0:03

Everybody knows there's no such thing as an electric

0:05

plane. Sure, we've got electric cars,

0:08

but you need a lot more power to lift

0:10

a plane into the air than just to push

0:12

a car along a road. And batteries

0:15

are just too heavy. Too

0:17

bad, because planes contribute 9%

0:19

of the world's carbon pollution. People

0:21

have said from the beginning, this is crazy, this

0:23

doesn't work. But every year, batteries get

0:25

better and better. So you think before you

0:28

and I die, that we will fly on

0:30

an electric-powered jetliner? Yes,

0:33

absolutely. No question.

0:35

Last month, Beta Technologies cut the

0:37

ribbon on its new factory, the

0:39

first electric plane plant outside

0:41

of China, where it will begin manufacturing

0:44

its six-person, vertical

0:46

take-off, all-electric plane.

0:49

A plane that's already flown 25,000

0:52

miles in testing and racked up orders

0:54

from UPS, Air New Zealand, and the

0:56

U.S. military. I'm David Pogue,

0:59

and this is Unsung Science.

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2:44

Season 2, Episode 24, Electric

2:48

Planes Take Off. It's

2:52

October 2nd, 2023. I'm at the grand opening

2:56

of a factory near Burlington, Vermont. Phil

2:58

Scott, the governor of Vermont, says a few

3:01

words. As I often brag

3:03

to my fellow governors across the country,

3:07

it's great having this kind of innovation happening

3:09

right here in our state, right here

3:11

in Vermont. Senator Bernie Sanders

3:13

is there too. Who would have believed it? In

3:17

our small state, we

3:19

are leading the world

3:21

in helping to transform our

3:24

energy system away from fossil

3:27

fuel and save the planet. That's

3:29

no small thing.

3:34

This factory is gleaming and white

3:36

and enormous. We're talking 200,000 square

3:40

feet, about three and a half football

3:42

fields. You know, big. And parked

3:45

in the center of this vast, shiny, open

3:47

space behind the little stage is the

3:50

object of all the fuss, an airplane.

3:53

Gleaming white, super sculpted,

3:56

super shiny.

3:57

Its cockpit is a bubble of wraparound

3:59

glass. and on the top it has what looks

4:01

like two pontoons running front

4:04

to back, each with its own tail fin.

4:06

We're told that the whole thing is modeled on the skeleton

4:09

of an arctic turn. There's a propeller

4:11

in the back to push the plane forward,

4:14

and on each of those pontoon things are

4:17

two vertical propellers. Yes,

4:20

this thing can take off and land vertically.

4:23

And yet, there's also a traditional airplane

4:25

wing 50 feet wide, so

4:27

it can also fly like a regular

4:29

plane. What it does not have is

4:32

a fuel tank. This is a six-person,

4:34

all-electric plane. With

4:38

cars going electric, marine going electric,

4:40

locomotives gone hybrid electric, aviation

4:43

is on track by 2035 to be the number

4:45

one producer of carbon in

4:47

transportation, unless we do something about it. The

4:50

company is called Beta Technologies, and

4:52

Kyle Clark is the CEO and founder.

4:55

The key to all of this, the piece of science

4:57

that surprises a lot of people, is

4:59

that batteries have been getting just

5:02

a little bit better every year.

5:04

And

5:05

that

5:06

compounding rate is about seven

5:08

percent per year. And

5:10

about five years ago, six years

5:12

ago, a bunch of other smart folks at different companies

5:14

said, wow,

5:15

the math is starting to close that

5:18

the energy density of batteries will enable

5:20

flight. And we just crossed the threshold

5:23

of doing commercially viable flight, which to

5:25

us means regional flights. Flights

5:28

that are under 500 miles,

5:29

which is about a third of all flights, by the way.

5:32

But every year, batteries get better and

5:34

better. That means in seven years, we'll

5:37

double that. And in another seven years, we'll

5:39

double that again. So the idea

5:41

that there will be never a airliner

5:44

that is powered entirely battery electric

5:47

is hogwash. We keep making

5:49

batteries better. So you think before

5:51

you and I die that we will fly

5:54

on an electric powered jetliner?

5:56

Absolutely. No question. This first

5:59

introduction was

5:59

will solve the regional airplanes. And then

6:02

it'll start looking at the planes that

6:04

go up and down the East Coast and up and down the West Coast. And

6:06

then once we solve that in the early 2030s, we

6:08

get actually transcontinental planes.

6:11

And then by 2040, we start going across

6:13

the Atlantic. So

6:15

how many companies are working on electric

6:17

planes? There are 300 plus companies that

6:21

have identified themselves as working on electric

6:23

planes. Okay, and how many of those are actually

6:25

flying prototypes? I think there's four to

6:27

five companies that are flying full-scale

6:30

prototypes. How many are actually carrying people?

