Episode Transcript
Paul Rossi (00:00)
Welcome to Weekly Wings, your go -to podcast from DroneLife .com, where we soar through the latest in drone technology, regulation updates, and exciting innovations. Each week, join Samuel, Terry, and I as we navigate the drone industry, offering expert insights, interviews with key figures, and a bird's eye view of how drones are shaping our world. From commercial applications to recreational adventures,
Weekly Wings delves into how these remarkable vehicles are impacting construction, education, agriculture, filmmaking, delivery services, and much more. Whether you're a professional drone operator, a hobbyist, or just drone curious, tune in to stay informed and inspired as we explore the heights of what's possible in the world of drones. Subscribe now and never miss an episode of Weekly Wings.
where the future is looking up. Welcome everybody to this exciting episode of Weekly Wings. How you doing, Terry?
Terry Neff (01:10)
I'm doing good, Paul. Thank you for asking. I'm hearing alive.
Paul Rossi (01:13)
That you are and Samuel, how are you doing on this wonderful
Samuel S (01:16)
Doing well. Yeah, I was gonna say doing well. Honestly, I'm surprised I don't have any drone show things up my sleeve today, but you know, we'll get by on this episode, I think, without a drone show.
Paul Rossi (01:28)
Yeah, not last week too. think last week slipped by. No drone light shows. And this week, potentially nothing else. But that just means that things are building up in the, what do they say, the wings, right? There's probably some exciting light show stuff that's just building up that we'll eventually have to talk about. And on this episode, we're going to cover, you
Samuel S (01:35)
My algorithm.
Paul Rossi (01:54)
Again, some really interesting, intriguing...
news, information, things that are happening in the drone industry. Just one extremely significant thing that's happened since our last episode recorded was the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Just significant news.
for the nation, for the whole world, something we're not seeing. This is some real -time political drama just playing out. And as anything happens in real time, there's always folks that are trying to find, can a drone have added value or made things better? we'll discuss that a little bit on the tech spotlight.
We're going to be looking at an ultralight electrostatic VTOL drone that's been developed over in China by, I believe, some students, universities, some research going on there. also talking about, last week we talked about NASCAR going EV and electric. This week we're going to be looking at Harley Davidson.
bunch of money in order to potentially start manufacturing electric motorcycles here in the United States. A success story that we're going to look at is the Youngstown Police Department in Ohio being able to deploy their drone for a chase, a suspect chase incident very successfully. And then we'll end in our regulatory corner.
Looking at the Senate version of the NDAA for 2025.
So without further ado, jumping into.
the assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life.
Where were you guys? What were your thoughts? even, I know I only think it's been a whole week. Do you remember where you were?
Samuel S (03:58)
This was Saturday, wasn't it?
Terry Neff (03:59)
in the UFC personally.
Paul Rossi (04:03)
This was on Saturday.
Samuel S (04:06)
Right. Yeah, I think it was around 12 p .m. I heard. No, that wasn't it. What time was
Paul Rossi (04:15)
Now this was around six. was just after six. Yeah. Yeah. Six. Eleven.
Samuel S (04:19)
No way.
Paul Rossi (04:28)
believe if you look at the timeline.
Samuel S (04:28)
I gotta go back. remember someone texted me said someone tried to assassinate Trump or someone shot Trump and I'm like, wow. What time was
think Terry texted me shortly after that too.
Terry Neff (04:43)
Yes, Mike came into my snapchat group and
Samuel S (04:44)
Oh my god, you're right. Yeah, that was 630 ish, wasn't it? I it was like way earlier. I guess my time frame's off, but yeah, I don't think I had an exact mindset of the moment. What about you, Paul?
