Every time you buy, lease or rent a car, you can count on one thing – when you open the door you’re going to see the same controls – a steering wheel, two (or three – in the case of a manual) pedals, and some way to select gears. Now, imagine if you opened the door, and saw completely different controls, and every car took dozens of hours of new and expensive training just to be able to operate it – and hundreds of hours to get comfortable with it? You’d think that was insane, right?

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Welcome to the world of aviation.

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Today’s aircraft are all different. The way you fly one aircraft is completely different from how you fly every other aircraft. They’re massively complex, requiring memorization of everything from hundreds of ridiculous, logic-defying acronyms to multi-step emergency protocols.

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This type of complexity causes big problems. It makes aviation less safe, and makes the barrier to entry for new pilots way too high.

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While the population of the United States is up almost 50% since 1980, the number of pilots has dropped by more than 150,000. I believe the reason why is obvious – aviation is far too complex, far too dangerous, and far too expensive to encourage more people to pursue it.

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You should be able to fly any aircraft of any type with the same training – just like you can do with almost any car on the road today. In order to do that, you need to make every aircraft as simple to operate as a car. Just like a car starts by turning a key and drives by putting it into gear, an aircraft should start by swiping right, and take off by swiping up.

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That’s why, over the past seven years since I founded Skyryse, we’ve been hard at work developing SkyOS, the world’s first universal operating system for flight. SkyOS is designed to simplify and standardize flight for any aircraft – from rotorcraft to fixed-wing – making it easier for any pilot to fly any aircraft, and for anyone to become a pilot.

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Our highly-automated Deterministic Expert AI system, when merged with our fly-by-wire technology, four-axis control stick, and touch screen interface, allows for an unprecedented level of automation, making it easier for pilots to focus on higher level functions such as command and control. SkyOS isn’t about removing the pilot – it’s about making current pilots better, and making it easier for anyone to be a pilot.

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That said, I know it’s natural when you hear the word “automation,” for your mind to go to “autonomous,” so let’s talk about that. As the founder and CEO of, arguably, the leading company in flight automation, I’m often asked about the role of autonomy in aviation. My answer is simple – having a human “in the loop,” or as part of the decision-making process, is essential to making flight today safer. Period.

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it – highly-automated flight technology like SkyOS has the potential to transform aviation by reducing costs, expanding access, and improving operational efficiency for every aircraft in the sky.

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But human oversight is still essential to achieving the safest outcomes in flight. Even in highly automated systems like elevators, you need human oversight. From setting mission objectives to assessing real-time risks, human involvement in decision-making is crucial.

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Although fully autonomous aircraft are a long way off given today’s technology, that doesn’t mean you always need to have a human onboard. For missions away from population centers either without passengers or in high-risk piloted operations (e.g., aerial firefighting), placing human oversight offboard through remote operation using SkyOS can offer safer, more efficient operation. This allows aircraft to take on greater risk where necessary without increased risk to human life.

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Imagine a world where flying is so simple and safe that anyone can be a pilot. Where every aircraft has SkyOS, or a system like it. Where every aircraft is as easy to fly as it is to drive a car.

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How we get to that world doesn’t require building something fanciful, like flying cars – or require autonomous aircraft – it just requires changing how we fly the aircraft we already have today.

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That’s it. That’s our master plan.

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More to come.

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