6:32

To my knowledge, we are the only company

6:35

that is carrying people for test

6:37

flights. Now,

6:39

I gotta tell you, the idea of electric planes

6:42

really thrills me for the same reasons I love

6:44

electric cars. Like, first

6:46

of all, no emissions, no guilt.

6:49

Second, they're super quiet, both

6:51

inside and outside. Third,

6:54

the motor has about a tenth the number

6:56

of parts as a jet engine. So

6:58

much more reliable. Fourth, way

7:01

cheaper to fly because electricity

7:04

for a given flight costs maybe 1 20th as

7:07

much as jet fuel or less. They

7:10

also tend to be very sleek and cool and

7:12

futuristic looking. I should know

7:14

because I've been reading about electric planes and seeing

7:17

artists mock-ups for years. But

7:19

until that day in Vermont, I'd never

7:22

seen one fly in person. So

7:24

there is a big hype cycle involving

7:27

electric planes. Why is

7:29

it taking so long to get

7:32

electric planes flying? You've

7:34

shown that it can be done, but 300

7:37

companies

7:39

in articles and popular mechanics for 10 years

7:42

and hardly anybody is actually flying

7:44

them.

7:44

My God, give us a break, will you? So,

7:47

no, the reality is that it

7:50

takes time to introduce new technologies

7:52

to a highly regulated environment, agree

7:55

to the standards and the worst are certified and

7:57

then do reams of testing safely.

7:59

in aviation is exceptionally

8:02

good right now. Like when was the

8:04

last time, seven, eight years ago, that there was a fatal

8:07

commercial aircraft crash? There's

8:09

an exceptionally high barrier to entry,

8:11

right? So it takes time to reach that

8:14

threshold. What he's talking about,

8:16

of course, is the FAA. The

8:18

Federal Aviation Administration is extremely

8:21

thorough, extremely cautious with

8:23

mountains of regulations and requirements. That

8:26

is why air travel is incredibly safe

8:29

in the U.S. But it's also why

8:31

electric planes are taking so long

8:33

to get off the ground. The FAA has such

8:35

a high bar of safety that we have

8:37

to do it right.

8:39

And that's what we're in right now. It's testing

8:41

and testing and testing.

8:43

Not the obvious things, but all the different

8:45

dimensions of potential failure. Remember, aerospace

8:48

is technologically unforgiving. You

8:50

don't get to leave something on the table, be wrong.

8:52

You don't get to fool Mother Nature when

8:55

it comes to aerospace. It has to be lightweight,

8:57

super reliable, and high performance.

9:02

Now, if you've seen the same YouTube videos and magazine

9:04

articles and 60-minute stories

9:06

that I have, you know that the buzzword

9:09

in electric planes is air

9:11

taxis. If you've ever had the fantasy

9:14

of soaring over bumper-to-bumper traffic

9:16

in a flying vehicle, that may be possible

9:19

sooner than you think. Everybody's

9:21

chasing this dream about little tiny vertical

9:23

takeoff plane things that carry

9:25

just a few people short distances,

9:28

like downtown Manhattan to JFK Airport.

9:31

Board your plane on the top of a building, hop

9:33

over downtown traffic, eliminate congestion.

9:38

About 600 very smart people

9:40

work at beta technologies, but the

9:42

smartest one of all is whoever thought

9:44

of this idea, don't start

9:47

with air taxis.

9:48

Start

9:49

with cargo. There are a lot of

9:51

ways that we can make a meaningful dent on

9:54

the emissions of aviation before

9:57

we start to do the thing that

9:59

everybody... talks about jumping over traffic. The

10:02

packages don't care. They don't have any

10:04

anxiety. They don't have any concerns about

10:06

how they're being transported, right? That's

10:09

a little different than the ultimate

10:11

application of hopping people over traffic.

10:13

We believe, and I believe that we're gonna

10:16

get there. But first, we're gonna go through

10:18

cargo, medical, logistics, airport

10:21

to airport. It's not a immediate

10:23

introduction of the Jetsons, right?

10:26

It's a long progression to get there.

10:28

And we're moving right on it, right?

10:31

The challenging thing about air taxis is not the

10:33

vehicle.

