General Electric has its eye on the sky with its latest Boston-based venture, a startup called Airxos that will specialize in traffic management software, hardware, and services for aerial drones.
Most drones sold these days have been either lower-priced consumer models or high-end machines procured for military use. GE will focus on the next big growth opportunity: commercial drones that companies and government agencies expect to use for tasks such as industrial inspections at locations that can be either risky to access or inaccessible for people.
“The gap between the consumer market and the [defense] market, it’s a very fragmented market,” Airxos general manager Ken Stewart said. “This is the market that we see, we’re building products to support that. Everything we do is about integrating unmanned vehicles safely into the national airspace.”
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