Podcast: Live From EAA AirVenture 2024

Join in as Aviation Week's Molly McMillin, Bill Carey, Jeremy Kariuki and Mike Lavitt discuss their highlights from EAA AirVenture 2024, recorded in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

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Transcript:

Jeremy Kariuki:

Hello and welcome to the BCA Podcast live from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We're attending EAA AirVenture of 2024, and I'm joined by my colleagues Bill Carey, Molly McMillin, and Mike Lavitt. Welcome, everyone, to the show.

Mike Lavitt:

Thank you.

Molly McMillin:

Hi. Thanks for having us.

Bill Carey:

Glad to be here.

Jeremy Kariuki:

So just to go around the table first, Mike, what have you seen at the show so far that stood out to you?

Mike Lavitt:

Well, there were some really interesting parts of the first-day flying display, Jeremy. It started with a B-1B flyover at low altitude, probably about 500 feet, and he came down with afterburners on all four engines, so he was making a lot of noise, moving really fast as he headed down the runway. People in the crowd who I heard were hoping that he would make a second pass, but they exited the pattern at the north end of the runway and just departed into the distance. But it was pretty impressive.

Then, even more interesting, really, was NORAD did a demonstration of how U.S. and Canadian fighters intercept aircraft that violate restricted airspace. So they used an F-16. In this case, it intercepted a small twin-engine aircraft that was actually flown by Minnesota Air National Guard pilots for this demonstration.

And they made three passes along the airfield. The first pass, they're just trying to get the invading aircraft's attention. They don't know why they're not responding. Their radio may be out, they may have gotten lost, who knows? And so, they don't get too close. They wave their wings to try to get attention.

And then they made another pass on the runway. The second one was closer and a little bit more aggressive. And on the third one, they're really weaving back and forth in front of the offending aircraft. And there is no way that a pilot could miss those signals, especially on that last pass. It's really impossible to miss.

Finally, the small aircraft lowered its gear, acknowledging the order to land, which lower your gear, you're planning to land. And the real purpose of this demonstration was educational. NORAD really wants to encourage pilots to check TFRs before they fly and be sure they're avoiding restricted airspace.

Also, interestingly, we didn't see them, but whenever they do an intercept, there's a second fighter that hangs about three miles back to keep situational awareness of what's going on and be ready to jump in if needed. So that was quite a demo.

Jeremy Kariuki:

That's awesome. Yeah.

Mike Lavitt:

And then, also, there's an aircraft called the BlackFly that made appearances at Oshkosh in 2021. They made their airshow debut, first time really flying in public, just a very quick up-and-down flight. In 2022, they did a more extensive display. And it's pretty impressive the way this thing takes off. It looks crazy compared to any other airplane because it lifts off vertically but it's pitched up so the pilot is actually looking up. So you think they're going to stall, but it's battery-powered, about six (Correction: eight) electric motors, all independent.

And now, the company has rebranded itself as Pivotal, and it's back at Oshkosh this year with a new aircraft called Helix that really draws on the BlackFly, but it's a lot sleeker looking, and it's really pretty cool. It's classified as an ultralight, so it's pretty easy to fly.

I flew the simulator. It's got dual joysticks, but you only use one. So if you're left-handed like me, you can use your left hand rather than your right. And you click a rocker on top of the joystick for attitude control, forward to raise the nose, back to drop the nose. Speed is controlled by joystick, and you do most of your flying with the joystick other than controlling pitch with the rocker. It's a Silicon Valley company, and they were supposed to fly on Tuesday night, weather depending.

Jeremy Kariuki:

All right. Well, thank you for that. I always love seeing brand-new aircraft at the show each year. It's always a treat. Moving on to Bill, I know you had some rounds around the airport grounds. What did you see while you were out there?

Bill Carey:

Yeah, just keeping with the theme of new aircraft appearances at Oshkosh, I think one of the more significant debuts at Oshkosh this year was that of the Harbor Air eBeaver, and what that is is a modified de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, which is powered by a magniX electric propulsion unit. That first flew and made history as the first... It's a sea plane. The first electric, full-electric, commercial aircraft to fly, and that was on December 10th of 2019.

And that is now here at Oshkosh and scheduled to fly on two different days, again weather depending, and it's on track for certification by... Transport Canada actually will issue the supplemental type certification for the modified DHC-2 eBeaver, which is an aircraft that was originally designed in the 1940s.