10:34

It's siting landing areas and municipalities

10:37

that are really adverse to any type of

10:39

new transportation like that. Well, they always say

10:41

the tops of skyscrapers. Yeah,

10:43

but there's a long way to go. Let me

10:45

give you an example. We need to bring 1.2, 1.4 megawatts

10:49

up to the top of the skyscraper to recharge

10:52

these things, right? Oh, there's a lot of infrastructure

10:54

that has to happen to do that. I'm probably

10:57

the only CEO of a electric

10:59

aircraft company that has taken my helicopter and

11:01

landed at every public use helipad in New

11:03

York. They are not super

11:05

accessible. You need a nimble, maneuverable

11:09

aircraft to get tucked into there. It's busy.

11:11

You're holding over the Hudson or the East River. It's

11:14

a complicated airspace already.

11:17

There's a lot of work that needs to be done to

11:19

air traffic control before it's really

11:21

commercially viable to have a high cadence of

11:23

air taxis going in and out of busy cities.

11:26

And that's not the case at the 4,300 underutilized

11:30

regional and state airports, right?

11:32

We can do a mission today with

11:34

an airplane that's all electric by

11:36

serving regional cargo flights. And

11:39

we don't need any changes in rules. And

11:42

we don't need a municipality to adopt a new

11:44

form of transportation.

11:45

And I believe that we will

11:47

be flying people in and out of cities before

11:50

anybody else does because people

11:52

will want to get on a plane that has thousands

11:54

of examples flying millions of flight hours,

11:57

maybe just fulfilling your Amazon and UPS

11:59

orders.

12:00

before they get on a brand new plane that

12:02

is only

12:03

fit for passenger service.

12:07

You know what else is so smart about starting

12:09

with cargo? Remember, the big hurdle

12:12

to electric aviation is not technology,

12:14

it's the FAA. And Kyle Clark's

12:17

thinking goes like this. The FAA

12:19

is more likely to approve a new kind of aircraft

12:22

that's just carrying boxes. So

12:24

what's happened is that we've become

12:27

kind of the pragmatic doers

12:29

of the industry. We have flight tests,

12:31

we've got these facilities, we've got

12:34

beautiful aircraft, we've got a bunch of customers.

12:36

Customers like UPS, Air New Zealand,

12:39

and the US Army, which have placed over 600

12:41

orders for the Beta plane. Now, remember

12:44

I mentioned those four propellers on the top? Turns

12:47

out you can order your plane with or without

12:49

them. Beta will be selling the plane,

12:51

which is called the ALIA, in two

12:53

configurations. First, as

12:55

a traditional one that takes off on a runway,

12:58

alternatively, as an EVTAL,

13:01

the annoying acronym that stands

13:03

for Electric Vertical Takeoff

13:05

and Landing Plane, EVTAL.

13:09

What happens to the vertical rotors

13:11

when you're in a horizontal flight? They

13:13

don't like fold up or disappear. The

13:15

way the aircraft works is it starts

13:18

in a stationary position. All four

13:20

of those top rotors turn on and lifts it

13:22

up into the air, right? That pusher

13:24

rotor starts pushing it forward. The

13:26

pusher rotor is the propeller at the back. And

13:29

as it accelerates, those four rotors

13:31

on the top slow down and slow down and slow down.

13:33

And after about 30 seconds, they

13:35

stop and they point into the wind. And

13:38

then you're flying 100% on the wing. Now,

13:40

when they stop and they point into the wing, they're very slippery.

13:43

They're long and slender. Turns out the propellers

13:46

use a lot more power than the wings do.

13:49

Vertical movement costs you more electricity

13:51

than horizontal. So only about a minute

13:53

of a total two and a half hour flight are

13:55

those top rotors on. That business

13:57

of offering two models of the plane? One

14:00

that takes off vertically, one that needs a runway, is

14:03

also shrewd thinking. Guess

14:05

which model is more likely to win the FAA's

14:07

approval first? Yep,

14:10

the one that's just like a regular plane, the

14:12

one that the FAA has known for years,

14:15

but electric.

14:16

It's not as much of a leap for the regulators

14:18

to assess. The regulatory framework,

14:21

all of the rules and understanding within the FAA,

14:24

are clear and black and white for an airplane.

14:27

Oh, I see. So the FAA hasn't really

14:29

decided how to certify

14:31

a vertical takeoff machine. That's exactly

14:34

right. I know I'm mentioning the FAA

14:36

a lot, and Kyle Clark thinks about

14:38

the FAA a lot. But I mean,

14:40

here's an example of what he's up against. For

14:43

example, our electric motor

14:45

is defined by the FAA as an

14:47

electric engine.

14:49

And me as a scientist, I'm like, there's no such

14:51

thing as an electric engine, but they call

14:53

it an electric engine so it fits better in

14:55

the historical regulation framework. But an engine

14:58

is something that burns fuel to

15:00

produce motion. Precisely. You don't even have one.

