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00:04 Are you ready to never sit in traffic again?
00:08 Because instead you can just hop in a flying air taxi and zip across town.
00:13 It is real, it is coming, it is just the beginning of advanced air mobility.
00:19 And that is changing the way that we are using the skies and
00:22 making flying a whole lot more energy efficient too.
00:25 Taylor Albrecht of Honeywell told me more.
00:28 Taylor, when I hear the phrase advanced air mobility, I start to think real
00:33 futuristic stuff, I'm picturing me zipping around like the Jetsons.
00:36 But what are we actually talking about when we talk about advanced air mobility?
00:41 >> Yeah, Jason, that's a great place to start,
00:43 just to think about definitionally what is advanced air mobility.
00:48 And if we go to the FAA, they have a pretty good definition there.
00:51 And they say advanced air mobility is a rapidly emerging new sector
00:56 of the aerospace industry, which aims to safely and
00:59 efficiently integrate highly automated aircraft into the national airspace.
01:04 So advanced air mobility is not a single technology, but it's a collection of new
01:08 and emerging technologies that we're going to apply to the aviation
01:12 transportation system with new and retrofits to existing aircraft.
01:16 >> So what does that look like?
01:17 What kind of new technologies are we talking about here?
01:20 >> So here we're talking about autonomous drones, and
01:22 typically those are associated with moving goods or monitoring or inspection or
01:28 surveillance.
01:29 You're talking about UAM, which is urban air mobility.
01:34 And as you mentioned, this is where we're talking about air taxis for people.
01:39 So in between cities, so it's intercity, but it's also intracity.
01:45 And the way we think about that here at Honeywell is we have a vision where you
01:49 could take a 100 mile journey door to door in 45 minutes or less.
01:54 >> That's really fascinating.
01:55 So really what you're talking about here are new ways of moving around through
01:59 the air with things that we don't currently have like air taxis,
02:02 basically the Jetsons.
02:04 And then also changing the existing air transportation structures that we have
02:11 with new kinds of planes or at least changes to the ways that our planes
02:15 are currently designed.
02:16 And what are the benefits of all these?
02:19 >> So these benefits really come from a major driver,
02:23 which is more sustainable forms of propulsion.
02:26 So the four benefits are lower noise, higher safety,
02:34 lower cost, and greener operations.
02:36 >> Taylor, as you're describing these technologies,
02:39 I'm thinking some of this stuff sounds familiar for right now.
02:43 For example, drone deliveries exist, although regulations often mean that
02:49 I can't get my packages dropped by a drone to my door, but maybe that'll change.
02:53 And then you're also talking about things like air taxis,
02:56 aka the Jetsons zipping around town.
02:58 And then also airplanes with no pilots, that sounds very futuristic.
03:02 So what kind of timeline are we talking about here and
03:05 what of these technologies actually exist right now?
03:08 >> It's really interesting when we start to break down what autonomy looks like.
03:14 And I would give you an example that I think we can all relate to,
03:18 is at home you have a washing machine, right?
03:22 And we're going to try to differentiate automation from autonomy.
03:26 You put your clothes in the washing machine, you add some detergent,
03:30 you select a cycle, you press go, right?
03:32 The washing machine does some magic, your clothes come out clean,
03:36 the same every time, that's perfect automation.
03:39 But think about a washing machine where we add sensors to it.
03:43 It knows what color your clothes are and how dirty they are, right?
03:47 It decides how much soap it needs to add, what cycle it needs to run, right?
03:51 There would be elements of autonomy in there, but
03:53 which one of those sensors or decisions really changes?
03:57 I think that's a hard line to draw.
03:59 So we're not talking about a flip the switch to say we go from a full pilot to
04:03 full autonomy.
04:04 We're really talking about moving particular functions and
04:08 decision making from a pilot to the aircraft.
04:12 And at what point you wanna say that's now autonomous,
04:15 I don't think is necessarily relevant.
04:17 We have the ability to offload a lot of human functions to the aircraft today,
04:22 but that won't be done entirely until we can guarantee that an aircraft operating
04:28 itself with an overseer instead of a pilot is going to guarantee to be safer.
04:33 >> What are the challenges that need to be overcome to really
04:37 maximize that sustainability in advanced air mobility?
04:41 >> There are many challenges and
04:42 opportunities here for increasing that sustainability you mentioned.
04:46 I would say going forward, batteries will continue to improve.
04:51 Whether that be with existing or new chemistries,
04:54 I think we're familiar with lithium ion batteries, right?
04:57 There's other ways of building batteries that have pros and cons.
05:01 And we want to maximize energy density and power density to find that
05:05 right combination of battery for the advanced air mobility market.
05:09 As of today, that's one of the challenges because the advanced air mobility space
05:15 is really today just repurposing battery cells that have been created for automobiles.
05:20 And as the advanced air mobility market continues to mature,
05:24 I expect that battery technology, even if it's not solely created for
05:28 aerospace applications, at least that'll be a consideration in development.
05:33 So I think that's one of the hurdles today of making sure we have the right
05:37 product for this market.
05:39 >> Well, that feels like a perfect tee off for the thing that I always want to know
05:43 about when talking about new technologies,
05:46 which is what are the opportunities available for entrepreneurs?
05:50 Is this a space where there is a lot of entrepreneurial activity and
05:53 opportunity to take part in developing the future of air travel?
05:58 >> There absolutely is, right?
06:00 When you talk about creating a new market, right?
06:03 And in this case, we're talking about a new market for transportation, for
06:07 movement of people and goods.
06:09 There are many different places ripe for entrepreneurs to come into the space.
06:13 With the caveat that this is a highly regulated space, right?
06:17 So working with the authorities and understanding regulations and
06:21 how the FAA or its counterparts like EASA put into place the requirements for
06:27 building a vehicle and operating a vehicle.
06:30 But if we think about that entire value chain, right?
06:33 It starts with the suppliers.
06:35 And as I mentioned, these are new and improvements of existing technologies.
06:40 And that's really right for that entrepreneurial spirit of how do you take
06:44 something we have today and make it smaller, make it lighter,
06:47 make it do more functions, right?
06:49 So there's huge technology advances that are coming out of the supply chain to
06:53 really put state of the art technology on these vehicles.
06:57 >> Well, Taylor, this has been fascinating.
06:58 And here we are talking about advanced air mobility from two totally different
07:02 locations.
07:03 But maybe next time, I can just hop in my Jetson style car and
07:06 zip over to you, which would be so exciting.
07:08 What are some final things that people should be thinking about as they look into
07:13 the future of advanced air mobility?
07:15 >> Yeah, Jason, this has been great.
07:17 I would just end with the thought that even in the last few years,
07:21 we've made leaps and bounds in this advanced air mobility space.
07:25 We've really passed the point of will this happen?
07:29 So it's now not a matter of if, but a matter of when.
07:33 This is a space that I see growing exponentially after entry into service.
07:37 And it's going to be created in an equitable way that allows more people
07:41 to benefit from it.
07:43 So this is an exciting time.
07:44 It's an amazing time to be a part of this space, to be in aerospace,
07:48 to be able to materially and positively impact people's lives in such a personal
07:53 way.
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