The Allplane Podcast

Why the aviation industry remains one of the hardest to electrify? Is Lithium-ion the best battery technology for the job? What are the most viable alternatives?We will try to answer these questions with one of the leading experts in the field of battery science.Venkat Viswanathan is an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he leads a research lab focusing on aviation and transportation applications of battery technology.Venkat, who is also an advisor to several green energy firms, has recently co-authored two papers outlining the learnings of his research in this field and explaining why incremental improvement of Li-Ion batteries may not be enough for a more wide-ranging electrification of the aviation industry. A new paradigm is needed in battery chemistry, one based on new materials and underpinned by novel research and production techniques, involving robotics and machine learning. Lithium-metal batteries and even more advanced combinations that use non-metallic elements may hold the key to the sort of energy density increases that will make the electrification of broader segments of the aviation industry feasible.In addition to his work at the very edge of this technological frontier, Venkat is also an excellent communicator, able to explain complex scientific concepts in a straightforward and understandable way to broad non-scientific audiences.It is because of all this that I invite you to check today’s episode out to get a grasp of the current state of battery science and its potential applications in the aviation industry!

oday on the podcast, airline entrepreneur Tomislav Lang is going to explain the concept and business model of Flyv, short for “Fly Virtual”, a new carrier that aims to leverage algorithms and hybrid-electric aircraft to provide a new type of air mobility service in Europe.Having managed, for a number of years, Swiss regional airline Skywork, Tomislav knows well the European air mobility space, this led him to explore some ideas to launch a new type of airline that, rather than competing with the Lufthansas and Ryanairs of this world, links, instead, the many second, third or even fourth tier airports between themselves. On this episode of the podcast Tomislav explains how the team at Flyv is confident that the combination of algorithms, that will allow it to allocate and adjust capacity across the network on a constant and. very flexible basis, and the economics of a new generation of hybrid-electric aircraft, such as the 9-seater being developed by Electra.aero, will give it an edge in capturing a share of this latent market.How regional air travel may look like in Europe several years from now? Tune in for today’s episode of the podcast with Flyv founder, Tomislav Lang!

Our guest today, Vishal Hiremath, has been working in the aviation sector for quite some time and it was precisely during one of those professional assignments, at Honda Jet that he realized there was plenty of potential in this small but very capable and versatile aircraft manufactured by the aerospace branch of the famous Japanese firm. This led him to co-found Jet It, together with his business partner Glenn Gonzales. Jet It is a fractional jet ownership company that is based on a fleet of Honda Jet aircraft. After initial success in the US, they have now expanded to Canada and hopped across the Atlantic to Europe, where it operates under the Jet Club brand.The chance to learn more about this interesting little aircraft, that I have had the chance to examine, on occasion, from up close at air shows, piqued my curiosity, but what finally decided me to reach out to the founders of Jet It/JetClub to get them on the podcast is the fact that they are already looking beyond this original Honda Jet focus and preparing to go electric. Earlier in 2021, Jet It announced it is going to become the launch customer for the Bye eFlyer 800, a sleek, disruptive all-electric aircraft that, with lower costs and no emissions, aims to disrupt the private flying scene (we have had the chance to cover on a previous podcast how executive aviation can be a test bank for new ideas and technologies!)Tune in for our chat with Vishal, in which we talk (despite some technical difficulties, we recorded it on mobile during a car trip) on about his entrepreneurial journey, how to build an executive aviation business that is active on both sides of the Atlantic and also how he is preparing his company to enter the new era of fossil-free aviation!

Of the many startups that are pursuing the goal of building an electric airliner, Wright Electric stands out. Instead of focusing on light or regional aircraft, Wright’s founder, Jeff Engler, has decided to aim at the core of the industry, the mid-sized aircraft market.Wright Electric is currently working to retrofit a 100-seat BAe 146 airliner with 2MW electric motors, but if all goes well, the idea is to scale this up and come up with an electric alternative to the A320/B737 models that currently dominate the skies, well…at least for the shorter, under 800mi, segment of this market.How is Wright Electric going to do so? With which technologies? Which batteries are they evaluating to get to this so-far elusive goal?We’ve got Jeff on the podcast to tell us all about Wright Electric, his views on the electrification of the mid-size airliner market, the pros and cons of different propulsion systems and their collaboration with airlines such as Easyjet and VivaAerobus, as well as with several research agencies and organizations, including NASA.Tune in for an overview of one of the most daring electric aircraft programmes out there!

Widerøe is a Norwegian airline that decided to proactively become a world pioneer in the field of aviation decarbonization.In line with Norway’s goal to decarbonize aviation as fast as possible, Widerøe started researching options to electrify its fleet. The intricate and beautiful geography of Norway plays in its favour, since many of the routes operated by Widerøe are short hops linking small communities, the perfect stage length and capacity to switch to electric aircraft that could be powered by the country’s many hydropower plants.So, Widerøe has teamed up with Rolls-Royce and Tecnam with the goal to be a true pioneer in the field of electric flight. But it doesn’t stop there, Widerøe is also evaluating the use of eVTOLs to complement and capillarize its route network and it has also spun-off an entity, Widerøe Zero, to channel and support additional projects in the field of green aviation.On today’s episode, Widerøe’s head of strategy, Andreas Kollbye Aks, talks about all these exciting projects, their status and future prospects and, more generally, how this Norwegian airline wants to lead the world in the path towards decarbonization!