Paul Rossi (05:02)
If I remember correctly, think I was washing my car and so going in and out, I've got like a foam cannon for the power washer. So spray it, that soap sit. I walked inside, turned on the TV or looked at the TV and just saw this unfolding like it must have been very shortly after it happened. And like the kind of headline was up on the bar.
assassination attempt on Donald Trump and I just kind of watched it play out. And so he could tell he didn't fall to the ground. Like it was like it was like getting down to the ground in order to not get shot again. So it was like, I think he definitely got hit. just pretty sure he was alive. And watching all the Secret Service. I was like, that's what it means to be Secret Service. Like they're literally creating a human.
blanket. Yeah, like a human blanket around the president and they're just like layering and then another person. I was like, if the bullets continued to come toward the president, was like, they would literally, it was the Secret Service who would be taking those. I can remember thinking very clearly like, wow, that is intense.
Terry Neff (06:02)
Meat shield.
Samuel S (06:04)
I'm gonna you
Paul Rossi (06:28)
And then the shoes part, like I can remember in the recording you get here and like, I need to get my shoes. I need to my shoes. And I could just think of like a grandfather or an older father being like, you you're like, we need to get out of here. It's like, I need my damn shoes. And I stop it. And it was like, was like that the give me my shoes. I want to have that security on my feet, I guess. Like if we're running out of here, I'm not doing it barefoot.
and then the turn and the blood and I was like, holy, holy hell. I was like, this is intense happening right now. And I was like, Lauren, I think someone tried to shoot the former president, Donald Trump. And it was pretty crazy. And then she saw it and looked and watched and she was like, yeah, it was kind of like confirmation that what I was seeing. then...
It's kind of crazy to say this now. I had to go get the soap off the car. So we got the kids, and it's the mid, it's 6 o 'clock. We're trying to get this, you know, the routine is having to carry on. that was, I'll probably never forget that. Not as cool as the way he, you know, the story that his perspective.
And Terry, you weren't watching UFC where it was like early prelims on? that that was?
Terry Neff (07:44)
It was early prelims. Somebody texted me in the Snapchat group that I was in. was like, Trump just got shot. I was like, pull up Twitter. You might be the only person that actually found it out via a news channel. I think everybody else finds out by Twitter nowadays. So.
Paul Rossi (08:00)
Yeah.
Terry Neff (08:00)
This is luck of the draw you found out. I opened up Twitter and it's everywhere.
Paul Rossi (08:03)
Well that
At the same time, seeing it on the TV news is like, know there's like a 99 % chance this is real because if it's making it there versus like you see something on a social media feed, you're like, what the hell am I looking at?
Samuel S (08:24)
I mean, shortly after though, my phone started blowing up with the news feeds. Like, just notifications. I'm assuming yours did too, Terry.
Terry Neff (08:32)
No, I don't have notifications on I knew it was real though because the first clip I like the first First little tweet I seen was the video of him getting shot I was like, all right. Well, you'd be hard to fake that
Paul Rossi (08:46)
The only notifications I get, was thinking about this today, is for the kids monitor. Like the baby monitor. I hate the notifications. So you get the text notifications, I get the text notifications. But the baby monitor, and I'm getting really angry because they're using the allowed notifications to market to you. So they're like, buy this, buy that. And I'm getting kind of angry because I'm like,
You're sending me a notification and my kid is fine. Like I don't want... Yeah, I don't want to spy things.
Terry Neff (09:19)
capitalism at its finest.
Samuel S (09:20)
You already put the money down. What's all this?
Paul Rossi (09:23)
If I see notification from Hubble showing up, I want to know that that's like your kid just fell out of bed. Not, hey, we have a summer sale 20 % off. I hate notifications.
So where would the drug, like, so as this happened, like, regardless, if you're just stepping back and looking at from a security standpoint, you know, whatever political figure or whatever happens in the future, the person wasn't like a well -trained, you know, he didn't like crawl in and find some, you know, less than advantageous position to do this from. was just
The creepy part now is you
If you see the things, it's like, I don't have the video up here, it's like, you can see him in the background. It's like the horror movie. You know in the horror movie when everybody's just kind of sitting there watching and then there's that weird thing that goes by and you see him like just walking in the background and he's kind of like, that looks like a good spot to go. And he's just doing all this. You're like, wow, that is pretty creepy.
