With the relaunch of JulietBravoFox Media, we’ve captured back a bit more time to volunteer with the aviation missions closest to our hearts. Day Two at AirVenture was filled with meet-ups for two key groups: the Recreational Aviation Foundation and LightHawk.
We kicked off the day with doughnuts and coffee and good times with our fellow RAF volunteers on the top of the Hartzell booth, with a great view of the main aircraft display. Pete Bunce of GAMA honored a couple of special contributors, and then we went on a walk to take photos of the orange RAF gaggle at sponsors’ exhibits around the show: Redbird Flight Simulations, Daher, and Aviat.
Next, we had a gathering of LightHawk volunteer pilots, of which Julie just became one—along with the contribution of Stephen’s photography. We met at the Textron Aviation booth, hosted by board chairman Steve Kent. We shared our latest missions and took a tour of the Cessna, Beech, and Pipistrel aircraft on display.
Our evening capped off with two parties celebrating community: AOPA’s 85th anniversary bash at The Waters, and the Pilatus/Piper Block Party, where we met up with old friends.
Doughnuts and coffee and camaraderie celebrate the Hartzell rooftop gathering of volunteers with the Recreational Aviation Foundation. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Stephen and Julie met up with fellow LightHawk volunteer pilots at the Textron Aviation exhibit, sharing stories with friends old and new. [Credit: Julie Boatman]AOPA brough New Glarus on tap for its 85th anniversary party at the Waters. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Pilatus and Piper hosted their annual “block party” showing that even competitors find community at Oshkosh. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
This year’s EAA AirVenture launched with a relentless lineup of press conferences and events impossible for one person to cover—so it’s great to have a team here!
We started off with the Cirrus presser and Todd Simmons gave his characteristically enthusiastic run down of the company’s recent success—and the 10,000th SR and 500th Vision Jet are on display here at the show.
Daher’s Nicolas Chabbert introduced the Multi-Mission Kodiak 900 with its truly dynamic paint scheme to show off the company’s new paint facility in Sandpoint. Chabbert gave the mike to CEO and group chair Didier Kayat for his update, then introduced the interns for 2024—one from the US, one from Canada, and two from France.
The EAGLE initiative delivered a detailed update—and raised a lot of questions. More on this in an in depth edition of #JustJuliesTakes later this week.
Todd Simmons heads up the customer experience team at Cirrus. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Nicolas Chabbert, CEO of Daher’s Aircraft Division, introduces the 2024 interns in the company’s program with GAMA. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The EAGLE update on unleaded fuel for GA sparked a lot of questions from the crowd. [Credit: Julie Boatman]EAA Chairman and CEO Jack Pelton and Director of Coms Dick Knapinski kick off AirVenture with a big lineup and lots of folks flying in. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
We cruised in 24 hours ago, and that first day at EAA AirVenture 2024 has filled up with friends, and tents, and requisitioning from the local commisaries: Columbia Outlet, Kwik Trip, Mills Fleet Farm, and Festival Foods.
We start the business end of our stay in an hour, and I’ll plan to share my #JustJuliesTakes from each day of the show. But for now, I’ll leave you with a quartet of images that capture today’s day of active rest in the Oshkosh Bubble.
You can adorn your airplane any way you want in the North 40. [Credit: Julie Boatman]The first beer of Oshkosh 2024 has to be to local favorite, Spotted Cow from New Glarus. [Credit: Julie Boatman]A full moon rises over the V-tail Bo… is it a Tomato Moon? [Credit: Julie Boatman]Sunday morning from the campsite breaks with a soft sunrise. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Simplified flight controls have been on my mind of late. Triggered this week by a conversation with Nikita Ermoshkin, founder of Airhart, and past ones with various flight control engineers and pilots at Dassault, Embraer, and Gulfstream, translating aileron, elevator, and rudder input into a single joystick control won’t just be for bizjets and F35s.
Airhart began proving its model in a Van’s RV-12, and now a Sling E-LSA. Joby’s flight control system takes it a step further by incorporating VTOL flight requirements into a speed control (set it and forget it) and a side stick. Could creating an ease of flight for the average person finally make possible the increase in aircraft production necessary to reduce its overall cost? We’re quickly approaching this first transformational point.
At the same time, another sea change approaches. While Joby builds toward its first certificated eVTOL using electric motors and battery packs charged through currently available ground based sources (renewable or not), it is working concurrently on a hybrid-electric model fueled by liquid hydrogen. In fact, it flew one of its remotely piloted test articles (with a power system developed by H2FLY) in the vicinity of the Marina Airport in California for an eye popping 523 statute miles during a flight time of four hours, 47 minutes. The intention? To prove the viability of the next version for regional transportation, not just the 50-to-100-mile hops planned for the all-electric model.
