Bill covers business aviation and advanced air mobility for Aviation Week Network. A former newspaper reporter, he has also covered the airline industry, military aviation, commercial space and unmanned aircraft systems. Prior to joining Aviation Week in November 2017, he worked for Aviation International News and Avionics and Rotor & Wing magazines.
Bill was the recipient of the National Business Aviation Association's Gold Wing Award in 2017 and 2022 for his reporting on drones and advanced air mobility, respectively, and in 1997 received the British Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year award in the business aviation category. He is the author of the book, Enter The Drones, The FAA and UAVs in America, published in 2016.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) members on June 24 acknowledged a need to reform spectrum decision-making following their controversial action to grant Ligado Networks the use of frequency bands near those used for GPS and satellite communications.
Network-based identity and position reporting by drones will not be costly for their operators, says one of the companies assisting the FAA in developing “Remote ID” service requirements.
The near-term solution to resolving whether Ligado Networks’ planned 5G towers threaten GPS reception may be to appoint an independent, third-party engineering firm or laboratory to make an objective assessment.
