Season 2, episode 24 \u2022 Published 11\/24\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planes contribute 9% of the world\u2019s carbon pollution, but electrifying them has always seemed impossible; batteries have never been powerful or light enough to carry themselves. But in 2023, batteries reached a tipping point in power and weight. Beta Technologies, based in Vermont, is flying its six-passenger vertical-takeoff airplanes every day. David Pogue was there at takeoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Theme begins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everybody knows there\u2019s no such thing as an electric plane. Sure, we\u2019ve got electric cars. <\/em>But you need a lot more power to lift a plane into the air than to just push a car along a road, and batteries are just too heavy. Too bad, \u2018cause planes contribute 9% of the world\u2019s carbon pollution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: People have said from the beginning, \u201cthis is crazy. This doesn\u2019t work.\u201d But every year, batteries get better and better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: So, you think before you and I die, that we will fly on an electric-powered jetliner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Yes, absolutely. No question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, Beta Technologies cut the ribbon on its new factory\u2014<\/em>the first electric-plane plant outside of China\u2014where it will begin manufacturing its six-person, vertical takeoff, all-electric plane\u2014a plane that\u2019s already flown 25,000 miles in testing and racked up orders from UPS, Air New Zealand, and the U.S. military. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m David Pogue. And this is \u201cUnsung Science.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Season two, episode 24: Electric Planes Take Off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s October 2, 2023. I\u2019m at the grand opening of a factory near Burlington, Vermont. Phil Scott, the governor of Vermont, says a few words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SCOTT: As I often brag to my fellow governors across the country, it\u2019s great having this kind of innovation happening right here in our state, right here in Vermont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Bernie Sanders is there, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BERNIE: Who would\u2019ve believed it? In our small state, we are leading the world in helping to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and save the planet. That\u2019s no small thing. (CHEERING & APPLAUSE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This factory is gleaming and white and enormous. We\u2019re talking 200,000 square feet, about three and a half football fields. You know\u2014big. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And parked in the center of this vast, shiny open space, behind the little stage, is the object of all the fuss: An airplane. Gleaming white, super sculpted, super shiny. Its cockpit is a bubble of wraparound glass, and on the top, it has what looks like two pontoons, <\/em>running front to back, each with its own tail fin. We\u2019re told that the whole thing is modeled on the skeleton of an Arctic tern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a propeller in the back to push the plane forward\u2014and on each of those pontoon things are two vertical <\/em>propellers. Yes, this thing can take off and land vertically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet there\u2019s also a traditional airplane wing, 50 feet wide\u2014so it can also <\/em>fly like a regular plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What it does not have\u2014is a fuel tank. This is a six-person, all-electric plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: With cars going electric, marine going electric, locomotives gone hybrid electric, um, aviation is on track by 2035 to be the number one producer of carbon in transportation\u2014unless we do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company is called Beta Technologies, and Kyle Clark is the CEO and founder. The key to all of this, the piece of science that surprises a lot of people, is that batteries have been getting just a little <\/em>bit better every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: And that compounding rate is about 7 percent per year. And about five years ago, six years ago, a bunch of other smart folks at different companies said, \u201cwow, the math is starting to close that the energy density of batteries will enable flight.” And we just crossed the threshold of doing commercially viable flight, which to us means regional flights, flights that are under 500 miles, which is about a third of all flights ,by the way. But every year, batteries get better and better. That means in seven years, we\u2019ll double that. Inanother seven years, we\u2019ll double that again. So the idea that there will be never a airliner that is powered entirely battery electric is hogwash. We keep making batteries better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: So, you think before you and I die that we will fly on an electric powered jet liner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Yes, absolutely. No question. This first introduction will solve the regional airplanes. And then it\u2019ll start looking at planes that go up and down the East Coast and go up and down the West Coast. And then once we solve that in the early 2030s, we get to actually transcontinental planes. And then by 2040, we start going across the Atlantic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: So, how many companies are working on electric planes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: There are 300-plus companies that have identified themselves as working on electric planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Okay. And how many of those are actually flying prototypes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: I think there\u2019s