And the FAA is responsible for certifying the magni650 electric propulsion unit, and that will be done under its Part 33 Airworthiness Standard for aircraft engines. And the expectation is that the engine will be certified by the FAA and cross-verified by Transport Canada, and the STC issued for the aircraft by Transport Canada so that the first eBeavers will enter service in 2027. And that's according to some of the executives with magniX that I had the opportunity to speak with today. So I think that's a pretty significant airplane that's here at Oshkosh for the first time.

Another kind of significant, I guess, or I thought it might be a significant development, was another update from the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions initiative, which is a government-industry effort to develop a high-octane unleaded aviation fuel that'll work across the broad range of piston engine aircraft in the United States by 2030.

There's currently two candidate fuels that are nearing, I guess, deployment. One, it's UL100E, echo, and that's developed by a partnership of LyondellBasell and VP Racing. And that's currently undergoing full-scale engine and airframe testing by the FA technical center.

The FAA said it expects that process to take 12 to 18 months, meaning that if this fuel were to meet its requirements, the agency could issue a fleet-wide authorization in mid to late 2025 that would make available a common high-octane unleaded aviation fuel that could be used, theoretically, by some 170,000 to 200,000 both certified aircraft and experimental and home-built aircraft that use piston engines.

The other fuel that came up much during the discussion was a fuel that received a supplemental type certification from the FAA in September 2022, which allows for its use across all spark ignition piston engine aircrafting in the United States, which would lead you to believe that that should just be made available today, which would advance us much closer to the goal of the unleaded aviation fuel by 2030.

But that's been held up by an industry reluctance to accept a fuel that has not undergone a vetting process through standards organization ASTM. That's G100UL. It's produced by General Aviation Modifications, Inc., a small company based in Ada, Oklahoma.

They have negotiated with a jet fuel producer named Vitol to produce 1.3 million gallons of that, which is being held in storage by Vitol. There was no update on any of that being distributed at this point. And my understanding and that of the EAGLE Initiative is that the fuel distributors are in

discussions with General Aviation Modifications, Inc. about distributing that, but no progress has been reported on moving that fuel since it was first announced in April.

So that's kind of the status, as we know it, of the two candidate fuels that are closest to reaching distribution to the piston engine aircraft fleet in the U.S. So the next EAGLE Initiative update is scheduled for October.

Jeremy Kariuki:

All right. Can't wait. Molly, how have you been at the show so far?

Molly McMillin:

Good. It's been interesting so far. One thing was they were expecting about 600,000 people here, about the same as last year, although pre-show sales were higher. With the CrowdStrike outage on Friday, some people who had planned to fly commercial and come to the show didn't have a flight to catch. Don't know how many that is, but that has impacted some attendance.

The other thing is it also shows the usefulness of private aviation because private and business aviation really did not feel the impact from the CrowdStrike outage, and some people were talking about that. And I saw a statistic recently or today, actually, that said that charter flights were up about 10% over that time.

The show started off with a sad note, a small plane coming in to land at Whitman crashed two miles away in a farm field and burst into flames, and the two occupants unfortunately passed away in that flight. The NTSB is investigating, and more information will come out as soon as that happens.

The other thing that was interesting is the FAA has a hypoxia simulator. It's like a hypoxia chamber. They have five people at a time can go into this chamber, and it simulates the feeling of hypoxia. The atmosphere is at 25,000 feet, and then it gets down to you have about 7% oxygen. And then you can feel on yourself when you do this what the signs of hypoxia are.

And everyone is a little different. I watched a whole round of that, and everyone reported when they got out a little bit different feelings and symptoms. And it kind of depends on your age, your hydration level, how fit you are, and a variety of things on how everyone's a little different on how you feel that or when, how long it takes before you feel it.

And it's a good thing to do that if you're a pilot because then you can recognize what your symptoms are. And then the trainer also said that if you put your oxygen on and you don't feel any better, then maybe your oxygen is clogged or maybe the tank is... Maybe you're out of oxygen. So things to watch for. It was interesting.

Another really interesting and moving, I guess, ceremony, if you will, was a thing by Able Flight at Theater In The Woods, where they recognized pilots that received their pilots license but they have something they've had to overcome. Paralysis, one was deaf, amputees, just a variety. And to hear their stories and to see them accomplish that, it was really interesting to see.

