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At the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) at Detroit's McCormick Place, it wasn't just a bevy of new models, concept cars and a Michigan business incubator space that filled the 600,000 square feet of floor space, there were aircraft as well. For the 2nd year in a row, this world-renowned show had airborne vehicles on display, specifically one eVTOL and one interesting flying car. That eVTOL was the Air One by AirEv, and I had the privilege to interview AirEv CEO Rani Plaut whom I met at the Vertical Flight Society's meeting at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, just prior to AirVenture this year.
Q. I'm here with Rani Plaut, CEO and Founder of AirEv discussing their Air One LSA eVTOL. Rani, can you give the GlobalAir.com audience a brief synopsis of the aircraft?
A. Yes, it's a two-seat fully electric eVTOL with approximately a 100-mile range. So, we go up vertically and then we have wing-born flight. We have a cruising time of about an hour, depending on conditions of course. The most important part is that we have been mentioned by the DOT as one of four eVTOL companies in the formal certification process with the FAA. But we are the only one of the four which is going for our type certification under the new LSA rule, meaning we will be first to market. We are also going to be (we hope) the training platform for the others.
Q. When you say new LSA, is that falling under the new MOSAIC umbrella?
A. Exactly.
Q. Interesting. So, in terms of redundancy, I've noticed counter-rotating propellers on all four corners, was that an internal design requirement?
A. If you look at general aviation, normally you have the safety blanket, I will say you have holes in the blanket, right? So, you have stalling, loss of power. In most cases, technology stops when you have such a failure, and then you go to a degraded emergency mode. So, our concept is to have no degraded emergency mode at all. Okay, you can lose any one of the critical components, including a battery, for example. So, we have four batteries, four power lines, and each powers two opposite motors. So, you can lose a motor, you can lose a flight controller because you can lose a battery. In any one of those critical events, you will be notified that you are in an emergency, but you don't have to change the way you operate the aircraft. Now you will be prompted to land immediately because it's the first failure. And if you don't land, it will land itself. But it's a whole different story than general aviation where you have an emergency mode which is different from the regular mode of operation.
Q. This is quite a level of redundancy that's never been seen before in General Aviation, I would imagine the FAA is very receptive.
A. The FAA is very receptive. They like the fact that we address all the problems, not for the standard, but for the safety concept. So, we have a safety concept, which I said before is about not letting the operator take care of the deficiencies of the system, the system is inherently very self-preserving.
Q. Many in this arena are going in a couple of different directions. Either they're outsourcing the eVTOL drivetrain components, or some are actually developing their components by going vertically integrated from the ground up such as Beta with all their motors, etc. Where are you in that development phase? Are you using outside suppliers?
A. So, we are on the path of least resistance. You know, when you put a lot of innovation together, you multiply probabilities. And this goes only one way, down. So, I don't think it's a huge mistake on Beta's part, and Joby and so forth. I think that the hurdles that they face that are anticipated on their route are large, and having enough funding, and enough timeframe, it's doable. I think that when you have such a new thing, the operator, the public, the insurer, and also the regulator needs to grow in confidence and you grow in confidence from the bottom up. You don't start with an Airbus A380. You start with a small aircraft, you prove viability, in numbers in the air, not in simulation. And then we move to the bigger stuff. We are the stepping stones we see. Most of our components, the vast majority of our components are off the shelf, of course, modified to our specifications, but we look for things with a proven track record as much as possible. Okay, so the flight control system is completely patented for us, it's ours, so this is something we built. But the batteries are cells off the shelf being integrated by known battery manufacturers.
Q. Speaking of batteries, Co-occurring with this event The North American International Auto Show is the EvTechExpo not too far from here up in Novi Michigan. Are you planning on attending to look at some of the potential higher energy density batteries that may be on display?
A. No, I'm trying to be boring. Okay, I'm trying to innovate on the aircraft. Having this as it is, with no innovation inside, is an innovation by itself. And it's a big step for mankind to take. I'm waiting for others to prove things. So, I'm using cells, which are already proven. Now, if somebody comes to me with something, which has been proven for a long period of time, with real statistics, not in a simulation, I'll put it in tomorrow morning. So, we wait for others to mature the technology and then use it.
Q. Very good. I was talking to one of your teammates, and he noted you are currently test-flying in an unmanned mode. My question is, with the canopy, the forward visibility pane, and the fact you are probably test-flying with onboard cameras, are you getting a sense as to the amount of visibility that this design has?
A. First of all, we are investing a huge amount of time and effort in the user experience and safety. We have other mockups at the office where we test moving mockups. And yes, we have superb visibility. We are also compensating for places you don't see with sensors. So, we have some LIDAR cameras, analyzing everything down to the power lines. We have, for example, landing site selection and semi-automation, so if you're trying to land somewhere there is a boulder or a wire, you will be prompted.
Q. With your desire to use existing technologies and not go vertically integrated, can you discuss your cockpit suite and what vendors you may have partnered with?
A. We are in commercial agreement with one of the known small American aviation suppliers. We have some cockpits already assembled at the office. Again, we're trying to buy off the shelf, where people have done it. These suppliers have debugged it for decades in some cases. So yes, we are locked in on avionics.
Q. Very good, I thank you for your time, Sir.
A. Thank you. Thank you very much.