15:02

Exactly. There is no engine, but it's

15:05

called an electric engine so that it fits

15:07

within the prior regulation. The

15:09

intent and the quality of the work

15:11

at the FAA is pure, and it's really

15:14

good. It's the premier safety standard

15:16

in the world for aviation. Yet

15:19

with that comes inertia,

15:21

right? And we have to overcome that inertia

15:23

and then move on.

15:24

So here's the grand plan. After

15:27

the FAA has approved Beta's fixed-wing

15:30

electric plane, Beta can bring them

15:32

the vertical takeoff model. And it can

15:34

say, see, FAA, it's just

15:37

like the electric plane you already certified,

15:40

but with propellers. Not such a big

15:42

leap. But why Vermont?

15:45

It seems like all the engineering talent

15:47

is in California. Vermont is spectacular,

15:50

first of all. There's a lot of smart people

15:52

here. It's a healthy state, very

15:54

cognizant of climate change.

15:57

We have the largest industry.

15:59

In Vermont, our electric grid is 98% renewable. It

16:04

is the best in the country. The whole

16:06

state? The whole state. Wow.

16:09

But let me extend that one step further. In

16:11

Vermont, there's a heavy

16:13

awareness of climate change. And

16:16

having a group of people working on this that

16:18

not only are really good at what they do, but

16:20

they care about the mission, gives

16:22

them a little extra oomph at two in the morning

16:25

when we're trying to get ready for a flight test the next morning.

16:27

And that those long Saturday afternoons when

16:29

you want to get home, you're like, I am driven to

16:31

the mission that I signed up for. And

16:34

it wasn't something somebody told me to do. It came

16:36

from here. And as he says here,

16:39

he pats his heart. I

16:41

spent two days with Clark and his company shooting

16:43

a CBS Sunday morning story. And

16:46

I got to tell you, his employees really

16:48

believe in him and the mission. One

16:51

of my chaperones was Chris Caputo, who

16:54

spent 31 years in the Air Force as

16:56

a combat fighter pilot and then

16:58

spent a few years as a commercial pilot flying

17:01

757s and 767s for

17:03

Delta. So if you've

17:05

been there a while, the pay gets pretty

17:07

good. It does. Yeah. Did

17:10

you take a pay cut to come here? I did a

17:13

pretty healthy pay cut. But it's

17:15

more about the mission

17:17

that this company is on to decarbonize

17:21

aviation and do something good for

17:23

our planet, our country and the world. You

17:25

know, your kids, my kids and the next generation.

17:29

So who is this Kyle Clark anyway?

17:31

My father was an engineer.

17:34

My mother was an artist. My father ran a machine

17:36

shop and a medical device development

17:39

group at the university here. And

17:41

I just hung out in his machine shop and

17:43

I would build all kinds of different airplanes and

17:45

go to the airport up here, help people

17:47

with old

17:48

Russian fighters and just to get

17:51

a ride in them, right? Just to fly them. And

17:53

then when I went to college, I really, really

17:55

wanted to go to aerospace engineering,

17:58

but Harvard unfortunately didn't have aerospace engineering. engineering.

18:01

So I pursued material science and

18:03

I went to the engineering applied math school and studied

18:06

material science. And then when it came time

18:08

for me to do my thesis, I said I'm going to write

18:10

it on the airplanes that I've been imagining,

18:13

Beta Air. That's where the beginnings of it was.

18:17

I've always thought that Beta is a risky

18:19

name for a plane company. I mean,

18:21

in the tech world, Beta means beta

18:24

testing, meaning not finished,

18:26

meaning buggy. Is that

18:29

the name you want for the company that's going to be

18:31

carrying human beings into the sky? Well,

18:34

in this case, Beta does not refer to

18:36

the hardware or the software. It was Clark's

18:39

hockey nickname. That's right.

18:41

He played hockey in high school, in college,

18:43

and even professionally. He was actually

18:46

the captain of the US National Junior

18:48

Team, the feeder team for the Olympics.

18:51

The dude is 6 foot 7. Can

18:53

you imagine him coming at you on skates? So

18:56

I started promoting this new type of pusher

18:59

aircraft design with a high wing, super

19:01

slippery, with intuitive airplane controls.

19:03

And it actually won the thesis of the year in the engineering department

19:06

down there. But I couldn't get anybody

19:08

to invest in it. In fact, like

19:10

there was people who were like, hey, I'll invest in any

19:13

crazy business you want to do, but not that airplane

19:15

thing. So

19:17

it took me

19:18

from about 2002 when I first

19:20

kind of got the ideas together

19:22

until 2017 when Martine

19:25

Rothblatt said, whoa, I'll bet

19:27

on that,

19:28

of pitching this idea of

19:30

Beta Air. That would be pilot

19:32

and entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt, who

19:34

made her fortune by co-founding Sirius

19:36

satellite radio.

