The Allplane Podcast

The popularity of flight tracking apps has transcended the boundaries of the aviation community and truly become mainstream.

I guess most of our readers and listeners are familiar with the market leader in this space, but what if I told you the competitive landscaspe in this space is far from static?

Alex Lungu is the CEO of Wingbits, a ventur capital-backed Swedish startup that is aiming to disrupt the flight tracking industry by introducing a new model to build a flight tracking community which shares differently the value it creates.

It is precisely...

The popularity of flight tracking apps has transcended the boundaries of the aviation community and truly become mainstream.

I guess most of our readers and listeners are familiar with the market leader in this space, but what if I told you the competitive landscaspe in this space is far from static?

Alex Lungu is the CEO of Wingbits, a ventur capital-backed Swedish startup that is aiming to disrupt the flight tracking industry by introducing a new model to build a flight tracking community which shares differently the value it creates.

It is precisely...

Every now and then is good to stop for a second, and take some time to think and assess what’s going on around you.

If you are following the advanced air mobility industry on a day to day basis it is easy to get carried away by a deluge of triumphalist announcements and press releases.

But what is real and what is mere hype?

Adrian Norris is someone that not only knows the aviation industry inside out after decades of experience in different capacities, but he’s also been an aircraft entrepreneur prio...

What if the lowest-hanging fruit in aviation decarbonization was not in the air, but waiting right in front of us, on the ground?

This is what David Valaer, founder and CEO of Green Taxi Aerospace thinks.

A pilot since the age of 16, David has spent his whole life surrounded by aircraft, either spending summers a bush pilot in Alaska, flying F-16 fighter jets for the US Air Force or, later on, scaling up and selling a successful helicopter tech company.

A few years ago, David became intrigued by the possibilities that a new...

What is building a large scale battery-powered aircraft was more feasible than originally thought?

Our guest on this episode of the podcast, Daniel Rosen Jacobson co-founder and co-CEO of Elysian Aircraft, has come on the podcast to explain how asking the right questions and conducting scientific research laid the groundwork for the truly ambitious project that is the E9X electric airliner.

While most electric aircraft projects have focused on the development of smaller aircraft, Elysian Aircraft is taking on the mainstream air travel market with a zero-emissions aircraft concept capable of carrying up to 90...

Is the airship ready for a big comeback? This is not some sort of retro-futurist sci-fi scenario, since there are a handful of companies working to develop a new generation modern-day iteration of this iconic type of aircraft.

But, in fact, airships and, more generally, lighter than air aircraft never fully went away. The US Navy, for example, operated blimps until 1962 (and experimented with them again in the 2000s). Airships have also been used for advertising purposes and, for some time, even Richard Branson’s Virgin Group had an airship division.

Our guests today know al...

Among the top contenders in the eVTOL space, EVE Air Mobility stands out—not because it's closer than others to entering service or because it generates more media headlines.

In fact, what sets EVE aside from the pack is the backing of one of the world’s most successful and technologically advanced aircraft makers, Embraer, which has opted to move slowly but steadily in the field of advanced air mobility.

And leading EVE Air Mobility on the commercial front is our guest in this episode of the podcast, Megha Bhatia, the company’s Chief Commercial Office...

The world badly needs sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and, fortunately, there is not shortage of entrepreneurs willing to take on the challenge to scale up production. Now, are all SAF pathways the same? Of course not.

Today on the podcast we will talk with Mukund Karanjikar, founder and CEO of CleanJoule, a SAF startup based in Utah that is developing a SAF production method that delivers more joules of energy per unit of fuel mass than other traditional biogenic pathways.

What’s more, not content with powering a commercial aviation industry that is thirsty for SA...

In this episode of the we welcome Shashank Nigam, who, together with Dirk Singer, has co-authored the Sustainability in the Air book series, two volumes that cover many of the most prominent entrepreneurs, companies and projects striving to make air travel cleaner and more sustainable.

