If you’ve dreamed of flying over your farm to check things out, Ryse Aero Technologies may be the airship you’re looking for. This Ohio-based startup has created a unique machine that can be flown without a pilot’s license and offers a new way to see a farm or ranch.
“I’m a technologist by nature,” says Mick Kowitz, founder and CEO, Ryse Aero Technologies. “I’m also a private pilot.”
He explains that he and a few business partners started discussing the electric vertical takeoff and landing market – eVTOL – which is today focused mainly on creating air taxis. Kowitz and his partners saw a different opportunity: an ultralight machine that could be flown by anyone.
Kowitz recalls those early discussions of creating an ultralight. He admits as a private pilot that he has no love of conventional ultralight machines, but discussions continued. He recalls early arguments about the idea and his stance that “a good technology doesn’t always make a good business.”
The discussion turned to agriculture and the wide use of all-terrain vehicles to get to remote places or travel around farms and ranches. “An ultralight is generally a sports and recreation class vehicle,” Kowitz says. But then he started looking at how a “sports and recreation” ultralight class machine could be used by a business noting that farms use ATVs and utility vehicles.