I just think people are saying, a drone could have been used once they identified this person. And we're looking for them as a force multiplier, potentially could have seen these high places. I really just believe that there's no reason. Someone, not even a counter sniper, but just a, hello, rent a cop. You could have sold seats to Trump supporters.
put some chairs up on that roof and had people pay you to sit up there and that would have been secured. So you could have made money and secured that rooftop. There's just really no reason somebody could, a scarecrow, anything could have been up there with the range. That's just the opinion I'm under.
Terry Neff (11:31)
Yeah, see I got some opinions, but we'll try not to delve into those.
Paul Rossi (11:36)
And so this article comes out in Forbes. the last name I'll butcher, Figurato, Lewis Figurato, he is with Elizabeth Police Department out in New Jersey, detective and drone pilot. He is like, I'd say a subject matter expert in this industry.
on the drone side, but then also on the public safety aspect of it. And this article kind of came out and it was saying, you know, where were the drones during this rally? And it talks about the Secret Service has spent, you know, $400 ,000 on drones. None appear to have been used during this incident.
And
details with access to this equipment is what Lewis was saying. At this level, and it really doesn't even matter whether it's DJI or this, the budget and the funding shouldn't be a factor. So even with blue drones, NDA compliant drones, there's solutions out there. There's really no reason that this equipment shouldn't have been available. And then also David Young,
officer with the Graham Police Department in North Carolina and then also involved in drone training in not just North Carolina in the states, but his organization is doing training around the world, mentions in this article that a drone could have been used to alert of an individual on a rooftop.
So as with anything, the Seeker service spent $70 ,000 on a small unmanned aircraft from Axon in 2022. It spent over $200 ,000 on drones from Atlantic Diving Supply and Paladin Defense Services. It talks about how DJI drones were banned from use by DHS and DoD organizations.
But even with that being a factor, there are US -made products that exist. So those questions of why wasn't a drone available, is that something you guys had thought of at all when you saw this or in real time or in the days?
Samuel S (14:19)
I think that might have tickled the back of my head, but I mean, I think we're definitely going to start seeing that implemented now, you know, just the security being maximized and people pointing that out. It's like, why wasn't there eyes in the sky looking out for a VIP, you know? I mean,
With those rallies, I'm assuming, notums, drodums pop up and, there's going to be a no fly zone for that area. But I mean, even still, could being secret service, they could have a drone up, you know, it could be incredibly beneficial. Just having that perspective.
Paul Rossi (14:56)
Are you promoting Drone Up?
Samuel S (14:58)
I said, what are you... Drone up? What do mean?
Terry Neff (15:00)
Don't do that.
Paul Rossi (15:05)
You said you could have a drone up. I was just joking. Like drone up, drone up? Put a dr
Samuel S (15:06)
I missed that phrasing. You could have a drone fly upwards.
Terry Neff (15:10)
K -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w
Kind of touching on what Samuel had to say. I I don't see a reason to not have a drone kind of pacing the perimeter. I mean, it's going to save you manpower. But I don't know. This really came down. It's an open field with three buildings on it.
There was just neglect in more than one area. Let's just say that. So the drones would have been a help, but I don't think it mattered in the end.
Paul Rossi (15:46)
So you can see how slanted this roof is, right?
Right, so here's this roof, here's this roof. I just did want to point out the slant of this one roof here, the red one. I mean, that's pretty pitched. That's a pretty significant slant. We're looking at this video. There is a drone video that came out for anyone that's on audio only. This is post assassination attempt. So you can see how there's like the debris and the litter and the garbage. If someone went and flew their drone.