four to five companies that are flying full-scale prototypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: How many are actually carrying people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: To my knowledge, we are the only company that is carrying people for test flights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I gotta tell you: The idea of electric planes really thrills me. For the same reasons I love electric cars. Like, first of all: No emissions, no guilt. Second: They\u2019re super quiet, both inside and outside. Third: The motor has about one-tenth the number of parts as a jet engine, so much more reliable. Fourth: Wayyyyy cheaper to fly, because electricity for a given flight costs maybe one-twentieth as much as jet fuel, or less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also tend to be very sleek and cool and futuristic looking. I should know, because I\u2019ve been reading about electric planes and seeing artist\u2019s mockups for years. But until that day in Vermont, I\u2019d never seen one fly in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: (LAUGH) So there is a big hype cycle involving electric planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: I mean, why is it taking so long to get electric planes flying? You\u2019ve shown that it can be done, but 300 companies, in articles in Popular Mechanics<\/em> for 10 years, and hardly anybody is actually flying them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: My God, give us a break, will you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: So, no. The — the reality is, is that it takes time to introduce new technologies to a highly regulated environment, agree to the standards, and then were certified and then do reams<\/em> of testing. Safety in aviation is exceptionally good right now. Like when was the last time\u2014seven, eight years ago\u2014that there was a fatal commercial aircraft crash?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: There\u2019s an exceptionally high barrier to entry, right? So, it takes time to reach that threshold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What he\u2019s talking about, of course, is the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration is extremely thorough, extremely cautious, with mountains of regulations and requirements. That is why air travel is incredibly safe in the U.S. But it\u2019s also why electric planes are taking so long to get off the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: The FAA has such a high bar of safety that we have to do it right, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re in right now. It\u2019s testing and testing and testing, not the obvious things, but all the different dimensions of potential failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, aerospace is technologically unforgiving. You don\u2019t get to leave something on the table, be wrong. You don\u2019t get to fool Mother Nature when it comes to aerospace. It has to be lightweight, super reliable and high performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if you\u2019ve seen the same YouTube videos and magazine articles and \u201c60 Minutes\u201d stories that I have, you know that the buzzword in electric planes is\u2026 air taxis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n COOPER: If you\u2019ve ever had the fantasy of soaring over bumper-to-bumper traffic in a flying vehicle, that may be possible sooner than you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everybody\u2019s chasing this dream of little tiny, vertical-takeoff plane things that carry just a few people, short distances, like downtown Manhattan to JFK airport. Board your plane on the top of a building! Hop over downtown traffic! Eliminate congestion! <\/p>\n\n\n\n About 600 very smart people work at Beta Technologies, but the smartest one of all is whoever thought of this idea: Don\u2019t <\/em>start with air taxis. Start\u2026with cargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: There are a lot of ways that we can make a meaningful dent on the emissions of aviation before we start to do the thing that everybody talks about, jumping over traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: The packages don\u2019t care. They don\u2019t have any anxiety. They don\u2019t have any concerns about how they\u2019re being transported, right? That\u2019s a little different than the ultimate application of hopping people over traffic. We believe, and I believe, that we\u2019re gonna get there. But first, we\u2019re gonna go through cargo, medical, logistics, airport to airport. It\u2019s not an immediate introduction of the Jetsons, right? It\u2019s a long progression to get there, and we\u2019re — we\u2019re moving right on it, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenging thing about air taxis is not the vehicle. It\u2019s siting landing areas in municipalities that are really adverse to any type of new transportation like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Well, they always say, \u201cthe tops of skyscrapers!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Yeah. But there\u2019s a — there\u2019s a long way to go. Let me give you an example. We need to bring 1.2, 1.4 megawatts up to the top of the skyscraper to recharge these things, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: There\u2019s a lot of infrastructure that has to happen to do that. I\u2019m probably the only CEO of a electric aircraft company that has taken my helicopter and landed at every public-use helipad in New York. They are not super accessible. You need a nimble, maneuverable aircraft to get tucked into there. It\u2019s busy. You\u2019re holding over the Hudson or the East River. It\u2019s a complicated airspace already. There\u2019s a lot of work that needs to be done to air traffic control before it\u2019s really commercially viable to have a high cadence of air taxis going in and out of busy cities. And that\u2019s not the case at the 4,300 underutilized regional and state airports, right? We can do a mission today with