Keith Mason heads the Centre for Air Transport Management at Cranfield University, in the UK, one of the world’s top, if not THE top, education centers for aviation studies. Professionals from all over the world head to this educational establishment in the middle of England to learn, research and breathe aviation. Cranfield University offers graduate degrees covering both the technical and business sides of aviation and it is also heavily involved in some of the most cutting edge research progr...
Jun 26, 2022
Australian startup Avation H2 is working on an ammonia-powered aircraft. On this episode of the podcast, its co-founder and director, Helmut Mayer, joins us to share the details of this project and discuss the prospects of ammonia as a potential aviation fuel of the future!
Jun 17, 2022
TIACA is the International Air Cargo Association, an organization that gathers many of the global players in this industry. We are talking, literally, about keeping the world’s economy running, no small feat at a time, like now, of severe supply chain constraints. This is no excuse, however, for the industry to shy away from meeting certain environmental and social standards that can help make the world a better place. This is why TIACA recently launched BlueSky, a programme for every operator i...
Jun 13, 2022
Did you know that the first NFT airline ticket ever minted attracted bids worth over $1M at auction? This was a special ticket minted for Air Europa, a Spanish airline that is issuing 10 special NFTickets to fly people from Madrid to Art Miami this coming Autumn. But besides the hype and the catchy headlines, blockchain technology has several potentially disruptive uses in the air travel sector, of which we are just starting to scratch the surface. Facundo Diaz is the co-founder of TravelX, a bl...
Jun 06, 2022
Think of an aircraft as a blank, giant, 3D canvas, a space for creative expression… The livery is an essential part of any airline’s branding, in fact you may be able to argue what comes first, whether the livery or the corporate branding…this is one of the aspects of airline livery design that we discuss with our guest today. Edmond Huot is Chief Creative Officer at Allforward, a media and marketing agency based in New York City. He’s been in charge of the branding and livery design for Norther...
May 04, 2022
Zvi Schreiber is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Freightos a digital platform that facilitates the booking of air cargo shipments. The idea for Freightos came up a few years ago when Zvi was managing a hardware firm that had to ship stuff from Asia to Europe and America and realized then that the process was far from smooth. When it comes to digitalization, the air cargo industry has lagged behind its passenger-carrying counterpart and this is precisely what Freightos and its Webcargo unit ...
Apr 06, 2022
In the third episode of our airline software series, produced in collaboration with SITA for Aircraft, we explore a topic that may sound familiar to the many of you that enjoy spending some time using flight tracking applications. It is paradoxical that, in an era in which you can monitor air traffic at any time of day or night at the tip of a click from your laptop or your phone screens, not all aircraft are tracked at all time when in flight. The tragic disappearance of the flight MH370 in 201...
Mar 27, 2022
Within the world of executive aviation, there is an even more exclusive world, that of the large and very large business jets, airliners that have been converted for VIP roles. A leader in this very unique space, Comlux is a Swiss-based firm that operates from trading large executive jets, to operating them on behalf of its customers, to taking care of all necessary work for cabin design and fitting. It is not an exaggeration to say that some of the most luxurious aircraft currently operating in...
Mar 23, 2022
Today we continue exploring the key role that existing technology, and software in particular, can play in making aviation more sustainable and, generally speaking, more efficient. In the second episode of this 4-part series produced in collaboration with SITA for Aircraft, François Chazelle, will explain how, as chief commercial officer of Safety Line, a French startup acquired by SITA in 2021, he helped develop a family of software solutions that crunch large amounts of data from multiple sour...
Mar 21, 2022
Airflow is a Californian startup has been racking orders for its 9-seater eSTOL aircraft, including in its amphibious version! So, I’ve invited its founder and CEO, Marc Ausman, to the podcast to share some insights about this very promising model and its market perspectives. Marc is a former US Navy pilot turned entrepreneur. He built and sold an aerospace technology company and has been involved in a number of other innovative projects in the field of telecoms and aviation. He was also chief s...