“Rather than just connecting metropolitan areas, we’re able to connect between metropolitan areas,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby, in a technology roundtable hosted by Joby virtually on July 17. “We think this is another game-changing technology.”
“It’s just a glimpse as to what the power of this platform is,” said Eric Allison, Joby’s chief product officer, in the same discussion.
Hydrogen-fueled flight compels in spite of the challenges to contain it because it is so energy dense, and leaves only water vapor behind. Putting this power into Joby’s platform would actually make possible the timeline for achieving net-zero carbon emissions in aviation by 2050. A second key element.
The third? The ability to bring these aircraft into our neighborhoods because of the substantial reduction in noise they produce as compared to a piston airplane, let alone a helicopter. Ever been surprised by a Tesla sneaking up on you? That’s the relative quiet of Joby’s first production model, based on both their objective noise reporting and my impression of it standing on the ramp at Marina about 100 feet away.
Ease of flight control. Hydrogen power. Big noise reduction. The intersection of these three elements lies just ahead, if Joby makes good on its efforts.
“I want to frame this moment in time as one of the most exciting times in aviation,” said Bevirt. I happen to agree.
Joby also recently announced plans for a large flight training facility in Watsonville, so I asked Bevirt and Allison: Is the plan to continue with the original piloted version to be first to market, with an autonomous version to follow, given the acquisition of the Xwing autonomous platform development business?
“We are laser-focused on bringing a piloted eVTOL aircraft to market, and are establishing pilot training facilities, curricula, and simulators to support the introduction of that aircraft to markets around the globe,” Joby’s team replied after the roundtable.
“Xwing’s comprehensive approach, and expertise in perception technology, system integration and certification, is expected to benefit both near-term piloted operations for Joby as well as fully autonomous operations in the future.“
Joby’s plan has long been to apply autonomous versions of its aircraft to the air taxi market once the concepts underpinning them are proven operationally. So the Xwing acquisition, along with the recent announcement of ElevateOS, Joby’s customer interface, feel timely.
We’re not quite ready for autonomous flight. But more than ever, we can see it from here.
The wind picked up white tips on the wave tops below, little cirrus wisps on a teal-blue field.
Turning south to parallel the Atlantic coast down from Rehoboth Beach, we made good on a promise I’d made myself 4 years ago when we first flew with LightHawk for a story for Flying magazine.
With the pivot to our own business this spring, I saw clearly the gift of time we could now dedicate to volunteering for several aviation organizations near to my heart: the Recreational Aviation Foundation, the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators, and LightHawk. I could spend meaningful time with each, and give purpose to my flying as well as collaborate with some of my favorite folks in the aviation family.
I went through the process to become a LightHawk volunteer pilot (VP), a series of interviews and reflection on my experience, as well as recommendations from key folks I’d flown with the in past. They set a minimum total time of 1,000 hours PIC for a reason: The flights typically involve carrying non-aviation passengers and photographers. The flights may also follow routing at low level and/or in congested airspace, or in varying terrain for the sake of capturing a broad breadth of the natural resources we collectively seek to protect.
Our first mission would just involve Stephen and I, capturing a couple hours’ worth of video of the high tide at the end of June along Maryland’s Atlantic coast and around the Delmarva Peninsula into the Chesapeake Bay. LightHawk will add the reels to their archives, and use them to compare to similar footage to be collected during the King Tides in September. We’d fly our friend Bobbie’s Cessna 182, the perfect steed for this, and test out a couple of new GoPro mounts along the way. It was an ideal one to start for us.
But it wasn’t without its complications. We’d need good VFR weather—no low coastal clouds, and no convection down low bumping us around. We’d also need to navigate the special use airspace peppering the Bay and the southern tip of the peninsula. The length of the mission would stretch our legs (but not the 182’s, with its nearly 6 hours endurance), and the afternoon timing meant we would be flying in the hottest part of the day.
We chose our day: Saturday, June 29. We had to wait for the weather to clear off on the peninsula, and some last-minute fiddling with the tiedown-ring mount on the wing meant we got off a little later than hoped. We’d still make the coast by a few minutes after the high tide mark, but we’d be an hour past that by the time we got to the bay side. C’est la vie! We’d capture what we could and take lessons learned for the next time.