19:38

And she said, well, let's do something more meaningful

19:40

for society. Let's move

19:42

cargo that is of the most important

19:44

kind, medical cargo. And

19:47

she goes, if you do that, I'll support you on this.

19:50

She became the first of many investors in

19:52

a company that's now worth $2.4 billion.

19:56

Anyway, the big unveiling of the plant was only

19:58

the beginning of what was what was, for me, the

20:01

world's coolest show and tell. After

20:03

the break, I'll tell you how I

20:05

went up in the air with the electric plane and

20:08

even got to fly it myself.

20:11

Sorta.

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21:23

at $126 for only $79 when

21:27

you use code GIFT at oseamalibu.com.

21:30

That's code

21:31

GIFT. Clickbaity cliffhanger before the break, I

21:33

have not personally flown inside

21:36

the Alea Electric Plane. The FAA

21:39

has not certified it for civilians like me, so

21:42

at this point, only pilots get to fly

21:44

it. But the company did offer

21:46

me the next best thing, to fly along

21:48

right next to it in a regular plane, a

21:51

chase plane, a tiny four-seater,

21:54

Diamond TwinStar DA42, if you must

21:56

know.

21:58

Experimental 251, Uniform Tango. and

22:00

you're in a really new ground hold position, you'll be about

22:02

a one minute delay. One minute delay

22:04

for two by zero, you're informed to angle one

22:06

two.

22:07

My new friend Chris Caputo, the former

22:09

Air Force jet pilot and Delta pilot, is

22:12

at the controls.

22:14

You can see it's a very busy

22:16

airport. We got two airliners, Delta Airlines

22:19

united. You got multiple general

22:21

aviation

22:21

aircrafts. Coming

22:23

into the airport. This airport is the second

22:26

busiest airport

22:27

in New England, only behind Logan

22:29

airport. What the fuck? The Beta

22:31

plane's tail number is N251UT, so

22:35

you'll hear the air traffic controller addressing it as

22:37

251UniformTango.

22:40

251UniformTango, copy all

22:42

taxi to runway 19 via Lima. Hold

22:46

short of runway 19 at Lima.

22:49

251UniformTango, copy all, 1-9 at Lima. Is

22:55

there any chance to just shoot

22:58

out Alpha to runway 1-5 for departure?

23:01

In uniform Tango, unable. There's going to

23:03

be a jet blue parking at that corner. Okay,

23:08

copy on the jet blue. We'd

23:10

be willing to wait for him to pull into the jet

23:12

bridge.

23:12

At one point, as we were taxiing,

23:15

we were watching the Alia, the Beta

23:17

electric plane, with an Air Force stealth

23:20

fighter jet on the runway directly behind

23:22

it. Our cameraman Will was sitting

23:24

in the front right seat of our chase plane.

23:27

Got the most recent military

23:29

state-of-the-art stealth fighter

23:32

out there, and the most recent all-electric

23:35

state-of-the-art Alia. That's

23:37

pretty cool, huh?

23:38

We're gonna be famous

23:40

for that shot right there.

23:43

Doesn't get any better than that. Guys

23:45

are getting a glimpse into the future of aviation

23:48

right here. Row

23:50

C, huh?

23:51

Finally, it was time for takeoff. Today,

23:53

Beta was testing its conventional takeoff

23:55

plane, minus the vertical propellers,

23:58

for a short hop from the Burlington...

23:59

airport to Pittsburgh, New York.

24:06

We both took off roughly simultaneously,

24:09

but it quickly became clear that the electric

24:13

plane was much faster than

24:15

our gas-powered one. I can't even keep

24:18

up with him.

24:19

I'm full-powered, just walking away from

24:21

me. Are you telling

24:23

me that a battery-operated

24:24

toy is going faster than you are? A

24:28

battery-operated engineering dream

24:30

is how climbing off-hand going faster.

24:34

Literally walking away from behind full power,

24:36

ears up, claps are up. I'm going to have

24:39

to step on it. You've got

24:41

the power 60 years of aviation

24:43

in your hands. I can't do anything

24:46

else, David. I don't have an afterburner. How

24:49

do you miss that? I do.

24:52

At 2,500 feet on a brilliant

24:54

October day, we had an infinite

24:56

blue sky above us and Lake Champlain

24:59

glittering below us. And about a hundred

25:01

yards off our wing, we saw

25:03

the Aliyah, this

25:05

gorgeous, shiny white aircraft sailing

25:07

gracefully through the air. Isn't that beautiful?

