NATS passes the Drone Assist baton to Altitude Angel

Altitude Angel, the world leading and award-winning UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology provider, and NATS, the UK’s major Air Navigation Service Provider, have today announced that Altitude Angel is to launch an updated version of Drone Assist without the NATS brand.

There will be no loss of service or impact to users of the app, and it will remain free of charge. Drone Assist will now sit alongside Altitude Angel’s other drone safety tools, dronesafetymap.com and the Guardian App.

Richard Parker, Altitude Angel CEO and founder said: “We’re excited to have Drone Assist back in the fold. We have, and will continue, to provide Drone Assist for free to UK pilots.  Over the coming months we will be refreshing the look and feel of all our apps, as well as bringing a host of new features which will give users an even greater understanding of the sky above them.  Our 300,000+ UK pilots and operators will now be able to benefit from the latest Altitude Angel enhancements.

“It is our intention, where ANSPs have not yet been able to support national apps, pilots and operators will adopt Guardian or Drone Assist and make it their de facto/go-to app making skies all over the world a safer place for all.”

NATS and Altitude Angel jointly launched Drone Assist in 2016, and it has been powered by Altitude Angel’s technology platform since. The app presents users with a map of airspace used by general aviation, displaying to drone operators areas to avoid or in which extreme caution should be exercised, as well as enabling them to share their drone’s flight location with the wider drone community to reduce the risk of drone related incidents in the airspace.

Andy Sage, Director Safety Transformation at NATS, said: “We are pleased to be handing the baton for Drone Assist to Altitude Angel who provided the technological underpinning of the app from the start, and we look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of innovation together.

“We continue to support the safe use of drones and encourage drone pilots to use safety apps that meet the minimum criteria outlined on the Drone Safe website (dronesafe.uk), which includes Drone Assist.”

This decision only impacts upon Drone Assist and does not affect any of NATS’ or Altitude Angel’s ongoing individual or joint operational trials or research and development activities.  NATS and Altitude Angel will continue working together, and both remain firmly committed to safely integrating new users into UK airspace.