Terry Neff (16:04)
That's
Paul Rossi (16:21)
but there's an angle where it's flying. You can see the red building where the counter sniper team was and the significance of the slope of the roof. And then you can see as we're flying away in the direction of where the sniper was, you can see a rooftop with a significantly less slope, which is really interesting. You can go on Google Earth and I don't know if you guys did it at all. But there was ground footage that came out. There you go. There you go.
Samuel S (16:44)
Terry broke it down for me. He had the whole map.
Paul Rossi (16:51)
I sent some things out, but when I saw that ground footage from this area, I started to think, I want to see this. And you know what was very easy to figure out? This right here. This AC or whatever this unit is with the four pipes coming out of it. Once I saw that in someone's ground video, I immediately was able to find that on Google Earth because it's clear enough to see. So I was able to start to almost piece together.
where these people were. And this is a very strange setting. But once you get there and you start looking, you're like, how in the heck was that possible?
So what is really interesting to add to that is not just this perimeter security, but I saw a really neat post and I wish I had it up here. You can find it. It's been circling like LinkedIn. Imagine a drone on a tether, right? Because when you're a human and you're a sentry, like the human that's supposed to be at their post,
And you're scanning, right? A human being is, you know, visually scanning 10 degree intervals. If you were on top of that building behind former president Trump, you're going to see this rooftop, this rooftop, this rooftop, right? There might be eight different locations that you would consider a threat. So what you have to do is the entire time before and during
the president speaking, you're having to go from here to here to here to here to here and back and forth. And if you get distracted, you forget to look at this one, you get complacent, right? Something happens. Now, once you see something, you have to alert. So someone posted like, you should have a drone that could go up in the air and you can program it to autonomously pan.
from point to point to point to point. And if anything pops up during that scan, it will automatically alert the whole team. So it's like, it's not just having a drone, it's having the right drone that's integrated because security for a former president and the amount of space and tying it in, it's not just as simple as someone showing up and having a screen
going. Alright guys, I'm going to do circles.
Terry Neff (19:25)
Well, kind of going off of what you're saying, maybe they deemed it unnecessary to use drones for this event due to the fact that there was only one building within a close proximity that could be a threat. Because they obviously knew that was a threat because they had two counter snipers on the red barn looking directly at it. So they probably just thought they had their bases covered and then
It would be kind of hard to pick out a suspect in a crowd, especially if they're concealing a weapon with a drone. It would probably be better to just have on -deck people looking for that.
Paul Rossi (20:03)
And if people were really inside the building in order to secure it, that's the craziest. I mean, I guess that makes sense. if your, if your objective was like to secure this building from a military army training mindset, like, all right, we're going to go inside and we're going to, you know, we're going to point our guns out the windows and we're going to lock the doors and no one's going to get in the building. It's like, who cares if someone's inside the building. Once they're inside the building, they've like, secure this building means secure the roof.
So I think there was miscommunication. think if you take an ineffective team and you add a tool to an ineffective team, it's not going to change the outcome because they're not going to use it appropriately. They didn't use the people appropriately. So if you take an effective team and give them an appropriate tool, now they're going to see benefits and results. Hell, an effective team with even a less off
tool, they will still make use of it. So I think it was complacency, the September 10th mindset versus the September 12th mindset and just a more relaxed.
Terry Neff (21:13)
Yeah, well, it's been a while since an assassination attempt has been made on a president or president -elect, correct? I mean, it's been a long time. I don't remember the last one.
Paul Rossi (21:22)
Reagan, I keep hearing Reagan and I'm like, if Ronald Reagan was it that I'm pretty sure that was before I was alive. So like very rare. And you hear someone's on a rooftop. Do you think some Trump supporter climbed on a roof to get a better view? You maybe that was somebody's first thought is like, you know, why did some attendee climb on the roof? Let's get them down. A lot to unpack, a lot to unpack.
drones could have helped, but only if they're... My opinion here on the where were the drones is they had them, they weren't using them because they probably didn't fully understand how to apply it like Terry said to that specific site.
and ultralight. What do we got here, Terry? We're moving from just trending. This is something that we obviously are going to dive into just because of the significance, but to get into the drone industry stuff on the tech side here, you got something really interesting.