25:10

Oh man, this is like an all-electric.

25:13

I'm gonna add for the future.

25:16

Owwww!

25:18

This was going to be only a 15-minute flight,

25:21

but even so, the disparity in fuel

25:23

costs was stunning.

25:26

As we're polluting the environment,

25:28

burning fossil fuels, that thing is just

25:30

sipping

25:30

energy right

25:33

now.

25:35

This flight's gonna cost about $10 in this

25:37

flight. It's gonna cost us about $200.

25:41

Fuel? Fuel alone.

25:45

The noise level for the pilots in the Aliyah was

25:47

radically different too. Well right

25:49

now, if we were to take off our

25:51

headsets, we'd have a tough time communicating.

25:55

It's so loud in this aircraft. The two

25:58

of those guys can take their helmets off right now.

25:59

and conversed at a normal, you

26:02

know, normal. And the operational complexity

26:04

was different. So in this aircraft

26:06

in particular, I'm keeping track of

26:08

the percent load on both

26:11

my left and right motors, the RPM

26:13

on both the left and right engines, the fuel

26:15

flow, the oil temperature, oil pressure, cooling temps,

26:18

fuel temps, and the quantity.

26:20

The mass voltages on both the left

26:22

and right, the amperage that I'm drawing,

26:25

the gearbox temperatures, you don't have all

26:27

of that in the Aliyah. So you basically have one

26:30

system, an electrical system,

26:31

that you're monitoring. It's

26:33

quite, you know, elegant. This

26:35

wasn't a journalist joyride, by the way. We

26:38

were observing a regular test flight

26:40

of the Aliyah.

26:41

They were putting it through various tricky maneuvers

26:43

to see how it could recover. It's a test

26:45

pilot that is getting set up for wing-level

26:48

stalls. It's a test Aliyah for

26:50

rocket issues. It's a typical aircraft.

26:53

It's a test. He's stalling the aircraft.

26:56

He's stalling

26:58

on purpose. A stall is when

27:00

your plane is angled up too steeply

27:03

for air to flow over its wings. At

27:05

this point, you lose your lift and

27:07

your plane starts to fall out of the sky. It's

27:10

generally considered uncool to

27:12

stall and fall out of the sky.

27:14

How will he recover from this? Oh, he'll just

27:16

relax the backstake pressure, decrease

27:19

the AOA. Wow! And

27:21

he recovers from the wings-level stall

27:23

in idle. That was awesome. It

27:25

looked great from back here. Very cool.

27:27

My thing's so remarkable

27:28

is just how stable the aircraft

27:31

is when he's actually stalled the wing and is not

27:33

producing lift anymore. In other words, once

27:35

the pilot took his hands off the controls of the

27:37

Aliyah, it exited the stall automatically.

27:40

All he had to do

27:42

was nothing. Did you ever get to

27:44

think that you'd be... Traffic. I've

27:46

been close to an all-electric...

27:49

Aircraft. I want to be closer. I want

27:51

to be in it.

27:53

Well, maybe Jake can arrange that later.

27:56

The FAA gives

27:58

us a great lift.

27:59

We are cleared to land.

28:02

I'll get us on center line here. And

28:06

touchdown. Here

28:08

we go. How'd

28:10

that feel? That wasn't good. I

28:12

think I like landing a butterfly with sore feet.

28:15

Is that what they say? That's what they say.

28:18

Once we were back on the ground in Burlington, Chris

28:21

Caputo and Jake the PR guy

28:23

took pity on me. They let me fly

28:25

the Aliyah in the simulator.

28:29

I mean, this machine is not, you know, an iPad.

28:32

It's a full-size mock-up of the

28:34

real Aliyah cockpit with all the same seats,

28:36

same controls, same screens. It

28:38

has all the same sounds and vibrations

28:41

of the real plane. Same wraparound

28:43

view, too. It's in a dedicated room,

28:46

dark and black, except for this huge

28:49

projection screen. The walls in front

28:51

of the cockpit are basically the inside

28:53

of a huge sphere, so

28:55

that wherever you look, you see video

28:57

of what you would actually see if you were flying.

29:00

It's very convincing. So

29:03

this is what we refer to as Thunderdome. We've

29:06

trained Army pilots,

29:08

Air Force test pilots, FAA test pilots

29:11

in this simulator, and then put them in the plane in

29:13

these very seats. In these very

29:16

seats, some of the world's best pilots

29:19

have come through this facility, sat

29:21

in this simulator. And now here I come. And

29:23

now here you are, the next

29:26

future Aliyah best

29:28

pilot in the world.

