He walks through the conference program, including both keynotes, the workforce development and regulatory sessions, and the return of the roundtable discussions. He also covers what's happening on the exhibit hall floor, from Pitch the Press to the indoor airspace demonstrations, plus workshops and the new DRONERESPONDERS program management course.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Trevor Perrott, CEO and Co-Founder at Censys Technologies. The two discuss realistic timelines for Part 108 implementation, what operators should be doing now to prepare for BVLOS adoption, and the deeper economic forces behind domestic drone manufacturing and NDAA compliance.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Kraettli Epperson, CEO of Vigilant Aerospace Systems. The two discuss how detect-and-avoid technology works under the hood, what the Part 108 NPRM means for operators preparing for BVLOS operations, and what steps operators and manufacturers can take now to be ready when the final rule is published. Link to Commercial UAV News' State of the Industry Survey, closing July 3: https://survey.divcom.com/s3/COMMERCIAL-DRONE-INDUSTRY-State-of-the-Industry-Survey-2026

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Alex Norman, COO of Matternet. The two discuss the company's recent reverse merger that made Matternet the first pure-play drone delivery company publicly traded in the U.S., the lessons Matternet has carried from medical logistics into direct-to-consumer delivery, and what gaps still need to be closed before drone delivery reaches its full potential nationwide. Link to Commercial UAV News' State of the Industry Survey: https://survey.divcom.com/s3/COMMERCIAL-DRONE-INDUSTRY-State-of-the-Industry-Survey-2026

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Melissa Swisher, CRO at SkySafe. The two discuss drone threats facing critical infrastructure operators, how the recent Section 2209 NPRM and GridEx VII are reshaping airspace security, and what detection and response actually looks like on the ground for these owners.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Russell Hall and Greg Floor, Senior Survey Project Managers at Langan Engineering. The three discuss how Langan fuses drone, mobile mapping, and ground-based sensor data into cohesive deliverables for complex private-sector projects, the real bottlenecks in getting rich datasets into the hands of non-technical clients, and how the FCC foreign drone ban and upcoming Part 108 rulemaking are shaping fleet decisions and long-range operational planning.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Michael Rubloff, Founder of RadianceFields.com. The two discuss what Gaussian Splatting is and how it differs from traditional photogrammetry, why and how drone pilots and geospatial professionals in AEC and construction are already putting it to work, what drone pilots need to know about the technique, and what's on the horizon as spatial intelligence gets layered on top of real-time 3D reconstruction.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Beth Flippo, CEO and founder of DEXA (Drone Express), about the state of drone delivery in 2026. The two discuss DEXA's new pilot program with Grubhub in New Jersey, the unique challenges of operating in an urban environment compared to more rural deployments, and what it takes to earn both regulatory approval and public trust as the industry works toward mainstream adoption.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with Linda Montgomery, Vice President of Corporate Development, and Phil Franklin, Vice President of Business Development at ZenaTech, about the company's aggressive push into the drone-as-a-service market. The three discuss ZenaTech's rapid acquisition strategy across sectors like land surveying, power washing, and infrastructure inspection, the cultural challenges of integrating more than 20 companies in roughly a year, and how the evolving regulatory landscape is shaping the company's domestic manufacturing ambitions.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins speaks with James McDanolds, the director of uncrewed technology at the Sonoran Desert Institute. The two talk about shifts in workforce development and hiring in a BVLOS-centric world, including the roles that will be most in demand following the final rule for Part 108, any potential lags in filling positions in the immediate aftermath of the regulation, and advice for those trying to break into the industry today.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins sits down with Carla Lauter, the senior content manager for Geo Week and Geo Week News. In the conversation, Lauter talks about what the upcoming Geo Week conference and exhibition is all about, what sessions and topics will be of interest to professionals within the commercial UAV space, what's new for this year's event, and more.

In this week's episode of Uncrewed Views, content manager Matt Collins is joined by Jason San Souci. Wearing many hats in the industry, San Souci shares his thoughts on some of the biggest topics and trends for the industry in the year to come, including what to watch for following the FCC's ruling on foreign drones in December, changes that could come from an eventual final rule for Part 108, the potential power of AI, and more.

In our latest episode of Uncrewed Views, Matt Collins from Commercial UAV News is joined by Will Dawson, president of the Agricultural Drone Initiative to talk about the latest developments around the FCC's decision-making to potentially place Chinese-owned drone companies on their Covered List, what impact will be felt by groups like individual pilots and resellers, and how open-source projects can go a long way toward building up the industry in the U.S.