Terry Neff (22:22)
Yeah, so I found this link on Google. Thank you Google for making these episodes possible for us I Think it yeah over in China at I'm probably gonna pronounce this wrong B hang University
Samuel S (22:30)
That's a sponsor, huh?
Terry Neff (22:40)
They made a, so basically, I'm just gonna sum it up in simple words, they made a drone that is lighter than a piece of paper that can theoretically just keep going. mean, there would be mechanical failure and that's what ended up happening. I think one of the rotors broke or something after an hour, but it sustained flight using the solar energy of the sun and it sustained flight for an hour.
Samuel S (23:10)
Quite remarkable. I mean, just going through this article. Palm -sized miniature rotocraft, purely powered by solar, lift its own given mass with nothing but sunlight. The entire thing weighs about as much as four paperclips. Wow. Can fly all day if the sun is shining.
Of course I can see that. Go ahead.
Terry Neff (23:34)
Yeah, so I mean, I mean, it's not doing anything like too useful. Sorry, it's not I mean, it's not doing anything too useful now other than just like gaining data. But this is a step in the right direction for like, mean, imagine you had one of these big, big boys and it could have a camera on it and it was at the Trump rally and it was just scanning constantly without using battery power. mean, I don't
Paul Rossi (24:01)
Yeah, this video, because there's decent amount to unpack. And he's lifting the piece of paper in the video. And once he lifts the piece of paper, the solar panels, they receive the light. So they also have a brush, like a little mini tiny drone brushless motors that they took off and they were flying.
This video is talking about how cool drones are in this research. So they uncover the solar panels. It's balanced by this board. So you can see the board has wiring.
And there's this rotor and this video will continue, but it's shown the two solar panels. It's connected up to that module, like the board that modulates things. And it's about the polarity in the stators. And every other stator has reversed polarity, positive, negative. And then as
As the rotors go through it, they're reversing the polarity and the reverse polarity pushes it away. So it's constantly.
pulling itself or pushing, pulling itself toward the next rotor or stator and pushing itself from the previous stator. It's really crazy technology. And so it's using the electricity in real time. It's not storing it. And the conventional motor you can see in this video is getting very warm and hot. With this design that they've created for this motor,
It's very open and the temperature stays very low. And now what you see here is look how small this is. Look how tiny that motor is. It is a different one, but the same concept. Like this right here, I'm going to guess this is millimeters.
Terry Neff (26:03)
I think that's a different
Samuel S (26:05)
a few different.
Terry Neff (26:15)
It's a little cute drone. It's like a little bug.
Samuel S (26:17)
little baby drone you can just pop
Paul Rossi (26:22)
And so it's not so much that this is the drone, as much as this could be four motors. And it's super lightweight, powered by the sun.
Samuel S (26:32)
I mean there's no battery, can you imagine like trying to lift off with a battery? No way.
Paul Rossi (26:41)
So you use enough of these and it can only fly in sunlight. So the whole outside, the whole top of your drone would be a solar panel and you'd have like 8, 10, 15 of these. And it's the...
Terry Neff (26:58)
all i can think about is putting one these bad boys on a paper airplane and somehow like using it to make a very lightweight paper airplane just keeps going
Paul Rossi (27:10)
And so this one here, looks like it only has two stators, right? Like on each side is your stator of alternate polarity with your very small five or six rotors here. And then these are pitch. Those are your blades. Look how tiny your blades are. so this thing is, if really I looking in the video, this is a quarter here,
this tiny electrostatic.
motor drone, EVTOL is
It's tinier than George Washington
Terry Neff (27:52)
That took some skill to make. We gotta appreciate that. Some fine craftsmanship right there.