29:41

So that's what we call the Inceptor. It's

29:43

a side stick, four-space side stick.

29:46

It has

29:47

both pitch,

29:49

roll, and yaw

29:52

all in your right hand.

29:59

down by your hip. And then down

30:02

here is what we call the lift lever

30:04

and the pusher throttle. So

30:06

with your left hand, you're gonna control

30:08

lift and the push motors here, and

30:11

you're gonna control how

30:13

you maneuver the aircraft with your

30:15

right hand. All right. So with your

30:17

left hand, just slowly

30:19

pick up the lift lever and

30:22

you're gonna increase your torque,

30:24

where you see that? Yeah. All

30:26

you're doing is increasing the torque to

30:29

each one of your lift motors. Oh, I can actually feel

30:31

vibration. Just keep pulling

30:33

this up and put that hand right there. Wait, wait, before

30:35

we do that, I have to do this. Okay.

30:37

Welcome to AirPogue. Please ensure that your

30:39

expectations are in a full upright and locked position

30:41

at all times. How'd I do? You

30:44

did, I was kidding.

30:45

As I pulled up on the left lever, the

30:47

four simulated propellers on top

30:50

of the simulated plane began

30:52

spinning simulated faster, and

30:54

suddenly we were simulated rising

30:57

off the ground. Okay, so now you're just

30:59

in a nice stable hover. Oh, whenever

31:01

I'm not doing anything, it goes stable. It does.

31:04

Like a well-behaved drone. Like a well-behaved

31:06

drone. Okay. Now if you wanted to move the plane

31:08

forward, just push forward with

31:10

a little pressure on the stick.

31:12

You're spinning up the back two motors and

31:14

the plane will start translating forward.

31:16

Gotcha. Now here's the

31:18

mind twist here.

31:20

So with your right hand, turn and hold it, and

31:23

let's point over towards the

31:25

beautiful view of the Adirondacks.

31:27

That's what I tell everybody. The best thing about Vermont

31:29

is the view of the Adirondacks. This is not

31:31

bad. Why over the lake? Absolutely.

31:34

So you're gonna take your right thumb here and

31:36

roll your pusher motor all the way forward.

31:38

Do a hundred percent. Okay, so this is the propeller in the

31:40

back. This is the propeller

31:41

in the back. So now we're getting onto the

31:43

wing of the plane. We're gonna get airflow

31:45

over that big, beautiful 50 foot

31:48

airfoil. Level off.

31:51

Really gentle. And we're just gonna stow

31:53

the lift motors now,

31:56

and we're gonna turn those off. Oh. And

31:58

we're, and just. trim the plane up

32:00

with a little bit of right aileron trim

32:03

there. I was going to say right aileron trim is

32:05

what we need right now. That's right. You need a little bit of

32:07

right aileron trim.

32:08

In other words, we were now flying like

32:10

a regular plane. The four propellers

32:13

above us had slowed to a stop, coming

32:15

to rest parallel to our direction of travel,

32:18

so as not to introduce drag.

32:20

So now we're just flying on the wing of the plane.

32:22

We're literally just sipping

32:24

energy out of the high voltage

32:27

energy storage system and those batteries. And

32:30

you know, you have how much flight time do you have?

32:33

Now about 90 seconds. So

32:36

you can see in a few short minutes

32:38

how you were able to literally

32:41

take off an all-electric vertical

32:44

takeoff and land aircraft transition onto

32:46

the wing.

32:47

At the end of our flight, we returned

32:49

to the simulated Burlington airport and

32:51

landed vertically.

32:53

So at this point, I'm a helicopter. Certainly,

32:55

if you have a runway available, you just land

32:58

on the wing like a fixed wing plane because you're

33:00

not going to use as much energy. But

33:03

if you if you didn't have a runway available,

33:05

you can just come down in the vertical mode. OK, now

33:07

we're now we stow the lift motors and

33:10

mission complete. Wow,

33:12

dude. Thank you. You're welcome.

33:14

You're a good instructor. I'll take two of these. Well done.

33:17

All right. Glad you to the

33:19

order book. Well, oh,

33:21

that was cool. Really,

33:25

really cool. Like when I do

33:27

Microsoft simulator on my phone, not like

33:29

this. No.

33:32

Oh, and this has nothing to do with the electric planes,

33:35

but I thought I'd treat you to this astonishing

33:37

bit of conversation I had with this

33:39

former commercial pilot. Believe

33:41

it or not, most commercial

33:45

airline pilots spend

33:48

about six to seven minutes

33:50

of any given flight actually at with

33:53

their hands on the controls of the plane. The

33:56

rest of it is automated. Yeah, the computers, they're

33:59

so good. the majority

34:01

of the Delta Airlines aircraft, it

34:03

literally can land the plane, track

34:05

the center line on the ILS, auto

34:08

brake, and bring the aircraft to a stop in zero,

34:10

zero visibility. You use that?