Jeremy Kariuki:

That's incredible. Wow. I was also at the show, obviously, but I've seen a couple of really cool things. For an aviation show, you wouldn't expect an organization like NASA to really have a strong presence there, but they came again, and they had a lot to talk about.

I got to speak with NASA Test Pilot Nils Larson, who is a test pilot for the X-59, which is an experimental aircraft meant to create a soft sonic boom or a sonic thump, as they've explained it, to where you can have supersonic flight over populated areas.

The X-59 is currently in the first of three phases of development, which is really majorly comprised of designing and small-scale testing. The second phase will include near, mid, and far-field sound measurements, where they'll place microphones on the ground in elevated areas on lower flying aircraft to see how the N-wave, the sound wave created from the odd shape of the X-59, how that sound travels to the ground, where people would even hear it if it flew over.

The third phase I thought was particularly interesting because it will be a testing campaign across the United States, which will involve the X-59 actually flying over some populated areas to where people could actually look up and see it or maybe even hear it.

I spoke with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and he said that they are going to focus on quieter areas of the country because in a noise environment like in the middle of Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, you're not going to be able to hear a sonic thump above the actual noise level of the city and traffic and whatnot. So if you're living in a rural area, you might be one of the first to actually hear the X-59 in action.

And their target noise level is approximately that of slamming a car door. So we're not talking very loud at all. So the technology is not meant to be NASA's next phase of transportation. This is really a proof of concept so that way, the private sector can take these designs, take this discovery and technology and scale it up and make it suitable for commercial use.

Also in my conversation with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, we got to talk to him about just the NASA goings. We got an update on Starliner. Butch and Suni are still currently, as of recording, in the International Space Station. Bill Nelson said that they are not stuck. And, of course, that's what we would want to hear from the big boss himself. But he said that it was a test flight of the Starliner capsule and that these things happen and that they have a plan for whatever the situation is.

There's no current concerns whether there's enough supplies or food onboard the ISS. Apparently, Butch and Suni are having a wonderful time up in zero gravity or microgravity. But hopefully, we'll see them return to Earth soon. There is no projected return date as of yet. They are still troubleshooting and running tests on the ground, so we'll keep an ear out for what happens there.

Also, this morning, I got to take a demo flight in the Velis Electro, the first type-certified fully electric aircraft meant for air training. And I know, Molly, you had a chance to fly in it as well before. What did you think about it?

Molly McMillin:

I was able to get to fly a year ago. Well, last year. Oh, it's quiet. You have a large window so you can see really, really well. And it's ideal to practice landings, takeoff and landings, touch-and-gos, and that. It's got about an hour of energy, and you have your margin of error.

Jeremy Kariuki:

When I flew in it this morning, I had some audio equipment recording the inside of the cockpit while we were in flight. And for any audiophiles out there, it didn't even peak my audio when I plugged it into my computer. It was that quiet. It's almost quiet enough to have a normal-level conversation mid-flight. I think it's around 60 decibels. But first time flying in an all-electric aircraft, if you ever have the chance, we definitely recommend it. It is an otherworldly experience, but it's a really good time.

Molly McMillin:

Just real quickly too, I had an interview today with Chris Crow with Textron Aviation with their piston engine programs and that. And he was talking about how acquiring Pipistrel and that technology is very helpful because they can cross-sell. Maybe you need 172s, 182s for your flight school, but then you also need the smaller, less expensive Velis to just practice touch-and-gos, and how that kind of technology can fit in with their larger Cessna and Beechcraft lines.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned that the range is kind of short, it's about an hour of flight time, they measure it in time rather than range, but with 50 minute just flight time with 10 minutes of reserve, that's a lot of time for touch-and-gos, for go-arounds, whatnot. So a really good platform for training.

They do plan on scaling it up eventually. Of course, there's no official word as of yet as to what that would look like, but when you land it, you plug it in, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to fully charge back up. And the apparatus is much like that of an electric car, where you just plug it into a box that's on the wall and just wait for it to warm back up.

For those of you who are interested in seeing that, we will have a video on my experience this morning coming up. But speaking of the visuals, Molly and Mike, you two have some stuff coming up about the photo contest that we have at Oshkosh each year.

