Asian Sky Quarterly 2021 Q3

started to do publications and some consultations.” In his eyes, with necessity
being the mother of invention, when times were lean and difficult
on the brokerage side of things, the publications and consultancy work
became adjunct activities. In time, the publications expanded to include
topics such as business jets, helicopters, infrastructure, general aviation,
charter, and training – what readers are familiar with today.
Back to the future
Charles also has a great interest in the digital side of the industry,
and could immediately see the possibilities of 3D virtual platforms
when a friend introduced him to GathR Virtual Studios (Now called
Mytaverse) during the summer of lockdown in 2020.
With the platform being able to imitate real-world interactions without
the necessity of goggles or complicated equipment, Charles was
immediately captivated by how the program could be used in different
ways. He was particularly interested in Mytaverse’s teleporting
feature, which allowed users to jump from one part of the platform
to another instantaneously. Charles’ first aviation trade show experience
came with a visit to the Paris Air Show in 1995, so he immediately
understood the value of being able to teleport from exhibitor to
exhibitor, all without the possibility of getting lost along the way. After
evangelizing the merits of the platform to Asian Sky Group’s CEO Jeffrey
C. Lowe, the seed was sown, and the first ever fully immersive 3D
virtual trade show and conference for aviation, and perhaps the first
of its kind for any industry, began to take shape.
Charles speaks very positively about the use of GathR Virtual Studios’
Mytaverse platform, “The key here is, unlike Zoom or just sharing
screens, you can be virtually in the same space,” he says. “You can actually
sit in the cabin or the cockpit [of the aircraft] and someone can sit
there with you and use a laser pointer and show you the new avionics.”
Aside from being great for trade shows, Charles adds that Virtual Reality
(VR) is a terrific opportunity for OEMs and manufacturers serving other
industries to showcase their products. A retired radiologist friend that
Charles spoke to about it said that it would be perfect for the Radiological
Society of North America (RSNA), as manufacturers would no longer
need to move around large X-ray and CAT scanners, which can be cumbersome
and expensive. With so many different applications, the topic
of the ‘metaverse’ has become a euphemism for the virtual world, major
networks like the BBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and CBS all
talking about the future opportunities of VR. As Charles puts it, “it seems
to be an evolving concept.”
VR is the future
On VR, Charles remains optimistic. Aside from the high cost to physically
travel around for trade shows and exhibit, plus having to deal with
current and no doubt future pandemic restrictions, there is the convenience
of sitting in a comfortable and secure environment as well as
being able to download materials digitally without being weighed down
with brochures as you do at an in-person event. As Charles himself
says, “I’m not terribly keen on flying around for trade shows, and additionally,
when I was Chairman of Era, we had already started to cut
back on the number of people we would send to trade-shows.” Add on
changing timezones, jet lag, and complicated airport security prevalent
in a post 9/11 world, flying to trade shows is more complicated than
ever before.
In a time where sustainability and climate change are important,
using VR can also assist in reducing our carbon footprint and can
demonstrate our ‘green’ credentials. “This is one of the few areas that
businesses that are not heavy carbon emitters have control over, or
businesses which are emitters can limit what they do,” Charles explains.
The sad truth is, in aviation, more flights equal better business,
despite more Co2 being emitted. In the end, Charles believes
“we want to look for other areas where it’s feasible to be a positive
contributor to the global effort here.”
40 | ASIAN SKY QUARTERLY — THIRD QUARTER 2021