Mar 15, 2022
Feb 20, 2022
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 energ...
Feb 15, 2022
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 th...
Feb 03, 2022
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 Ho...
Jan 07, 2022
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 curre...
Dec 23, 2021
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 powe...
Dec 15, 2021
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 e...
Dec 09, 2021
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 d...
Dec 08, 2021
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...
Oct 11, 2021
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 fue...
Sep 30, 2021
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 v...
Sep 23, 2021
Things we talk about in this episode: -The historical background of aviation in the Balkans: -How Serbia had one of the first airlines in the world -The interesting story of JAT, Yugoslavia’s national airline during the Cold War -The breakup of Yugoslavia and JAT’s successor airlines -How Air Serbia reinvented itself after a deal between Etihad and the Serbian government -Why is it so difficult for national airlines to thrive in the region -The role of low cost carriers in the Balkans -Air traff...
Jun 09, 2021
Californian battery startup Cuberg made headlines in March 2021 when it was announced that it has been acquired by Northvolt, the large battery manufacturer from Sweden. What did Northvolt see in Cuberg? Mainly the Li-Metal battery technology that Cuberg is developing, that is expected to deliver a 70% performance improvement over the current generation of Li-Ion batteries. This makes of the batteries that Cuberg is currently developing particularly interesting for the nascent electric aviation ...
Jun 04, 2021
Things we talk about in this episode: -What is Falcon Electric Aviation -How a student-team developed this project -Who supports Falcon EA -What are the next stages ahead for the Falcon Electric Aviation Team
May 13, 2021
Things we talk about in this episode: -Maria’s background and her projects in sustainable aviation -Making sense of the Swedish and Nordic sustainable aviation landscape -Sustainable Aviation Fuel in Sweden: What is Flygreenfund? -Electric Aviation in the Nordics: which programmes and initiatives are there? -Why the Nordics are particularly suited to lead in green aviation -The role of Scandinavia in the sustainable aviation movement
May 04, 2021
Roei’s background and trajectory in the aviation industry The story of magniX: how this Australian startup moved to the US to become a leader in electric propulsion The different green flight projects that magniX is involved in How magniX motors powered the first ever all-electric commercial flight The new era of innovation in aviation France’s ban on short haul flights and how this affects green aviation Eviation Alice’s and its expected first flight How magniX works with electric flight innova...
Apr 20, 2021
Things we talk about in this episode: The story of Dante Aeronautical & David’s work in the aerospace sector The clean-sheet electrical plane Dante Aeronautical designed Why Dante Aeronautical is now focusing on the hybrid-electric retrofit market Dante Aeronautical’s projects involving seaplanes, in Australia and Spain Prospects for commercial electric flight Next milestones for Dante Aeronautical
Mar 27, 2021
Things we talk about in this episode: -The story of PrivateFly -The story of 4Air -Can executive aviation be really sustainable? -How PrivateFly and 4Air work together to offset emissions -How do 4Air’s different tiers of environmental compliance work? -How new propulsion technologies can transform executive aviation -Can executive aviation be a testing ground for new green aviation tech? -Bitcoin and private jets
Mar 22, 2021
How Jeff O’Neill came up with a disruptive idea for a next generation premium economy aircraft seat and crowdfunded its development. The Zephyr seat is a new two-level seat configuration designed for the premium economy class. In this episode Jeff shares his entrepreneurial story and the plans he has for Zephyr seat after having captured the attention of the public, media and investors.
Mar 02, 2021
François Chopard is the founder of Starburst, a startup accelerator and venture fund that specialized in aerospace innovation. From commercial aviation, sustainability, space tech and defence, François’ team reviews thousands of startups every year and backs the most promising ones. Listen to this episode for a conversation on the dynamics of aerospace entrepreneurship and the technology trends that will shape the ways we travel in decades to come.
Feb 18, 2021