However, we completely lucked out when it came to airspace: the summer weekend with the DC and Delaware areas quiet as far as VIP movements (read TFRs) nixed the one centered on KILG that would have affected the northern part of our route. And, the closed tower at Wallops and cold restricted areas throughout the bay meant we could fly out straight over Aberdeen, down the coast past Chincoteague, cut across the tip as needed, and back up the other side.
We even managed a Class B clearance just north of BWI on the return, giving us a clear view of the Key Bridge (or its remnants) and our best shot at making it back to KHGR before the thunderstorms came over the mountains from the west. Many thanks to those nameless folks at Potomac, Dover, and Patuxent Approach for your help and creative suggestions.
The remote control on the wing mount worked, as we found coming over KGED, and a glareshield mounted GoPro as a backup worked well too. Stephen ran video on his iPhone for triple redundancy. We’re now in the tedious process of uploading all of the footage to LightHawk for their review and consideration.
Regardless of that outcome, we’re calling the mission a success. We clocked 4.1 hours on the Hobbs, and got the airplane back in the hangar before the rain began at the surface.
I figure we managed to generate all four of the “happy chemicals” a person needs to lift their spirits: dopamine (achieving a goal); serotonin (being above nature); oxytocin (helping others); and endorphin (being creative).
LightHawk is in the midst of its #50in50Challenge to launch 50 flights in the 50 days starting from June 15. If you’re interested in becoming a LightHawk VP, check it out here.
Crossing the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay just south of Aberdeen. [Credit: Julie Boatman]Flying out to the coast near Rehoboth Beach [Credit: Julie Boatman]Turning south towards Chincoteague [Credit: Julie Boatman]Patterns on the shoals and waves below [Credit: Julie Boatman]Capturing the wetlands along the coast [Credit: Julie Boatman]A wing view out to the water [Credit: Julie Boatman]The town of Chincoteague and the seashore below [Credit: Julie Boatman]Passing the Cape Charles VOR to the bay side [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but LinkedIn recently launched a new feature on its feed, “AI-powered takeaways” accessible to subscribers to the LI Premium product.
If they’re honestly trying to get me to re-up Premium, this is not going to do it. Here’s why.
These AI-generated prompts key off of the text of certain LI posts, and posit “reasonable” questions to ask, presumably to further one’s knowledge of the subject at hand.
While a handful come off ok, it’s typically only when they address very broad topics, or very basic questions—certainly not the kinds of questions I would need any kind of background to figure out for myself.
And often I find them completely, well, inane.
For a Friday afternoon laugh, check these out from this week…
The spark of the idea took place more than two years ago—the concept that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association could organize and execute a mass formation flight over the nation’s most restricted airspace. In commemoration of its 85th birthday, the association did just that, with the “National Celebration of General Aviation DC Flyover” on May 11.
A strung-out gaggle of 54 aircraft—cached in eras and genres from the most classic Beech Staggerwing to the recently debuted Piper M700 Fury—launched from the Frederick Municipal Airport (KFDK) starting at 11:38 a.m. They flew in a distinct trail straight to the heart of Washington, D.C., into the Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ) and through prohibited area P-56 overlaying the National Mall. They took three routes back to Frederick and landed without a hitch.
A secure area had been established on the flight line, with all pilots vetted by the Secret Service and put through extensive background checks. Most aircraft carried at least two people, also having gone through preliminary and on-site TSA screening. I took up friends on the invitation to watch from their hangar near the flight line, and we positioned the golf cart with a good view of the runway—as close as we could get.
The spectacle alone—and the formation logistics—would be worth a round of applause. Just to have 54 aircraft show up and fly, and have the weather completely cooperate, made it a banner day. But after a few days’ reflection, I can’t help but say it goes much further than that.
A number of GA classics, like this 1944 DGA-15P Howard, joined the aerial parade. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
For someone who was working at AOPA on September 11, 2001 (like me), to watch nearly 23 years later a string of former colleagues and friends from around the country fly right into the heart of the “no-fly zone” that has existed ever since that awful day….well, it made me realize what is possible. It took a lot of “trust but verify” to put 54 GA aircraft into that string of pearls—but with concerted effort and the integrity of those making the “ask,” it came to pass.
We’re celebrating another anniversary this year: 30 years since the General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA) was passed, paving the way for the restart of GA aircraft production by Cessna, Piper, Beech, and others. A tip of the hat to Russ Meyer (former president and CEO of Cessna) and Ed Stimpson (then president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association) for figuring out the way to make that bill a reality. A “post restart” Cessna 172 took its place in the Flyover—not the fanciest airplane on the lineup, but one of the most poignant.