an airplane that\u2019s all electric by serving regional cargo flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: And we don\u2019t need any changes in rules and we don\u2019t need a municipality to adopt a new form of transportation. And I believe that we will be flying people in and outta cities before anybody else does, because people will want to get on a plane that has thousands of examples flying millions of flight hours, maybe just fulfilling your Amazon and UPS orders, before they get on a brand-new plane that is only fit for passenger service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know what else is so smart about starting with cargo? Remember: The big hurdle to electric aviation is not technology. It\u2019s the FAA. And Kyle Clark\u2019s thinking goes like this: the FAA is more likely to approve a new kind of aircraft that\u2019s just carrying boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: So, what\u2019s happened is that we\u2019ve become kind of the pragmatic doers of the industry. We have flight test. We\u2019ve got these facilities. We\u2019ve got beautiful aircraft. We\u2019ve got a bunch of customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Customers like UPS, Air New Zealand, and the U.S. Army, which have placed over 600 orders for the Beta plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, remember I mentioned those four propellers on the top? Turns out you can order your plane with or without them. Beta will be selling the plane, which is called the Alia, in two configurations. First, as a traditional one that takes off on a runway; alternatively, as an eVTOL, the annoying acronym that stands for electric, vertical-takeoff-and-landing plane. eVTOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: What happens to the vertical rotors when you\u2019re in horizontal flight?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: They don\u2019t, like, fold up or disappear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: The way the aircraft works is it starts in a stationary position. All four of those top rotors turn on and it lifts it up into the air, right? That pusher rotor starts pushing it forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pusher rotor is the propeller at the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: And as it accelerates, those four rotors in the top, slow down and slow down and slow down. And after about 30 seconds, they stop and they point into the wind, and then you\u2019re flying a hundred percent on the wing. Now, when they stop and they point into the wing, they\u2019re very slippery. They\u2019re long and slender. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Turns out the propellers use a lot more power than the wings do. Vertical movement costs you more electricity than horizontal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: So, only about a minute of a total two-and-a-half hour flight are those top rotors on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That business of offering two models of the plane\u2014one that takes off vertically, one that needs a runway\u2014is also shrewd thinking. Guess which model is more likely to win the FAA\u2019s approval first? Yup. The one that\u2019s just like a regular plane, the one that the FAA has known for years, but electric. It\u2019s not as much of a leap for the regulators to assess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: The regulatory framework, all of the rules and understanding within the FAA, are clear and black-and-white for an airplane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh, I see. So, the FAA hasn\u2019t really decided how to certify a vertical takeoff machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: That\u2019s exactly right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I\u2019m mentioning the FAA a lot, and Kyle Clark thinks about the FAA a lot. But I mean, here\u2019s an example of what he\u2019s up against:<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: For example, our electric motor is defined by the FAA as an \u201celectric engine.\u201d And me as a scientist, I\u2019m like, \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as an electric engine!\u201d But they call it an electric engine so it fits better in the historical regulation frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: But an engine is something that burns fuel<\/em> to produce motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Precisely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: You don\u2019t even have one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Exactly. There is no engine. But it\u2019s called an electric engine so that it fits within the prior regulation. The intent and the quality of the work at the FAA is pure, and it\u2019s really good. It\u2019s thepremier safety standard in the world for aviation. Yet, with that comes inertia, right? And we have to overcome that inertia and then move on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s the grand plan: After the FAA has approved Beta\u2019s fixed-wing electric plane, Beta can bring them the vertical-takeoff model. And it can say, \u201cSee, FAA? It\u2019s just like the electric plane you already certified, but with propellers.\u201d Not such a big leap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: But why Vermont? It seems like all the engineering talent is in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: Vermont is spectacular, first of all. There\u2019s a lot of smart people here. It\u2019s a healthy state, very cognizant of climate change. Um, we have the largest\u2013iin Vermont, our electric grid is 98 percent renewable. It is the best in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: The whole state?