Now, Shashank is no newcomer to the aviation industry. He is also the founder of Simpliflying, a firm that has been providing advice in marketing and sustainability to airlines and airports for quite a few years, and also runs the Sustainability in the Air podcast.

So, in a way, this...

In this episode of the podcast we’ll explore one of the most truly disruptive clean-sheet aircraft projects currently underway.

Scott Drennan is President and Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Otto Aviation, a US startup aircraft maker that is developing an ultra-efficient executive jet. The Phantom 3500 uses a teardrop-shaped design to take full advantage of the laminar flow principle and reduce drag to a minimum.

Otto Aviation is, in fact, not a newcomer. The firm has been working on this concept for more than a decade, although in the last few years it has pivoted fr...

When we talk about aviation sustainability, the first thing that usually comes to mind is propulsion technologies or new aircraft designs.

But there are other ways to lower the environmental footprint of flying. Some are even hidden in plain sight!

Today we bring you the story of a company doing its bit to make aviation more sustainable, but in a rather original way: GenPhoenix makes ELeather, which is an innovative lightweight material that can be found on many aircraft seats.

ELeather is actually made by upcycling organic leather scraps, preventing them from going...

Ivar Aune is the CEO of SiriNor, a company working on an electric jet engine.

Yes, you read that right! While most electric aircraft projects aim to power a propeller, SiriNor is going for the very technology that powers most of today’s commercial aviation industry.

After all, a modern jet engine works by making a turbine spin. But while conventional jets rely on a combustion process that produces very high temperatures, SiriNor aims to replace that bit with an electrically-powered mechanism.

The result: cheaper, easier to build engines which are as performing as...

Wizz Air takes pride in having the lowest carbon footprint per passenger and kilometer in the airline industry, 52g, number that it expects to bring further down as it renews the fleet with larger, denser and more efficient aircraft.

But fleet renewal alone won’t do the trick. In fact, “fleet” is just one of the three “Fs” that the pan-European ultra-low-cost airline relies on to get to Net Zero by 2050, even in a context of growing air traffic.

“Footprint”, that is, efficiency improvements in the way aircraft are operates, is another, relatively minor “F” in this vision. Bu...

In this episode of the podcast we welcome Amelia DeLuca, Chief Sustainability Officer at Delta Air Lines.

Besides being one of the World’s largest airlines, Delta, is also a very active player in the field of air travel innovation and decarbonization.

Delta has committed to getting to net zero by 2050 with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) expected to play a big role in achieving this goal. To this end, Delta has signed a string of SAF deals across the US and is also working with SAF producers in several states to increase supply of this so...

Flynow is an Austrian eVTOL developer with big ambitions and, so far, a low media profile. But you can be sure that if you ever come across one of its eCopters, with its distinctive capsule-like, tail-less shape, it will catch your eye!

Yvonne Winter, our guest in this episode of the podcast, is the co-founder and CCO of this startup, which aims to produce tens of thousands of electrically-powered eCopter eVTOLs, both for cargo and passenger transportation. The idea is that the eCopters will be automated fly so that costs go down to the point when eCopters...

This episode has two exceptional guests because more often than not, innovation doesn’t happen in isolation.

Great successful products and services are those that fast achieve product-market fit and this is precisely what we are going to talk about here today.

Our guests are Marc Allen, CEO of Electra, a US startup that is developing a hybrid-electric ultra-short take-off and landing aircraft capable of landing in incredibly short open spaces, and Tomislav Land, co-founder and CEO of Flyvbird, a startup airline based in Germany which aims to transform regional air travel with an on-demand ca...

Josef Kallo is a true sustainable aviation pioneer. He was already working on hydrogen-powered aircraft back in 2013, when few outside a small circle had heard about sustainable aviation or alternative propulsion technologies.

Fast forward to 2021 and H2FLY, the company he has been leading for over a decade, made headlines after being acquired by Joby Aviation, one of the forerunners in the advanced air mobility race.

