To record this week's Cleaning Up Podcast, with Anders Forslund, CEO of Heart Aerospace, I took a trip to Los Angeles.
It's 350 miles from my home to his office, and in Europe or China that would be the kind of trip you'd take on a train but not in the USA - unless you have 10 hours to spare and don't mind what time you arrive.
The other options are drive, take a bus or fly. In the end I opted for the bus (6hrs) on the outward leg and then flew back (1.5hrs) which turned out to be a lucky decision as while I was there a new wildfire started, closing the main northbound Highway.
Meeting Anders further confirmed my belief that being able to fly is one of humanity's crowning achievements. If we can just regain the spirit of innovation that was once, many decades ago, a defining feature of the sector - we can get to a world where flying has minimal environmental and social impact and becomes cheap enough to offer the kind of accessible service buses provide to people today.
After all, in terms of resources, roads (and rails for that matter) require a lot more space and materials to build and maintain than two short runways. And in the USA, according to a NASA study, 98% of the population live within 20 miles of one of the existing 5,000 regional airports.
And it's electricity, rather than alternative fuels, that promise to make flying affordable — offering in green industry jargon, the prospect of a 'negative green premium', i.e. being cheaper than the status quo.
A key restraining factor on this vision is currently the ratio of weight to energy stored in batteries. But by adding a standard fuel-based, range extending system, this can already be overcome, allowing the Heart design to transport 30 passengers to up to 800 kms. And with breakthroughs in battery technology, and other efficiencies, these capabilities will definitely extend over time.
So you can see why companies like United Airlines and investors like Bill Gates have backed Heart Aerospace. The question is, in today's political, regulatory and economic environment, can Anders iterate quickly and scale his company to mass produce sustainable planes?
The USA has a storied history in aerospace — I truly hope it can help Anders, and all the other aviation innovators, make flying great again ❤️
Listen to the full episode on YouTube, or your favourite podcast platform. Find a transcript at cleaningup.live.