Loyd Hook
Chief Operations Officer
For the past 18 years, Loyd has dedicated himself to advance a vision for safer, more available, and more capable aircraft through increased autonomy. His experience in the field began at NASA Dryden working with the US Air Force (USAF) on the first full version of the F-16 Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS), currently the highest level of autonomy on any production aircraft. Auto GCAS went on to win multiple awards, including the prestigious Collier Trophy, and save many lives and USAF F-16's. The development of Auto GCAS continued as the technology was transitioned to a diverse range of aircraft, including small unmanned and general aviation. From there, Loyd expanded into autonomous recovery controllers for emergency landing, geo-fencing, and aircraft navigation. More recently, he has focused on higher level aspects of advancing autonomy, with major emphasis on regulation, acceptance, and the run-time assurance approach. Aircraft autonomy is Loyd’s passion and he believes these systems hold the key to a revolution in personal transportation as the skies are opened up to the masses.
-
2023-Present
Founder and CEO
IO Aeronautical Autonomy Labs. Tulsa, OK, USA. Aircraft Autonomy Software Company
2024-Present
Founder and CEO
IO-Swiss Aero GmbH. Buchrain, Switzerland. General Aviation Data and Autonomy Company.
2014-2024
Associate Professor, Director Vehicle Autonomy and Intelligence Lab, University of Tulsa, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Research: Aircraft Autonomy, Aircraft System Verification, Run-time Assurance, Safety Systems Teaching: Robotics, Embedded Systems, Aircraft Simulation and Control, Design2019-2023
Founder and Principal Investigator
Aeronetica LLC. Tulsa, OK, USA. Aircraft Safety System Design, Autonomous Safety System Verification
2006-2014
Research Principal Investigator - Flight Systems Engineer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dryden/Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, USA.
Research Principal Investigator, Flight Test Engineer, Flight Systems Engineering, Avionics Discipline Engineer
-
Aircraft autonomous systems integration, design, and test
Geographical information systems
Software engineering and certification
Monte Carlo simulation development
Algorithmic development for control, run-time assurance, optimization, hybrid systems
-
Nominated: Software of the Year 2022- NASA – improved Ground Collision Avoidance System (iGCAS)
Winner: National Government Achievement Award 2020 -US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation – Terrain Integration to Aircraft Safety Systems
Winner: Collier Trophy 2018 – National Aeronautic Association - Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System
Recipient: Major Space Act Award 2016 - NASA - Global Elevation Data Adaptive Compression System
Winner: Early Career Achievement Award 2012 - NASA - Digitial mapping and aircraft collision avoidance technologies.
Winner: Electronics Laureate Award 2011- Aviation Week - Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System
Finalist: Software of the Year 2011- NASA - Global Data Adaptive Compression System