The Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas is a key date in the UAV industry calendar and last year’s event was no different. During the event, our sister company, Murzilli Consulting’s Senior Consultant for Programme Management, Thilo Uebbert, sat down with Scott Lashmit, U.S. Aviation Manager at Cyberhawk.
Cyberhawk, founded in 2008, is a global leader in visual data management, integrating drone-based inspection and survey data with its advanced software platform, iHawk; a single source of truth for asset management. As a trailblazer in the industry, Cyberhawk performs hundreds of thousands of inspections and surveys annually and has achieved over 35 world-first milestones, delivering solutions across more than 40 countries.
In this exclusive interview, Scott discussed the experiences of a more mature company within an industry that is constantly evolving, as well as his advice on how to scale efficiently while keeping safety a priority.
How an established drone company evolves alongside emerging technology
Last year was record-breaking for Cyberhawk, who experienced a 55% revenue growth in 2024, reaching a total revenue of $28.7 million.
As a company that has been around long enough to truly watch the industry develop, Cyberhawk sparks the question of how they have been able to scale successfully alongside emerging technologies and an emerging market with ongoing regulatory implementations.
“We're always pushing the edge and trying to innovate while also maintaining safe operations within whatever regulatory framework we have to work in. With the 40 countries, that's 40 different CAAs or in the US FAAs that we have to deal with, and so we're lucky to have truly wonderful people on the regulation side but also on the operation side.”
Maintaining safe operations as a priority is what gives Cyberhawk the edge, Scott highlighted, adding: “It's not just perseverance -- it’s truly the safety mindset and what we refer to as ‘the Cyberhawk way’ of flying which sometimes we are slightly more expensive than some of our competitors and we have had clients leave us for that and almost all of them have come back because there’s a right way to do things.”
Cyberhawk’s Three Pillars for Safe and Scalable Drone Operations: Technology, Internal Procedures, and Safety Practices
Leading on from the topic of scaling a company while maintaining safety as a priority, Scott identified 3 pillars which summarise how Cyberhawk manages to continue scaling successfully. In a developing industry, scaling a company while maintaining safety remains a constant challenge for start-ups and companies looking to grow in a sustainable way.
First, you need reliable technology to operate with from manufacturers who meet the highest of industry standards to ensure the company gets what it needs for safe and reliable operations.
The second pillar, Scott and Thilo discuss, is the importance of proper internal procedures and pilot training. Scott commented: “It’s getting our pilots to fly the Cyberhawk way. It’s not about hitting 300 targets in a day, it’s about hitting the numbers we do to hit revenue but in a way that’s not strenuous to the pilot.”
While many flights at Cyberhawk remain dual-person, allowing the pilot and observer to sound off the checklist against each other, Single Person Operations make the most sense for distribution operations. This while fiscally more advantageous, brings about additional risks that need to be mitigated.
Commenting on how they handle these risks, Scott said: “I encourage all of my pilots to speak aloud. This sounds a little crazy but psychologically it means there is another voice when going through the checklist. We try to operate in a way that doesn’t put a black mark on UAS operations as a whole.”
The third important pillar of safe operations is community outreach, both to build understanding and awareness.
“We have our pilots knock on the door because we’re very cognisant of the privacy concerns -- we understand that if you have a drone flying above your house you immediately have a concern so we try to do everything we can preventatively.”
Sometimes though, as Scott notes, the public perception of drones can lead to conflict. This is why he notes that Cyberhawk trains all pilots in the de-escalation of conflict and how to de-escalate a potential conflict before it arises and help educate the public on the purpose of their drone mission.
“It’s about learning. How do you do operations in these critical assets that could be on or close to someone’s house and do it in such a way that prevents anything from happening? But if something were to happen, we can de-escalate quickly saying hey we are flying for this reason, here’s the photos, here’s how long it’s going to take.”
With reliable technology, thorough training and processes, and community outreach and education “you can grow, you can scale and if you have them in policy and procedure you can truly succeed as a drone service provider,” Scott said.
With 172 Employees Globally, the Focus Shifts to Automation and Scaling BVLOS Operations
Thinking about the challenges faced by the industry, Scott summarised how Cyberhawk are able to combat challenges as a team. “We are one team. Communication forwards and backwards and in all directions is really key to understanding if this is an operation we can do, how we execute it safely, how we execute it with a profit margin that keeps a business going.”
With 172 employees worldwide, Scott emphasised that open and clear communication between geographies is vital for the success of the whole company, and Cyberhawk believes knowledge sharing from experiences operating within different countries and with different CAAs is key to success.
Considering wider industry challenges, Scott identified automation and BVLOS as the two keys for the industry to grow over the next 5 to 10 years.
Speaking on BVLOS, Scott highlighted: “For us, BVLOS allows us to collect more assets in a day. It doesn’t actually affect the time it takes to do an inspection, but it prevents all the ancillary things like set up and breakdown - we operate in the Californian mountains and sometimes a pilot will have to drive an hour and a half to get to an asset just a mile away.”
Cyberhawk was granted an FAA nationwide BVLOS waiver in August of last year, allowing them to enable expanded remote drone operations in the U.S. The waiver means Cyberhawk can operate beyond visual line of sight without any need for a visual observer, increasing their range and ability to support critical infrastructure sectors, and doubling the number of assets they can survey in one day.
Scott's insights reflect a company that has not only grown with the industry but has helped shape its trajectory. Cyberhawk's approach, balancing innovation, safety, and community engagement, offers a blueprint for navigating the complexities of an ever-evolving field.
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