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: The whole state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: But let me extend that one step further. Um, in Vermont, there\u2019s a — a heavy awareness of climate change. And having a group of people working on this that not only are really good at what they do, but they care about the mission, gives them a little extra oomph at two in the morning when we\u2019re trying to get ready for a flight test the next morning. And that those long Saturday afternoons, when you want to get home, and you\u2019re like, \u201cI am driven to the mission that I signed up for. And it wasn\u2019t something somebody told me to do. It came from here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as he says \u201chere,\u201d he pats his heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spent two days with Clark and his company, shooting a \u201cCBS Sunday Morning\u201d story. And I gotta tell you, his employees really <\/em>believe in him, and the mission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my chaperones was Chris Caputo, who spent 31 years in the Air Force as a combat-fighter pilot, and then spent a few years as a commercial pilot, flying 757s and 767s for Delta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: So if you\u2019ve been there a while, the pay gets pretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: Uh, it does. Yeah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Did you take a pay cut to come here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: Uh, I did. A pretty healthy pay cut. But it\u2019s — it\u2019s more about, you know, the mission that this company is on to decarbonize aviation and — and do something good for our planet, our country and the world. And, you know, your kids, my kids, and the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So who is this Kyle Clark, anyway? <\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: My father, uh, was an engineer. My mother was an artist. My father ran a machine shop and a medical device development, uh, group at the university here, and I just hung out in his machine shop. And I would build all kinds of different airplanes and go to the airport up here, help people with old Russian fighters and — and just to get a ride in them, right, just to fly them. And then when I went to college, I really, really wanted to go into aerospace engineering, but Harvard, unfortunately, didn\u2019t have aerospace engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: So, I pursued material science, and — and I went to the engineering and applied math school and studied material science. And then when it came time for me to do my thesis, I said, \u201cI\u2019m gonna write it on the airplanes that I\u2019ve been imagining, BETA Air.\u201d That\u2019s where the beginnings of it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve always thought that \u201cBeta\u201d is a risky name for a plane company. I mean, in the tech world, \u201cbeta\u201d means \u201cbeta testing,\u201d meaning, \u201cnot finished,\u201d meaning, \u201cbuggy.\u201d Is that <\/em>the name you want for the company that\u2019s going to carry human beings into the sky?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, in this case, Beta does not refer to the hardware or the software. It was Clark\u2019s hockey nickname. That\u2019s right: He played hockey in high school, in college, and even professionally. He was actually the captain of the US National Junior Team, the feeder team for the Olympics team. The dude is 6\u20197\u2026 can you imagine him coming at you on skates? <\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: And so, I started promoting this new type of pusher aircraft design with a high wing, super slippery, with intuitive airplane controls. And it actually won the thesis of the year in the engineering department down there, but I couldn\u2019t get anybody to invest in it. In fact, like there was people who were like, \u201chey, I\u2019ll invest in any crazy business you want to do, but not that airplane thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: So, it took me from about 2002, when I first kind of got the ideas together, until 2017 when Martine Rothblatt said, \u201cwhoa, I\u2019ll bet on that,\u201d of pitching this idea of BETA Air.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That would be pilot and entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt, who made her fortune by co-founding Sirius satellite radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLARK: And she said, well, let\u2019s do something more meaningful for society. Let\u2019s — let\u2019s move cargo that is of the most important kind, medical cargo. And she goes, if you do that, I\u2019ll support you on this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She became the first of many investors in a company that\u2019s now worth 2.4 billion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, the big unveiling of the plant was only the beginning of what was, for me, the world\u2019s coolest show-and-tell. After the break, I\u2019ll tell you how I went up in the air with the electric plane, and even got to fly it myself\u2014sort of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, contrary to my deliberately clickbaity cliffhanger before the break, I have not personally flown inside the Alia electric plane. The FAA has not certified it for civilians like me. So at this point, only pilots get to fly it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the company did offer me the next best thing: To fly along right <\/em>next to it in a regular plane. A chase plane. A tiny four-seater. A Diamond Twin Star DA42, if you must know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: Experimental 251, uniform tango Burlington ground, hold position. You\u2019ll be about a one-minute delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: One-minute delay for 250 uniform tango, fly to two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My new friend Chris Caputo, the former Air Force jet pilot and Delta pilot, is at the controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: You can see it\u2019s a very busy airport. We got two airliners, Delta Airlines, United. You got multiple general aviation aircraft–comin\u2019 into the airport. This airport is the second busiest airport in New England only behind Logan Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh my god. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Beta plane\u2019s tail number is N251UT, so you\u2019ll hear the air-traffic controller addressing it as 251 Uniform Tango.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: 251 uniform tango, copy all taxi– to runway one-nine via Lima. Hold short of runway one-nineat Lima.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: Okay, 251 uniform tango– copy all. One-nine at Lima. Is there any chance– to just shoot out alpha to runway one-five for departure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: And uniform tango, unable. There\u2019s gonna be a JetBlue parking at that corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: Okay. Copy on the JetBlue. We\u2019d be willin\u2019 to wait for him to pull into the jet bridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point, as we were taxiing, we were watching the Alia, the Beta electric plane, with an Air Force stealth fighter jet on the runway directly behind it. Our cameraman, Will, was sitting in the front right seat of our chase plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: You got the most recent military state-of-the-art stealth fighter out there and the most recent all-electric state-of-the-art ALIA. That\u2019s pretty cool, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: That\u2019s the shot, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: You\u2019re gonna be famous for that shot right there. (LAUGH) Doesn\u2019t get any better than that. You guys are gettin\u2019 a glimpse into the future of aviation right here. Front-row seat, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, it was time for takeoff. Today, Beta was testing its conventional-takeoff plane\u2014minus the vertical propellers\u2014for a short hop from the Burlington airport to Plattsburgh, New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RADIO: Runway heading 15, full length. Clear for takeoff. 251 uniform tango.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We both took off roughly simultaneously\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: We\u2019re airborne. He\u2019s airborne\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026but it quickly became clear that the electric plane was much faster than our gas-powered one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: I can\u2019t even keep up with \u2018em. On full power, and he\u2019s walkin\u2019 away from me! (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Are you tellin\u2019 me that a battery-operated toy is goin\u2019 faster than you are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>CHRIS: That battery-operated engineering dream is out-climbing us and going faster– He\u2019s literally walkin\u2019 away from me– I am full power, gears up, flaps are up. \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Come on, man, step on it. (LAUGH) You\u2019ve got the power of 60 years of aviation in your hands!<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: I can\u2019t do anything else, David. I don\u2019t have the afterburner!<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Bet you miss that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: I do. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 2500 feet, on a brilliant October day, we had an infinite blue sky above us, and Lake Champlain glittering below us. And about 100 yards off our wing, we saw the Alia\u2014this gorgeous, shiny white aircraft, sailing gracefully through the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: Isn\u2019t that beautiful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh, man. This is like– <\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: All electric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: \u2013like an ad for the future. Wow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was going to be only a 15-minute flight. But even so, the disparity in fuel costs was stunning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: As we\u2019re– pollutin\u2019 the environment, burnin\u2019 fossil fuels, that thing is just sippin\u2019 energy right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh, man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: His flight\u2019s gonna cost about $10. And this flight is gonna cost us about $200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: In fuel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: In fuel alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n POGUE: Oh, man. (LAUGH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The noise level for the pilots in the Alia was radically different, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: Right now, if we were to take off our– our headsets, we\u2019d have a tough time c– communicating. It\u2019s so loud in this aircraft. The two of those guys could take their helmets off right now and converse at a normal– you know, normal\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the operational complexity was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHRIS: So in this aircraft in particular, I\u2019m keeping track of the percent load on the– on both my left and right motors, the RPM on both the left and right engines, the fuel flow, the oil temperature, oil pressure, coolant temps, fuel temps, and the quantity. The bus voltages on both the left and right, the amperage that I\u2019m drawing, the gearbox temperatures. You don\u2019t have all of that in Alia. So you basically have one system, an electrical system that you\u2019re monitoring. It\u2019s quite, you know, elegant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This wasn\u2019t a journalist joyride, by the way. We were observing a regular test flight of the Alia. They were putting it through various tricky maneuvers to see how it could recover. <\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst Ads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Second ad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n