Paul Rossi (28:00)
It's truly fascinating.
And they had one fly, like Terry said, for an hour until it experienced a mechanical failure.
just slide it up and down.
Samuel S (28:20)
Very curious how this is gonna look as it gets scaled
Paul Rossi (28:33)
And this next one here, as I mentioned last week, this doesn't make sense to me. This is going to be fun to unpack because...
There's some that are like 100 % EV. have to be all, you know, like EV or die and dump tons of money into EV. And then there's the other folks that are like, I want to go a little gasoline. And, you know, I would really prefer to just drill my gas from right underneath my house. And we should drill as much as we can because...
At the end of the day, the way I see it, I just want energy prices to go down. And if you want to pick to drive and use gas as your form of energy for your car, that's great. If you want to use your home electricity for your energy, that's fine. As long as both prices are going down, I'll be a pretty happy camper. But with that said, the big thing is Terry was like, I think he was like anti NASCAR EV, the sound or something like that. And now what
What I'm finding out is Terry's like pro EV Harley Davidson. And if there's anything that is supposed to be loud and obnoxious, it's a Harley Davidson, Terry. But you're telling me that you could get down with a like a electric Harley?
Terry Neff (30:04)
Well, hear me out. Nobody likes driving down the road and hearing somebody with four speakers and their loud Harley with down facing exhaust hitting the concrete. Nobody likes that. right. And I think, yeah, it's terrible. have one and I don't like it. All right. It's stupid. All right. Now, the reason I like motorcycles and the reason I'm starting to get into it.
Paul Rossi (30:18)
Hate it. I hate it. I don't just not like it.
Terry Neff (30:33)
is because it's very efficient. It's a little dangerous, but it's very efficient. I mean, you're getting like 40 miles a gallon on my 1990 motorcycle that I have. Could you imagine the efficiency on a...
Paul Rossi (30:45)
That's a great year, by the way. Anyone listening? 1990, probably the best year in history, but you can continue,
Terry Neff (30:53)
I'm glad you think that. I would say 2004 when I was born was the best year, I don't know.
Paul Rossi (31:00)
Someone else was born in 1990, but you can guess who that was.
Terry Neff (31:06)
Yeah, so I mean, it's just the efficiency of having a motorcycle. then imagine the mean, Harley's only get up to I would say like 115 unless you have like the screaming eagle. There's faster. We're talking about like chopper type bikes. Yeah, the speed on this thing would be terrifying to have and the torque on it would be like the cops wouldn't chase these they would just give up immediately.
Paul Rossi (31:21)
Speed. Okay.
on a an electric gap.
Terry Neff (31:39)
There's no sound, can't even hear where it's at. It's gone.
Paul Rossi (31:43)
It's like, I think 75 miles to the gallon was like what I was getting on a Ninja 250. So that's the thing, like most bikes inherently are just like have really good gas mileage. But I don't think people are riding their Harley's because they're like, I'm trying to get great gas mileage. It's about the vibration on your...
Terry Neff (31:52)
Yeah, no, it's ridiculous.
Paul Rossi (32:10)
right? It's about that the the the loudness but like you said the bike's so loud the speakers have to be even louder. It's very none of it makes sense and I think that's what makes it make sense and this is crazy right? Cuz now to get from Harley is going to
Terry Neff (32:20)
you
Paul Rossi (32:34)
manufacturer research or how do you know develop electric motorcycles receiving 89 million dollars in federal funding the federal government is handing out 89 million dollars
electric motorcycles as part of a $1 .7 billion federal investment that is associated with the inflation reduction
I'm confused.
Right? Not sure how this is going to like getting electric Harley -Davidson's. mean, you know, bike week is going to be quiet, you know? Hey, you could take your kids to Daytona bike week now because it'll be a little quieter. But how this reduces inflation is interesting. So $89 million for a manufacturing plant in of all places, Pennsylvania.
