EEI WELCOMES CRAIG LIPPETT AS HEAD OF TECHNICAL SERVICES

Craig served for 23 years in the RAF, having joined as an Assistant Air Traffic Controller (AATC) in Jan 1987.  Progressing to become a controller following the Joint Air Traffic Control Course (JATCC) in 2000, he was commissioned in 2004.  He latterly served as an ATC supervisor, examining officer and DSATCO at Waddington before deploying to Afghanistan as part of a UK Army Div HQ in Apr 2007. 

It was during his time in Afghanistan that he first encountered RPAS, routinely controlling Coalition RPAS assets such as Predator as a Battlespace Manager.  Some of the highlights were participation in the joint planning team for airspace integration of H450 RPAS in Helmand Province and assistance to Australian Special Forces in the operation of Scaneagle in Uruzgan Province.

He left the RAF in 2009 and entered the commercial RPAS sector in 2011, gaining a commercial drone pilot qualification in 2012. Having decided to improve on the only RPAS pilot training school in the UK at that time, he developed a syllabus for Resource Group Unmanned Aviation Services (now RUAS), presented the concept to the CAA in late 2012 and was awarded National Qualified Entity (NQE) status in Aug 2013. A successful two years of training followed with over 800 students passing through the Remote Pilot Qualification – Small (RPQ-S) programme.  During this period, he also rolled out a successful managed service programme and in 2014 RUAS was awarded a place on the embryonic Network Rail Framework Contract, one of only 4 UK suppliers chosen. 

After a short stint with a London based RPAS services startup, he set up an independent consultancy focused on the delivery of a wide range of services including OSC generation, SMS establishment and auditing, training development and delivery, concept development and outsourced flight assessing. In early 2019 he joined Animal Dynamics, an Oxford based startup developing a number of novel RPAS for different sectors.  Initially Head of Quality and Safety, his portfolio included Flight Operations, Security, IT and Facilities. During this period, he led the generation of complex OSC for 50-400kgs MTOW RPAS and coordinated the operation of these systems in UK, US and Europe.

He is passionate about aviation safety and is currently in the final year of a 3-year, part time MSc in Aviation Safety Management, Risk and Regulation (ASMRR) at Cranfield University. Finally, he is a participating member of the BEIS Drone Industry Action Group (DIAG) and a stakeholder on the UKRI sponsored Future Airspace Industry Working Group (FAIWG) which will shortly present a joint industry white paper response to DfT on the recently release Airspace Modernization Strategy (AMS).

In his spare time, he’s a wannabe elite surfer, and enjoys time with his granddaughter and campervan trips and hill walking with his wife Anita.