Electric cargo planes will bypass standard airports within four to six years
Kyle Clark · Electrifying aviation with Kyle Clark of BETA Technologies · Aug 24, 2023 · at 29:58
Beta Technologies founder and CEO Kyle Clark explains how electric aviation will transform regional logistics to host Guy Raz.
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“In the near future, the next few years, they'll go to the airport only because of regulatory challenges of putting off airport landing sites. But in the next four to six years, what'll happen is these aircraft will actually go to the distribution center, which is where the UPS trucks is. They didn't have to go to the airport and it'll go directly from a distribution center.”
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“By 2030, you'll see more electric airplanes in the air than gas powered airplanes.”
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“And yes, by 20, 25, they're doing commercial operations here in the U S and then we just basically build them as fast as we can.”
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“A six to half the cost of flying gas-powered airplanes, and you're doing it sustainably.”
Clark promised Rothblatt a cross-country electric aircraft flight in 10 months
“And I told her that in 10 months we would create this electric aircraft and fly it across the country.”
Clark set aside 70% of BETA's equity for employees on day one
“So day one, I took 70% of the business and usually people take eight or 10 or seven or five percent of the business and say, that's going to be the employee pool. I took 70% of the business and I said, this is what I'm going to use to attract people to be real…”
Rothblatt pulled $48 million from BETA's competitors to fund Clark instead
“Yeah, forty eight million dollars she had out in contracts elsewhere. And she brought those back in because they were behind schedule, not keeping promises. And she redirected that at us and said, go build a commercial version that I can move organs with.”