Terry Neff (33:37)
I think.
Paul Rossi (33:43)
right, Biden administration announced this. So it's really interesting because then on the other side, as I mentioned in the beginning of this conversation, there's like dumping just millions of dollars into this electric stuff where it has value, but I don't know if that is what it needs versus the other side's like, hey, I'm repealing all this for the requirement for electric.
So some of this EV stuff is almost like other things. It's almost manufactured. Speaking of manufacturing, it's like the need and the drive for electric is manufactured by retraining 1 ,300 union workers and hiring another 125 employees. So what are your thoughts, Samuel? What do you think?
money, politics, EV investment.
Samuel S (34:43)
In terms of like, do you think would be an appropriate amount to invest for EV? Cause I mean, this was what 89, how much you said billion? That's huge. So I'm just trying to think million. Okay. I was like, yeah, there's million billion.
Paul Rossi (34:54)
million.
Terry Neff (34:55)
million.
Paul Rossi (34:57)
million
Terry Neff (34:58)
And that's just the...
Paul Rossi (35:01)
One million.
Terry Neff (35:02)
And that's just the Harley Davidson. I think the total was bigger.
Samuel S (35:03)
it's
Right. So I'm just trying to think in my head, like, if I was going to like, I'm trying to think what Harley Davidson is doing. Are they trying to like specifically go for a new audience? Because I mean, like you said, Paul, there's already kind of an audience built out for Harley. So I mean, what are they doing here? Are they specifically just going for, you know, we'll make you an electric motorcycle. Here it is. And you get one and that's kind of it. But they got the 89 million.
Paul Rossi (35:37)
Yeah, so to get into that, so this groundbreaking program is catalyzing expansion of industrial capacity to meet the president's climate goals and allow tens of thousands of skilled American workers to participate in the great comeback story of American manufacturing.
a national climate advisor to the president said. So the investment is one, because we got to save the climate. And then two, it's reinvesting into plants that are at risk. I think it was
It's converting 11 closed or at -risk auto manufacturing facilities in eight states to make these electric motorcycles or the parts for
Terry Neff (36:49)
bet the workers are happy for that.
Paul Rossi (36:51)
But you know, this does make sense because think about it, there is this whole push. I didn't realize it. Like, you're not going to, like, if things went the way they're supposed to by 2035, all vehicles have to be electric, all new vehicles. Right? Gas vehicles aren't just going to poof disappear. It's like the way that it was going is by this year, every new vehicle is electric. You could still buy your used gas
So that kind of makes sense, because if you say vehicles, you mean motorcycles
So it's almost
This is just another piece of the whole EV pie.
Which is very interesting because I guess now as I'm learning, a lot of this is politically driven. You know, our cars ruining the environment. Is this happening? What's best for the auto manufacturing industry jobs in America? There's a hell of a lot of people that are employed. I think we talked about it previously. 1 .4 % of the US population is.
employed in auto industry. It's like over 4 million people have jobs in auto, so. Lots of layers here.
Samuel S (38:22)
So I mean, is there any details on how long this is supposed to last, that money? Like, do they have a roadmap of the years of this much we allocated for this year, this year, this year? Because I think that would, I don't know, I would find that incredibly beneficial to know that, hey, by 2029, we're going to be self -sufficient having our own plants with EV Harleys coming out. Or are they going to need more funding after that? Government funding.
Paul Rossi (38:23)
But,
Samuel S (38:49)
Cause that's the big kind of takeaway for me is like, is this going to be a one -off payment, which probably not, but I mean, that's kind of where the EV space is for minus a select few, would say.
but that might just be the nitty gritty.
Paul Rossi (39:17)
Yeah, that's a good question. It doesn't really say here. It just says they announced it. Today's announcement complements, Jesus, $177 billion in private sector investment in EV and battery manufacturing.
you have to pay, maybe dive back in there, but like, see what you're saying. Like over how much time, like, are they just getting a lump sum? Is it, is it based on certain, milestones I would imagine as far as hiring and things of that nature.