Frédéric Aguettant is the founder of Helipass, a digital platform, based in France and operating worldwide, that lets people book helicopter rides at the tip of a click. The helicopter operator business is very local and extremely fragmented, so when Frédéric tried to book helicopter rides at various places around the world, he found the process extremely messy and frustrating. This led him to think of the idea of creating a sort of “AirBnB of helicopters” by capitalizing as well on this prior experience in the helicopter industry.Since it launched in 2014, Helipass has intermediated more than 67,000 helicopter rides and, despite a temporary blip in demand due to the pandemic, it has set its sights in future areas of growth.Helipass has, thus, become a partner of the advanced air mobility research hub being developed by the region of Paris right outside the French capital and it has also signed a deal with Embraer’s eVTOL arm, EVE, to commercialize flight hours on this platform as soon as it becomes available towards 2026.

This four part series has been done in collaboration with SITA for Aircraft, a technology company that, among other things, helps airlines fly more efficiently through its suite of software products for airlines. If you have ever flown through an area of turbulence or an active storm you are already aware of how much of a hazard weather can be. At the very least, foul weather can mean a miserable journey and, in some cases, extra fuel and maintenance costs for airlines.This is a topic we have dealt with in this podcast before, although we had not spoken, so far about the weather. And, while weather forecasting has become increasingly more accurate, in an aviation context, adding additional layers of information and analytical tools delivering actionable recommendations can make all the difference. Today’s guest is Victor de los Santos, product manager for eWAS Pilot, a SITA for Aircraft technology that helps pilots and airlines optimize their flight plans to cope with all sort of weather conditions, even those that can be trickier to monitor, such as high altitude ice crystals.Victor is an experienced engineer that knows this space inside out, so this conversation really helped me understand better how airlines and pilots prepare for different weather events, which tools they have at their disposal and how this translates into a smoother ride for passengers.Listen to this episode for a masterclass on weather and aviation!

What is happening in the world of advanced air mobility is simply fascinating, in some ways reminiscent of the early days of aviation: new technological possibilities that promise to completely transform the way we travel around.After decades of incremental change, one may be tempted to say we are on the cusp of an entirely new era of air travel…or are we? It looks like the advanced air mobility revolution is really around the corner, but first there are some challenges it needs to sort out.On this episode of the podcast we are going to talk in-depth about all this with two experts in the field of eVTOLs and advanced air mobility. Chris Fernando and Basil Yap have been deeply involved in a number of projects and ventures connected to the upcoming advanced air mobility industry. They are both partners at Hovecon, a consultancy firm that works in the eVTOL space, and co-hosts of the No U Turn Podcast, that deals with innovation and disruption in the transportation industry. Chris is also a principal for Aviation and Emerging Technologies, at Quantitative Scientific Solutions, a big data firm, and adjunct professor and a member of the Aeronautics Advisor Board at the Florida Institute of Technology and expert in residence at Advanced Mobility Collective, a non-profit that promotes the adoption of advanced air mobility technology.Basil, in turn, is the president of AeroX, an organisation that channels different initiatives aiming to develop an eVTOL tech hub in the state of North Carolina, and co-founder and general partner at Aero-X Ventures, a venture fund focusing on advanced air mobility.So, tune in for a comprehensive discussion about the state of the advanced air mobility industry with Chris Fernando and Basil Yap!

Things we talk about in this episode:-Jonathan’s background and experience in the sustainable fuels industry-What is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)-What processes exist to produce sustainable aviation fuel-What are the pros and cons of each of these processes-What feedstocks does each process need to produce sustainable aviation fuel and how to source them-What are synthetic fuels and how are they different from biogenic fuels-What is the current situation of the sustainable aviation fuel industry worldwide-Why is SAF more expensive than conventional fuel and can this change in the near future?-What % of the total jet fuel consumption is sustainable aviation fuel?-How do the logistics and supply chains of sustainable aviation fuel work?-What are Neste’s plans to increase SAF production

McKinsey is considered by many the top strategy consulting firm in the world, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it is keeping an eye on the fast-evolving air mobility space.Robin Riedel is a partner at McKinsey’s and global leader at the firm’s Disruptive Aerospace Sector, which is part of McKinsey’s Aerospace & Defence Practice. From this vantage point, Robin, who happens to be also an aerospace engineer and a commercial jet pilot, has a rather holistic view of what goes on in this very dynamic industry. Robin’s team at McKinsey has also been digging into some of the most promising and innovative segments of the new air mobility landscape that is just taking shape. They produce, on a regular basis, a number of reports and very informative content that aims to quantify some of its most relevant aspects, separating hype from reality and presenting a number of prospective scenarios based on hard data and the thorough analysis that characterizes McKinsey’s work. Tune in for a conversation with one of the leading experts in the field of air mobility innovation!