Droner og UAM - Curt Lewis Video

Tror Ross Perot Jr. kjøpte en norsk F-5A. 

Tipper at det ikke var mange som snakket om the downside, nemlig at det ikke finnes noen legislation gjeldene for UAM per d.d. (Red.)

What we learned about the future of flying cars, drones and more at an exclusive North Texas summit

 

Aviation entrepreneurs, investors talk future of flight at North Texas summit

Aviation entrepreneurs, investors and leaders in the future of flight convened at a North Texas ranch this week to work toward a shared goal: Making it possible for more people to soar through the skies.

 

Wearing cowboy hats and sipping cocktails, the roughly 160 attendees updated one another on progress they've made in the development of air taxis, sophisticated drones and other electric-powered aircraft. They delivered "lightning talks," showed off slick videos and got an up-close look at prototypes. And they spoke candidly about challenges that remain: developing a better electric battery, getting regulatory approval and winning over skeptical members of the public.

 

The invitation-only summit Wednesday and Thursday was part ideas festival, part investor pitch and part networking event. But above all, it was a rally for believers in the maturing, but still nascent air taxi industry. The Dallas Morning News was one of just a few media outlets granted access.

 

The exclusive UP summit was thrown by aviation entrepreneurs and investors Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari. It was co-hosted by Dallas' Ross Perot Jr., an avid aviator and real estate developer, in a giant barn on his Circle T Ranch in Westlake.

 

The list of attendees was the Who's Who of futuristic aviation, including Nikhil Goel, who has helped lead Uber's air taxi effort; Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed flyer Charles Lindbergh; Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway; former Federal Aviation Administration officials and leaders of major companies like Bell, Rolls Royce, Airbus and Boeing. Sigari estimated there was over $100 billion of investable capital in the room.

 

The summit was filled with Texas touches, such as a dinner of prime rib and roasted whole pig, a live country band, a photo-op with a longhorn and fittings of Cavender's cowboy hats. A private flight show of a F-5E Tiger II fighter jet kicked off the summit's opening night. The lineup featured former President George W. Bush, Tesla co-founder JB Straubel and record-breaking stuntman and skydiver Luke Aikins, who jumped from 25,000 feet without a parachute.

 

Marcus and Sigari, both 37 and from Santa Monica, Calif., met when they were 11 years old. Marcus is an Israeli Jew and Sigari is an Iranian Muslim, but they shared a fascination for aviation and became lifelong friends. They attended college together and later co-founded private jet broker, JetAviva.

 

About three years ago, they started the summit to gather together the brain trust behind electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft or eVTOLs. They held the first summit in a living room in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with about 30 attendees. They threw the second summit with about 100 attendees with aviation entrepreneur Steuart Walton, grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, in the retail giant's hometown of Bentonville, Ark.

 

All attendees are hand-picked by Sigari and Marcus. Many flew there on private jets. Sigari, Marcus and Perot picked up the tab - along with sponsorships by companies including Bell and Honeywell.

 

The summit isn't just about flying cars, but also cargo-carrying drones and technology improvements, such as autonomous systems, to make them possible.

 

At the summit's opening dinner, Marcus said he and Sigari are inspired not just by flying's novelty, but also by its impact. As kids, they volunteered for a nonprofit called Angel Flight that provides free flights to people who need medical treatment far from home. As they grew up and became flight instructors, they flew over congested Los Angeles.

 

"We used to look down at the highways and see these miserable people stuck in traffic and think, 'Why are we the only ones in the sky and why are they all down there? How can we get them up here to enjoy the sky with us?' " Marcus said.

 

He said the room of innovators and investors could change an eye-opening statistic: Only one in five people in the world have ever taken flight.

 

Sigari said the summit has grown, but it won't get much larger. He turned down about 400 others who wanted to attend. He said the intimacy of the summit is what allows all of the executives, entrepreneurs and investors to get to know one another and feel comfortable enough to speak candidly.

 

For some startups, the event has led to valuable connections. Clint Cope, co-founder of San Francisco-based Elroy Air, said he met his first investor at the Wyoming summit. His company is developing autonomous aircraft that carry heavy cargo. He said the summit is a morale boost and a way to promote momentum for all companies, even competitors.

 

"Everybody is in a bit of a frenemy stage now," he said. "You want to help people along the way, so you have a critical mass."

 

One of the first big names to sign on to the UP summit was then-Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead. He attended the first summit in his home state. As governor of a predominantly rural state, Mead said he understood how smaller, electric-powered aircraft could make life easier.