This week we also saw an amazingly bipartisan effort to pass the FAA Reauthorization bill so desperately needed to free the gridlock in bureaucracy and funding to keep the FAA running. That will support not only those GA manufacturers now producing 4,090 aircraft in 2023, but also the pilots, airports, and technological advances like unleaded fuel that are critical to a healthy GA ecosystem. This time, it also produces a title for general aviation, preserving its seat at the table, for the first time in a bill. And rare for the current state of affairs in Washington, both parties came together to pass the bill through Congress and to the president. It’s still possible to collaborate across the aisle.
And so much more is possible if we keep working together, dreaming big dreams, and innovating our way to solutions. My friend Carlo flew the Hatz biplane he built in his hangar at Frederick past the Washington Monument, the White House, and over the top of DCA on a sunny Saturday in May. You just never know where GA can take you when you believe, and you put in the effort to make it happen.
The open-hangar lunch let us linger after the formations returned. [Credit: Julie Boatman]
Just before the monthly Washington Aero Club luncheon—hosted by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)—kicked off on Thursday, I was chatting with two members of of the general media whom I had not yet met. One represented Bloomberg’s tax-related publications and was relatively new to the beat. The other reported for the Wall Street Journal’s general business coverage, and had not delved much into private aviation (aside from a stint sitting next to Jon Ostrower while he was still at the WSJ, from whom he said he soaked up aerospace insight like a sponge).
The pair each echoed in their own words the fact they had been invited to a panel on sustainability in business aviation—yet before that moment, had no idea that those flying BA had any desire to act sustainably. “I had no idea anyone flying private jets cared,” was the consensus.
I know in theory how true it is that we often preach to our own choir in BA/GA, but once more I was slapped in the face with proof.
First, kudos to NBAA for bringing these two reporters from the general media (among others) into a room where they would hear an up-to-date and frank accounting from three leaders in our space that sit at the tip of the sustainability spear: Michael Amalfitano, president and CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, Billy Nolen, former deputy FAA Administrator and chief regulatory affairs officer for Archer Aviation, and Scott Lewis, president of World Energy (WE) SupplyZero, one of the largest producers of sustainable aviation fuel in the United States and globally.
In summary, here’s where we are in terms of the three pillars remarked upon by Amalfitano, Nolen, and Lewis—and underlined by moderator Ed Bolen of NBAA:
Commitment from the Manufacturers: Embraer now uptakes weekly the volume of SAF it had delivered quarterly in 2023. Amalfitano noted the Brazilian OEM had tested to 100 percent—”neat”—SAF in its Phenom 300 and Praetor 600, and that it uses the fuel in various blends for test flight, demos, and customer deliveries. “That will allow us to increase what was a low mid-single-digit consumption of SAF to 20 to 25 percent of what we do out of Melbourne” in 2024, he said. Embraer has cooperated with its engine OEM partners, including Honeywell, through the process.
Legislative Synergy for Sourcing and Distribution: Lewis outlined how WE SupplyZero is growing volume at the best rate possible, producing SAF derived from animal fats and used cooking oil. “We are employing latest technology that’s available right now in order to take that up from where we are today,” said Lewis. “About 4,000 barrels a day, of which about 1,000 barrels is sustainable aviation fuel, up to 25,000 barrels a day, of which 20,000 barrels is sustainable aviation fuel.” WE is also working on a pipeline that will deliver from its main terminal in the Los Angeles area (and soon to come in Houston), in order to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the SAF, so that its benefit is not just zero emissions from aircraft exhaust, but through the entire chain. Leaders in the audience noted the passing of the most recent agriculture funding bill in synergy with the last infrastructure funding bills and FAA Reauthorization Act to support biodiesel production in the U.S. The Biden Administration has challenged the industry to produce 3 billion gallons per year of SAF by 2030.
Advanced Air Mobility Goes Electric: Along with Amalfitano, who outlined Embraer’s electric push with its stake in Eve (an electric VTOL), Nolen reported on Archer’s leadership in bringing a viable eVTOL to market, with the regulatory basis established, airline partnerships in play, and a roadmap to infrastructure to support the accelerated development. He brought up another key feature of moving eventually to electric power: the quiet needed to fly within residential communities. “How have we gotten to this point?” said Nolen. “Three critical things have happened. Number one, battery cell technology has gotten us to the point that we have…the carrying capacity. Number two, the FAA has given us a regulatory path to get there. And number three, we’ve had the level of federal investment which, in turn, has unlocked the financial investment.”
