The Evolution of Aviation: Human Control vs. Automation

Keller Cliffton joins John Collison to talk about Zipline’s journey to 115 million miles flown, the lost art of American airplanes, building 50k drones a year in California, getting to 99.9% reliability, and US vs. Chinese manufacturing. 

Books referenced:

• The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
• Skunk Works by Ben Rich
• Apple in China by Patrick McGee

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(00:45) 115 million miles flown

(04:10) Why drone delivery took so long

(07:38) Getting started in Rwanda

(13:31) 51% reduction in maternal mortality

(15:33) Access vs. waste

(21:45) Scaling globally

(24:05) Zipline’s Platform 1 

(25:50) The Right Stuff

(27:22) Drone design and safety

(30:12) Getting to 99.9% reliability

(34:39) Multimodal logistics

(38:15) Zipline’s Platform 2

(44:03) US drone regs and the FAA

(48:02) Progress and stagnation in US aviation

(51:30) If Keller ran the FAA

(54:24) 30% WoW growth in Texas

(58:25) Why Texas and not California?

(01:00:28) Building 50k drones in California

(01:06:18) US vs. Chinese manufacturing

(01:11:30) Advice for hardtech founders