8C Chamber Profile: Planehook Aviation Services

Posted on June 11, 2009 by the 8C Project

When most people think of space, they don’t often think of corporate espionage. But since 2004, Dave Hook, founder and President of Planehook Aviation Services, has not only been thinking about it but has built his business around doing something about it.

“People working in the commercial space industry have different enterprise risk exposures,” explains Hook, a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in astronautical engineering. These exposures include everything from corporate espionage, terrorism and other criminal elements all the way to business resilience planning and the security design or upgrade of a facility.

Planehook’s client base includes corporations, airports and various government agencies. But the civilian space industry, space tourism in particular, is an especially important emerging market for his company. After years of providing input on federal regulations and working behind the scenes with the FAA in its development of security and training regulations for commercial spaceflight, Planehook announced that it would bring its effective security strategies and proven solutions to the civilian manned spaceflight industry. Part of these efforts includes Planehook’s establishment of the Space Tourism Security Alliance.

“People in Space 2.0 have great ideas, applications and products, but they don’t necessarily plan for the threats that are out there,” Hook said. In his experience, it is during the research and development phase when an entrepreneur is most vulnerable. Planehook Aviation Services provides comprehensive risk assessments – from calculating the consequences of loss of manpower to catastrophic hazards such as the loss of a facility due to a natural disaster, to weighing and anticipating potential human threat – so that companies and individuals can be better prepared and succeed.  Planehook also helps companies by developing security plans that fit within their budget.

“The 8C project is a brilliant concept,” he added. “Providing an incubator for space entrepreneurs is crucial; it’s part of ‘bringing them up right’ and providing them with all the necessary mentoring and support they need. I see my contribution as being one of providing a foundation for effective security plans and habits in their business plans and operations. Investors want to see that a start-up venture has thought about security and included all the necessary precautions to handle risks.  Investors want to know that entrepreneurs have considered and planned for probable consequences.”