All three areas will be required to maintain at least the current pace—and accelerate—in order to continue what BA has managed to accomplish in increased efficiency over the course of the last 40 years. Because the 30 percent greater efficiency gains that we have seen with each new bizjet model over that timeframe aren’t going to be enough to cover the spread in the future.
AERO filled its 12 halls with an electric energy, notable on the light end of the market.
And this makes sense, because the show’s DNA lies in ultralights, gliders, balloons, training airplanes—even remote-control models.
Now it has logged 30 “flights,” so to speak, running back to 1977 when it was part of a regional motorsports exhibition, and happening every other year until it became an annual event in a few years back, with a pause for two years for COVID.
When SOCATA first put its TBM 700 prototype on display in 1994, it helped introduce higher-end personal and business aviation into the show. With the presence of Pilatus, Cessna and Beechcraft (now Textron Aviation) in the 2000s, and now Gulfstream with its G500 on display this year—it indicates the importance of this growing B2B show in the marketplace for turboprops and jets.
These aircraft must also meet the industry’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050—and interim targets won’t likely be met by pure electric aircraft or those that run on hydrogen.
While Safran’s ENGINeUS motors gain in kWs (and equivalent horsepower) and power storage hits the 800-kW level, our brightest minds still don’t have a good way to translate that power into speed and range—and do it safely.
Case in point: Daher’s EcoPulse project, which places six Safran motors in distributed positions on its TBM-based wings powered via an Airbus storage system—but keeps a Pratt & Whitney PT6A-66D up front. Judging by the flight test profiles I talked about with Daher’s head of design, Christophe Robin, the project is working through a host of problem sets, and it won’t present as a marketable product. In SVP of aircraft Nicolas Chabbert’s update at Sun ’n Fun, and again at AERO, he noted the need to craft a salable solution that would likely look nothing like it. There are constraints and issues associated with flying around carrying that amount of battery power and distributing it safely in an airplane’s joint “cardiovascular” and “nervous” systems that still need sorting through.
Whatever they bring to the table, it won’t be flying on pure electrical power—not to make their self-imposed target date of 2027. And that makes a lot of sense. In talking with Tine Tomažič of Pipistrel, he explained that to get the speed and range you need for a good cross-country mount (such as Pipistrel’s Panthera design), you need the hybrid route for the near future. The battery tech just isn’t there yet.
So we need to keep those turbines running—and on a zero-emission fuel as soon as we can. Pressure looms larger in Europe to meet net-zero goals before 2050. While we didn’t see any protests at AERO from the general public, the specter of them loomed as we headed to Munich for our flight back across the pond. The industry is working diligently towards getting sustainable aviation fuel to the users who have vowed to adopt it—so they can keep projects like the hybrid Panthera and the EcoPulse innovating towards the future.
The way to do this is not to syphon off all the SAF to the airlines at major airports like Amsterdam’s Schipol and Paris-Orly. We can adopt book and claim practices to help offset high prices and availability of SAF to the 2,000 or so airports in the EU that business aviation uses.
And we can support the development of alternative bio sources for SAF that help increase its volume overall. Projects like Gevo’s intrigue me as cradle-to cradle solutions for utilizing biowaste on a large enough scale to make more than a drop in the bucket.
And biz av should have primary access to it first—because this is where the skunk works live and thrive.
Day Two at AERO: If you’re not innovating in this space, you’re not doing it right.
Just from the lineup of press conferences on Wednesday, you can sense the bench depth and range of the companies showing off their latest—and those are just the projects they’re ready to talk about:
🟦 Elixir’s two-seat trainers are produced with One Shot composites for low parts count, and low operating cost. 🟥 Daher’s Eco-Pulse has logged 14 “e flights” on its Safran-powered wings, completing noise tests and flying through Phase 3/4. 🟩 Tecnam’s P2006NG reduces training costs, consuming just 14 liters/hour in fuel, and reducing emissions by 70 percent. ⬛️ Cirrus’s SR G7 re-envisions the flight deck using Garmin Perspective+ to simplify the pilot-airplane interface. 🟧 Bell’s 505 hosts the Garmin G600H autopilot, greatly assisting the pilot into hover and other regimes. ⬜️ Diamond’s eDA40 has begun flight testing powered by its Safran ENGINeUS motor. 🟪 Textron Aviation’s service center network has achieved recert from NATA as a Green Aviation Business.
A full day—and that’s just scratching the surface. More to come today as we meet with innovators across the 12 halls and static display…
