In part one of a two part interview, Brian Wynne, President and CEO of AUVSI took some time to speak with ANN on day two of AUVSI XPONENTIAL and shared his thoughts on the future -- as well as how the community has expanded in unexpected ways during the pandemic.
“As usual XPONENTIAL is high energy, it’s very dynamic, just like this community,” he says. “We might be a little bit diminished in our numbers this year, we don’t have international visitors for the most part, some people started to waver a little bit toward the end because of the COVID spike. The people that are here are just thrilled to be together, and we knew that was going to be the case. There's a lot of good business going on, there's lots of partnerships being formed. It’s been a difficult time, but a time when the industry has in some ways advanced,” Wynne reflected.
“Technology really played from strength during the pandemic. People really started to look at this and say, wow if they can do that under waivers, think of what we could do with this technology at scale to bolster the supply chain, serve people in remote areas and so forth. That's been really good for greater recognition of the benefits to society that we talk about all the time, but now people can see it in very visible ways."
“Second thing was we really were able to carry on with a lot of work with the regulators, and of course with the beginning of the year we saw remote ID, flight over people, flight at night,” he shared. In some ways, the remote aspects of the pandemic have allowed progress in the industry.
“There’s no question about the fact that people being sequestered and being available to one another at the 'drop of a zoom', you know, it’s allowed us to progress. This is just an intrepid community. We are just gonna keep running between the tackles anyway,” Wynne says.
As far as regulations go, it’s hard to say if things are moving fast enough, but no doubt they will keep moving. XPONENTIAL 2022 will be taking place in April in Orlando, Florida. In part two of this interview, Jim and Brian discuss the coming year and what AUVSI will be focusing on.
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including nearly 2000 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Kimberly Kay. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published nearly a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
Also: AFE25 Tickets!, Jamaica Recovery, E-Aircraft at Boeing Fld, Diamond DA50 RG Cert Elon Musk is once again promising the impossible…this time, in the form of a Tesla tha>[...]
Also: Louisville UPS Crash Aftermath, Taiwan Boosts Pilot Pool, Spartan Acquires, DON’T MISS the MOSAIC Town Hall! This three-day Affordable Flying Expo brings together indoo>[...]
“Our strategic partnership with AutoFlight, backed by their substantial technological expertise and tangible advancements in eVTOL airworthiness, represents a significant mil>[...]
Aero Linx: British Gliding Association (BGA) The British Gliding Association is the governing body for the sport of gliding in the UK and members are the 76 clubs that provide glid>[...]
While Descending Toward ASN, He Advanced The Throttle, But The Engine Did Not Respond On October 2, 2025, at 1126 central daylight time, a Cirrus SR22, N812SE, was substantially da>[...]
Airborne 11.05.25: Tesla Flying Car?, Jepp/ForeFlight Sold, A220 Troubles
See All