During all this time, H2FLY has been steadily and quietly making strides in the field of hydrogen propulsion and, in September 2023, it made history be being the first...

Payments are an essential element of the airline business and one that is often overlooked by most people.

But, have you considered the tech required by any international carrier to handle thousands of payments from all over the world, smoothly and instantly?

In this episode, produced in partnership with CellPoint Digital, we delve into the topic of airline payments tech.

Diego Pérez, VP Business Development for Latin America and CellPoint Digital, shares some insights about the different elements involved in an airline payment. He also explains what is payment orchestration, and why i...

Kanika Tekriwal is the co-founder and CEO of JetSetGo, a company that has emerged, over the course of the last decades, as the major integrated executive aviation operator in India. JetSetGo provides a whole range of services in one of the world’s most promising air travel markets, from operating its own private jet fleet, to MRO and charter services.

The MEBAA executive aviation show, which took place in Dubai in December 2024 provided an excellent opportunity to catch up with Kanika (apologies beforehand for the sound quality, since this episode was recorded at the MEBAA venue!) and le...

Joshua Ng is a Director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, which, at the name implies, is a global consultancy firm serving the aviation industry with actionable analysis, advice and recommendations.

Being based in Singapore, Joshua has a rather advantageous viewpoint on the sustainable aviation developments taking place across the Asia-Pacific region, a part of the world that has the capacity to move the needle when it comes to decarbonizing the skies.

This is a matter that generates plenty of headlines, but if we look beyond the buzz, what are the most pressing concerns that occupy the...

Things we talk about in this episode

Ian Brooke’s background and story as an entrepreneur from an early age

What is Astro Mechanica and how it got started

What is an electric adaptive jet engine and how does it work

What are the potential applications of the electric adaptive jet engine

Astro Mechanica’s acceptance into Y Combinator, the famous Silicon Valley startup acceleration programme

Where is Astro Mechanica at the moment and what are its next milestones

Vertical Aerospace is one of the world’s leading advanced air mobility developers, at least when it comes to its order book.

Some 1,500 units of its VX4 eVTOL aircraft have already been pre-ordered (including a 500 aircraft order from Avolon, which the lessor then managed to place in a matter of months with a handful of airlines), but before that, Vertical Aerospace will have to complete a thorough a comprehensive testing and certification process.

And no one better placed to talk precisely about this than our guest on this episode: Michael Cervenka, Chief Technology Officer at Ve...

The decarbonization of the aviation industry will require huge amounts of investment.

If we focus on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) alone, the amount of capex that will be required is staggering. Take Europe, for example, that will need over 100 new SAF production plants by 2030 if the aviation industry is to meet the EU’s ambitious SAF adoption plans.

No wonder, then, that some of the most prominent initiatives to channel fresh investment towards this field have come from inside the industry.

The Sustainable Flight Fund, set up by United Airlines through its United Ai...

Right as the commercial aviation industry gears up for the 2024 edition of the Farnborough Air Show, I got on Zoom with Jon Sindreu, one of the top journalists out there that knows the industry best.

Perhaps because, in addition to his strong focus on aviation, Jon covers also range of sectors through the popular “Heard on the Streat” section on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), he is able to offer a no-nonsense view from outside the aviation industry bubble.

So, my idea for this episode was to review, together with Jon, some of the key macr...

As Europe is trying to get people off planes and into trains out of environmental concerns, Dr. Klaus Radermacher stands out as a contrarian voice.

We are calculating it wrong!…says this engineer and consultant, who, in the last few years has taken a keen interest in the topic of sustainable mobility.

Is the train really a better alternative to the plane? Which mode of transportation is most efficient over short, medium and long distances? Should we keep building more high speed rail infrastructure to get people to fly less? These are some of the qu...

Sustainability has become a central topic in aviation, but are airlines prepared for this conversation?

Elizabeth Maclean and Mike Evans are the co-founders of Herdwick Communications, a consultancy firm that advises airlines all over the world.

