As industries begin to shift away from fossil fuels, Ampaire is banking on its line of hybrid-electric airplanes to revolutionize air travel. The company recently announced its historic first flight of an existing airline route in Hawaii.
Kevin Noertker, Ampaire CEO, said not only would the environment reap the biggest benefits from a reduction of emissions, but the airline industry could also soar to new heights.
"For the airlines, the biggest impact is reduced cost of operation. Airlines care about the total cost of ownership and operation for their planes. By switching to a hybrid plane, you could reduce that fuel burn by up to 50 percent," Noertker told Cheddar.
The CEO also noted that a fully electric plane would reduce emissions by more than 90 percent.
After launching in 2016 and constructing an aircraft for the last two years, paid flights for the company are on the horizon. "We're looking at about a three-year timeline before we get certification to deploy these planes in that commercial operation," Noertker said.
While the company gears up for commercial flights, it has already been conducting demonstrations under the FAA's experimental market survey, which allows passengers and potential Ampaire customers to fly.
Last month, the company became the first to ever demonstrate a hybrid-electric flight in Maui, which went from Kahului to Hana in about 20 minutes. Like other industries, Ampaire's ability to continue developing and moving forward with test flights, particularly in Hawaii, was impacted by pandemic-related restrictions.
The hybrid-electric planes, according to Noertker, while capable of long-distance flights, are optimal for relatively short-distances. Over the next five to 10 years, however, there are plans to produce an aircraft that can hold up to 20 passengers and will fly "routes between 50 and 500 miles."
"The reality is most routes that airlines like to fly are about 100 miles," Noertker said.
Stock trading app Robinhood already has been offering cryptocurrency investments but seems further excited about the asset class following President Biden's recent announcement of an executive order. Dan Gallagher, the chief legal and corporate affairs officer for Robinhood, joined Cheddar News to talk about the White House's tentative vision for digital currency. "I think this executive order firmly states that, yes, crypto is here to stay, which it talks about the important competitive issues around crypto and how the United States needs to be a leader, a global leader, in innovation and technology regarding crypto," he said. Gallagher also discussed having clarity around meme stocks going forward but worried about overregulation slowing down innovation.
American private aviation company Wheels Up saw a substantial revenue increase in its Q4 earnings. With bookings ramping up for the summer — along with hopes of being on the tail-end of COVID-19 — the company is looking at a promising upcoming quarter as well. CEO Kenny Dichter joined Cheddar News to talk about the earnings reports as well as the company's new app development. "We’re following that Uber, Airbnb, Amazon playbook and are really going to disrupt this space through technology," he said.
Players have voted to accept Major League Baseball’s latest offer for a new labor deal, paving the way to end a 99-day lockout and salvage a 162-game regular season that will begin April 7.
Co-founders of the 'Female Founder Collective,' Rebecca Minkoff and Alison Wyatt, join Cheddar News to discuss this year's 'Female Founders Day' conference in Austin, Texas.
The new show ‘Fix My Flip’ is offering help to flippers from HGTV’s own Page Turner. The real estate expert and host joined Cheddar News to talk about her series and share advice for anyone looking to break into the world of flipping houses. "I'm coming in with this whole, just, book of 'we're gonna stop doing this and this is what we're going to start doing to get you out of this hole that you've dug,'” she said.
Amazon says it will be closing down all 68 of its pop-up shops throughout the U.S. and United Kingdom. The e-commerce giant makes the move as it looks to evolve its other brick and mortar chains like Whole Foods and eventually grow into a physical retail powerhouse. Cheddar News was joined by Deren Baker, CEO of Edge by Ascential, to talk more about Amazon's plans to become a retail powerhouse.
