A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

For FBOs and other hangar keepers, new suites of technologies are being developed to help increase safety and logistics. Known as hangar management systems, the functionality of these emerging products ranges from reducing the potential for hangar rash to providing exact aircraft occupancy levels to increase revenue.
One of the newest—Sky View by Georgia-based Fyve By—is wrapping up a year-long beta test program involving 11 hangars operated by FBOs, MROs, and corporate flight departments dealing with “about a quarter billion dollars worth of airplanes,” according to company co-founder and CEO Benjamin Youngstrom.&nbsp;
Sky View uses a proprietary lidar sensor network to track the movement of tow tugs and aircraft in the hangar. The company installs hardwired sensors—the number determined by the size of the hangar—that communicate via an application with the user’s own tablet device, which is mounted on the tow tug near the driver.
The system—on display this week at NBAA-BACE—shows a 3D top-down view of the hangar and its occupants on the tablet and uses lights and sounds to alert the operator when things get too close.
“The idea is to equip crews with a wing walker who never gets distracted, never has a bad night’s sleep,” Youngstrom told AIN. “It’s a wing walker that never stops watching.” He added that the system can also be used to test fit aircraft in hangars virtually before moving the airplane, identifying it simply by entering the tail number.
Fyve By will charge a one-time installation fee ranging between $15,000 and $25,000, along with a monthly per-hangar subscription fee. Expected to be available on the market at the beginning of next year, the company is working with several insurance providers that are considering offering incentives for the system’s adoption.
A similar product by California-based Hangar Safe uses cameras and artificial intelligence to provide a watchful “eye” on aircraft movements in and out of hangars. Under development for the past six years, the passive system is also always on, with its proximity warning function similar to those on today’s modern automobiles, alerting tug operators when they encroach on a pre-determined safety zone.
“As they get close, it starts chirping an alarm and flashing lights in the hangar, and then when they get to a final barrier—which we normally set at three feet—it sets off a solid alarm, the lights turn red, and the hangar owner gets an automated email with imagery of what happened,” explained company CEO Ryan Crowl.
Installation involves 10 to 35 ceiling-mounted warrantied cameras, depending on the hangar size, along with warning light bars positioned around the hangar.
By design, Hangar Safe does not offer any visual interface for the tug operator. “We specifically didn’t want that because we don’t want line guys looking at tablets and screens when they should be looking at airplanes and walls,” noted Crowl, adding the installation cost for the system starts at $2,500—plus the monthly subscription fee.
Another newly launched hangar management system is Hangar IT by private aviation industry consultancy FBO Partners. According to the company, Hangar IT is the first purpose-built platform designed to store, manage, and optimize revenue from aviation lease and sublease agreements such as hangar space and offices. It can also provide on-demand hangar occupancy reports, allowing service providers to increase revenues from transient aircraft storage.
Through integration with JetNet’s database, Hangar IT can also accurately identify and verify turbine aircraft by registration, serial number, and type. By using the platform’s roll call feature, it can capture and record all movements of tenant and transient aircraft to provide an accurate inventory of available hangar space.
The system’s lease forecasting tool will offer added insight on the revenue side by monitoring lease renewal rates, identifying vacancies, and providing an overall view of the facility’s real estate portfolio.

New developments at FBOs including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

Hangar Management Systems Aim To Improve FBO Operations

New systems offer potential safety and economic benefits

For FBOs and other hangar keepers, new suites of technologies help increase safety and revenues. 

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

NBAA-BACE 2024

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