With Elizabeth and Mike we speak about the reputation crisis and public relations storm that the aviation industry is facing in the face of climate change and how airlines should be communicating about sustainability.

What can airlines say when they are being accused of wrecking the climate? How can airlines avoid greenwashing and end up being sued...

Landor is, possibly, the creative agency that has designed the most iconic brands in aviation.

British Airways, Alitalia, Singapore Airlines and Etihad are just a few of the big names of the airline industry that have entrusted their public identity to Landor’s creative minds.

On this episode of the podcast we speak with Ryan Frost, Executive Creative Director at Landor, about the attributes of a great airline brand and we dissect what and how three great British airlines that couldn’t be more different between them - British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet - have...

Our guest in this episode is Billy Thalheimer, founder and CEO of REGENT, a startup based in Rhode Island developing a wing-in-ground vehicle that will make it possible to fly fast and sustainably between coastal cities before the end of this decade.

A wing-in-ground vehicle (WiG) is a type of craft that flies just a few meters above the surface of water making use of a draft-reducing aerodynamical effect.

As a matter of fact, wing-in-ground vehicles are not new, the Soviets had a go at them during the Cold War, and some entrepreneurs have tried...

Is the air cargo market ripe for its own technology revolution?

Aleksey Matyushev and his team at Natilus are certainly doing their bit to make it happen.

A graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Aleksey has been working at the cutting edge of aerospace technology for quite some time, both on civilian and military projects.

He is the founder and CEO of Natilus, a Californian startup that is working on a family of truly disruptive blended-wing-body freigther aircraft that are also designed with autonomous flight capabilities and hydrogen propulsion in mind.

A...

Charles Everett is the Director of Aviation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a public organization set up by these two states in order to manage key pieces of infrastructure, including the ports, some tunnels and roads and, importantly for this episode of the podcast, New York’s airport system.

More than 144 million passengers pass every year through the airports under the responsibility of the Port Authority, which include JFK, La Guardia and Newark-Liberty, and this number is set to increase in coming years and the three of them complete massive redevelopment works.

Giulio Ranucci is the Head of Innovation at Aeroporti di Roma (AdR), the company managing Rome’s two airports, Fiumicino (FCO) and Ciampino (CIA), with nearly 45 million annual passengers combined.

What makes Giulio’s work at the helm of AdR’s innovation arm particularly interesting, is the very active role that the Italian airport operator is playing in fostering technology innovation in the airport sector.

The initiatives taken by AdR go well beyond Rome and Italy. Its annual startup accelerator programme is open to startups from all over the world and Aeroporti di Roma has also b...

Richard Gaona is one of the key players in the global executive aviation industry.

The once president of Airbus’ Executive Aircraft division is currently leading one of the most unique operators in the highly sophisticated world of private aviation.

Richard is the President and CEO of Comlux, a company like no other.

The uniqueness of Comlux is not due to the fact that it operates at the highest end of a market.

No, even if its fleet includes some of the world’s largest and most luxurious private jets and its cust...

Jay Sorensen is one of the world’s top experts in airline ancillaries.

Every year, Jay’s firm, IdeaWorksCompany, produces a comprehensive report about the state of airline ancillaries, a piece of work that has become the reference in this field, the Yearbook of Ancillary Revenue.

As someone that tried to read IdeaWork’s ancillaries yearbook as soon as it comes out, I was keen to have Jay on the podcast to talk about this very important component of many airlines’ business model.

What are the ancillaries that are driving the most revenue? Which an...

Addison Ferrell is Director, Infrastructure and Head of Americas at Skyports, one of the world’s leading vertiport developers.

Vertiports will be an essential element of the upcoming advanced air mobility revolution. Will they be more like airports or like metro stations? What sort of experience can we expect to have there are travellers? What are the barriers of entry in this sector?

These are all questions I wanted to ask an expert like Addison, because there is still so much of the advanced air mobility experience that is still pretty much being defined as we...