 

In conversations with the public, he said he has found people are quick to bring up barriers. They ask about safety risks, noise and visual clutter in the skies.

 

While those challenges are real, he said, aviation executives and entrepreneurs must also help the public understand the societal benefits. What would the aircraft mean for the environment? How could they spur economic activity in rural communities? Could they free up funds for states to invest in education rather than highways? And what would it mean if parents could spend an extra hour a day with their children instead of commuting?

 

An air taxi industry

 

The pursuit of an air taxi industry has taken off in recent years, particularly with a push by Uber. Three years ago, the San Francisco-based company published a white paper and pledged to make a Jetsons-like vision of flying cars real. It hosted its first Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas in 2017 and announced that Dallas-Fort Worth would be one of the service's first markets.

 

It laid out an aggressive timetable of starting flight demonstrations next year and launching limited commercial service in 2023. At launch, Uber's air taxis will have a pilot - but the company wants them to eventually become autonomous. Uber is working with several partners, including Fort Worth-based Bell.

 

This summer, the company launched Uber Copter in New York City to learn how to synchronize seamless passenger trips that begin in a car on the ground, continue in the skies and end on the ground again. The one-way trip between Lower Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport costs between $200 and $225 a person.

 

More than 200 companies from venture-backed startups to major corporations are now developing electric vertical-lift aircraft. Big tech names have put their money into the effort. For example, Google co-founder Larry Page is funding two startups, Kitty Hawk and Opener. And larger companies, such as Boeing, are snapping up smaller startups through acquisitions and building aircraft of their own.

 

Urban air mobility - from passenger travel to military and cargo applications - could grow into a $1.5 trillion market by 2040, according to a Morgan Stanley research estimate.

 

Perot, who flew the first round-the-world flight by helicopter in 1982, is among those who saw the business opportunity. For the past few years, his real estate company Hillwood has worked with Uber to help identify sites where air taxis could take off and land. One will be Frisco Station, a Hillwood development near the Dallas Cowboys headquarters.

 

The real estate developer is also turning AllianceTexas, his giant mixed-use residential and commercial development in Fort Worth, into a testbed for the future of mobility. It wants companies to test their drones and air taxis there. The master-planned development is larger than the island of Manhattan and home to hundreds of companies, including Facebook's data center and a regional hub for Amazon. It also has a large industrial airport, Fort Worth Alliance.

 

Circle T Ranch - where the summit was held - is part of AllianceTexas. Hillwood and Bell offered free helicopter tours of the property to attendees.

 

Perot said he keeps up with progress in the air taxi industry, but it has exceeded the pace that even he imagined. He pointed to other examples of how social norms have changed with the emergence of new kinds of mobility.

 

"One day, we will hop into an air vehicle and fly around without a pilot and not even think about it," he said. "The first elevators had operators because people were afraid to get in an elevator and just punch a button. Now, look how it's changed today."

 

'The vertical dimension'

Austin-based Lift Aircraft showed a prototype of its flying vehicle, Hexa. It looks like a large drone, but has a cabin for a single passenger. It's light enough that FAA regulations allow it to be flown without a pilot's license. It has software to simplify flying for a layperson and safety features, including a built-in ballistic parachute.

 

The company will initially use it as a form of entertainment or a tourist attraction, CEO Matt Chasen said. Thousands of people have reserved a ride, which will cost $249 for a 10-15 minute ride. It will begin offering rides on a cross-country road trip later this year or in early 2020.

 

Eventually, Chasen said, he imagines putting the vehicles in different parts of cities and allowing people to request rides through a smartphone app.

 

Martine Rothblatt, founder and CEO of biotech company United Therapeutics, accepted an award for her leadership. Rothblatt, co-founder of Sirius Satellite Radio, started the biotech company after her young daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension. The company went on to discover a medication for that condition. Now, it's developing new ways to repair and manufacture lungs and other organs to multiply the number of people who can receive transplants.

 

Rothblatt is financially backing two electric aircraft companies, Chinese manufacturer Ehang, and Vermont-based Beta Technologies. They're developing electric-powered aircraft that can transport the company's life-saving organ donations in a way that doesn't harm the environment or public health.

 

In a speech, Rothblatt referred to a saying by Albert Einstein that problems can't be solved at the same level of thinking. She encouraged the group to keep striving "until we are all thriving in the vertical dimension."