Molly McMillin:

Right. So, today, Aviation Week held a forum out at the field called Shoot to Win. And there were three professional photographers there, Brett Schauf, John Ford, and John Slemp. And they talked about the photo contest that Aviation Week does every year, and I'll let Mike address that.

But the three photographers also showed a portfolio of some air-to-air shots, some of the winning shots of the contest, but then also there were a ton of questions about just various things about photography and looking for the unusual shot. While everyone is on the flight line, shooting from there, maybe find a different angle or find a different spot. There were a lot of good logical and helpful tips and advice.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Absolutely. Mike?

Mike Lavitt:

And, Molly, you said that we had a great turnout. It was close to double what we've had in the past, so that was outstanding.

Molly McMillin:

Yes, I figured it was about 125 people maybe.

Mike Lavitt:

That is great. Thank you very much. We have a new category this year for air-to-air photography, and we did that because Larry Grace, who is the president of the International Society of Aviation Photography, joined our judging panel last year. And Larry really brought the perspective of an airshow photographer to the panel, which was something we didn't have before. It was a great addition.

And one thing he shared with us is there's a perception in the photography community that the men and women who are shooting from the ground are at a disadvantage to people shooting air-to-air. I don't know if that's really true, but we're going to address that this year by creating this air-to-air category. And so whether it's commercial aircraft, general aviation, warbirds, or defense aircraft, if the photographer's airborne and they're shooting a plane that's in the sky, that's air-to-air.

And then we'll have our traditional categories of commercial, defense, business and general aviation, and then space. I don't really expect much air-to-air in space, although we did have one once. We also are bringing back for the second year the photo illustration category. Traditionally, the photo contest didn't allow photographers to use a lot of the special effects in Photoshop, but with photo illustration, they can really go wild with special effects and do whatever they like.

John Ford and John Slemp both encouraged me to develop that category, and they take very different approaches. John Ford told me he likes to take a mediocre photo and turn it into a piece of art by using special effects. John Slemp does a lot of commercial photography, has commercial customers, so he'll take a photo of an airplane on the apron and there might be a piece of equipment in the way or an oil stain or a fluid stain on the apron and he'll remove those and touch up the photo and really make it pop. So they have two different approaches, and they talked about that.

So the photo contest will be open probably by the time you hear this podcast. And the deadline is October 14th. Photos have to have been taken on or after October 1st of 2023.

Jeremy Kariuki:

All right. I can't wait to see what we get this year.

Mike Lavitt:

I'm sorry. I have one more thing. The photo issue, we almost always have a photo that was submitted by one of the photographers for the contest, we got bumped two years ago by the B-21, but barring something extraordinary, if photographers want to get on the cover, they should shoot portrait style. Turn your camera sideways. It's hard to find sometimes a photo that works for the cover because most of the photos are shot landscape style.

The only other thing I'll say is that the commercial aviation category has been slower to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic than the other categories. I think that's largely because commercial aviation didn't rebound as quickly outside the United States as it did here, and we traditionally get a lot of international participation in that category. So Europe came back more slowly, and Asia was even slower, and China is just really starting to recover at this point. I think they're getting back, but... So international photographers, especially commercial, please submit your entries, aviationweek.com/photocontest.

Jeremy Kariuki:

Sounds great. And before I forget, I wanted to mention that in my conversation with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, we got the chance to ask him about the potential of former astronaut and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris in the election.

As you've probably already heard, for those listening at home, Kamala Harris is now taking over for Joe Biden, who has stepped out of the 2024 presidential race. Kamala Harris has not said who she will be running with, so there's a lot of names flying around. She's currently getting endorsements, has, as far as I know, enough delegates to secure the nomination from the Democratic Party, but we don't know who she's running with.

And one of those names that keeps coming up is Senator Mark Kelly. And when we asked Bill Nelson about that potential, he seemed optimistic. Not to say that he is hoping for a Democratic or Republican either partisan result, but he did speak very highly of Senator Mark Kelly, of course, as a former astronaut, and he wanted to reiterate that NASA is not a partisan organization but that Mark Kelly is one of the best of the best and that he helps him the best of luck.

That's all the time we have for today. Bill, Molly, Mike, thank you so much for joining me today. If you'd like to listen to more of the BCA Podcast, you can find us on your podcast app of choice. If you'd like to support us, please give us a rating or a review and check back with us next week. We're live from EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I'm Jeremy Kariuki, and we'll see you later.