34:12

Oh yes, absolutely. Wow. Some of the

34:14

smaller ones don't have that functionality, but

34:17

yeah, the level of automation is

34:20

pretty incredible these days. Six or seven

34:22

minutes?

34:23

Man.

34:24

Anyway,

34:25

by the end of my visit, I was pretty

34:27

fired up. I

34:30

could see how this was all going to work.

34:32

I'd been bitten by the Kyle Clark electric

34:34

aviation bug. I was just frustrated

34:37

that it was taking so long. So within

34:39

months, you're gonna start manufacturing planes

34:42

right here, right? So at

34:44

what point in the future will

34:47

these be out there flying

34:49

certified by the FAA, the whole thing? Yeah,

34:51

so we're entering production now.

34:54

Those first aircraft go to the military and

34:56

they start flying there. The next ones go overseas

34:59

to places where we have achieved regulatory

35:01

approval to fly, like in the UAE, hopefully

35:04

down in New Zealand, up in the northern

35:06

parts of Canada. It's both like intriguing

35:09

and a little sad that

35:11

a lot of our initial deployments happen overseas

35:14

because the regulatory thresholds are different,

35:17

right? So we- It seems like the safety threshold

35:19

is lower. I wouldn't say it's lower.

35:22

I would say that they're less tied to legacy

35:24

regulation and they're able to look forward

35:27

a little bit easier. Through 2024, we're

35:29

deploying them to the military and to

35:32

overseas. And we

35:34

build more airplanes for the following year when

35:36

these aircraft are certified in 2025 and

35:39

they go into meaningful commercial missions domestically

35:42

here in the US. And what is the military's

35:44

interest in all this? So the military looked

35:46

at it and said, it is a tactical

35:48

advantage to not have to carry fuel

35:50

around. If I can charge up on

35:52

a ship and go to shore and come back

35:55

and not have to bring jet fuel onto

35:57

the ship, that's a good thing, right?

35:59

And

36:00

I can do it really quietly

36:02

and I can do it without a big thermal signature.

36:05

So electric aviation is fuel free,

36:07

low logistics tail,

36:10

really quiet

36:11

and really cold. So the enemy

36:14

that has some infrared camera that looks

36:16

for the heat signature of airplanes will

36:19

not see this? That's absolutely right. I

36:21

mean, look, in Ukraine right now, they make

36:23

decoys by putting thermal signatures out.

36:26

And then

36:27

the Russians will fire at its place where they see a

36:29

thermal signature and they'll be like, oh, just kidding.

36:31

Now we know where you are. So

36:34

we want airplanes that don't have thermal signatures.

36:37

And it turns out electric aircraft stay cold. They

36:39

don't jet engines. That's crazy. There

36:42

is a broad awareness that if we can reduce

36:44

the fuel dependency of our military, it

36:46

will not only not

36:48

destroy our planet, which we're all trying

36:50

not to do, but it'll give them a tactical

36:53

advantage and an advantage in not

36:55

putting human lives at risk moving fuel. By

36:57

the way, I don't know if you picked up on this, but

36:59

the beta planes so far require a

37:02

pilot. Some of the rival

37:04

electric plane companies are developing completely

37:06

autonomous aircraft that don't require

37:09

a pilot at all.

37:10

Self-driving air taxis.

37:13

Are you behind the curve by requiring

37:15

a human to drive? Ultimately, we

37:17

will be flying autonomous passenger vertical

37:19

takeoff and landing aircraft. That's down the road.

37:22

But in managing the introduction of this to maximize

37:25

safety and do it in a timely

37:27

manner, we believe the best

37:29

way to do it is to introduce the

37:31

airplane with a pilot.

37:33

There's a framework and an air traffic control system

37:36

that relies on the pilot to make

37:38

decisions around safety, not when everything's

37:40

going well. That's an easy problem to solve. It's

37:42

when things are not going well.

37:44

So we believe starting with a pilot makes a ton

37:46

of sense.

37:47

And in time, we'll start

37:49

taking the pilots out first in cargo

37:52

and logistics. And

37:54

then 10 years later, we'll take the pilots out in passenger.

37:57

Well, I, for one, can't wait to buy

37:59

my first ticket. Go to New

38:02

Zealand if I have to. Can I sell you an airplane? Four

38:05

million, is that right? Yeah, approximately. We'll give you a deal.

38:17

You just listened to another episode of Unsung

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Science with David Pooh. Don't

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