Sam, are you getting yourself a motorcycle? You have an electric.
Samuel S (39:54)
I mean, as an EV motorcycle, that sounds kinda cool. I'll have to think about that. Ride up to Terry's place with it, all quiet. Yeah, that'd be cool.
Paul Rossi (40:01)
Did you have a sidecar?
Terry Neff (40:02)
Can I defend myself real quick?
Paul Rossi (40:05)
Yeah. you're going to get a sidecar for it so that you can like, is it like a long range battery? He's like, come on, you could do storage and increase the range.
Terry Neff (40:06)
So the
That'd be pretty cool. I'm going to defend myself real quick. reason I'm not on, like I don't like the NASCAR, NASCAR is stupid as is, but if it was like the street racing thing, it'd be cool. But if they're going around in circles, man, you at least got to make them loud. That's my stance on it. I'm down for electrified vehicles. I like hybrid vehicles. I want a hybrid vehicle. It's great gas mileage. I still want the gas component of it.
Paul Rossi (40:26)
Hahaha.
Terry Neff (40:43)
because I think they're a little more reliable right now, but electric will get there eventually. I'm just saying now, I'm not riding with EV. I don't think it shouldn't. I think it should develop in the future and I hope it does. But for now, I like my gas cars and I would rather have a gas or an electric motorcycle than a gas motorcycle. That's all I'm saying. All right, done.
Samuel S (41:04)
Have you seen the e -bikes, Terry?
Terry Neff (41:06)
Yeah, yeah, no, they're the electrified motorcycles. Yeah, but they're not like crazy. Like they definitely those needed to be developed the most in my opinion.
Samuel S (41:07)
There's some pretty sick e -bikes.
Paul Rossi (41:14)
okay. All right. You haven't seen this
Terry Neff (41:19)
Clearly
Paul Rossi (41:20)
You haven't seen the... I gotta make sure.
Samuel S (41:23)
I fell down that rabbit hole and I just got e -bike ads for like three days.
kind of cool.
Terry Neff (41:29)
I think we need to make the driving test a little harder before I'm like real into motorcycles. Because I almost get hit in my car.
Paul Rossi (41:37)
And the other thing too is, but like Formula One, like if you really think about Formula One, that is a hybrid engine. It's a really small, I think 1 .8 liter engine in a Formula One car. And then they've got battery. So they're like charging the battery. And actually when they do the DRS assist or whatever it is, they're actually using battery power in order to like have that very quick passing and...
quick takeoff speed. So this is a company called Amflow. A -F -L -O -W. For those listening on audio only, you got a sweet picture of an Amflow bike just shredding up some leaves and debris and just cutting into a mountain. You see this bike?
If I told you that this was powered by DJI, would you be surprised?
Samuel S (42:44)
Honestly, kind of no.
Terry Neff (42:45)
Not at all. They make batteries, man.
Paul Rossi (42:49)
This is an electric mountain
Samuel S (42:51)
They have a sick website, I want to say that.
Paul Rossi (42:52)
and
This is an electric mountain bike. Look at that frame. Inside that frame is a DJI Avinox, Avinox, Avinox power drive system.
This just came out. I do not know the answer to that question. But this video right here, this cutaway, that right there, that isn't the Avinox DJI electric drivetrain system for a mountain
Samuel S (43:19)
Where is this being manufactured?
Terry Neff (43:20)
How much does this cost?
my friends into mountain biking. lives in Arkansas, like one of the biggest, like, like they have the most like trails for mountain biking. I'm going send this to him later. I'm sure he'll like this.
Paul Rossi (43:58)
They, it's like the drone. It's got different modes. Like you could put your car or your drone. You can have it in tripod mode, slow mode. It has eco mode, trail mode, turbo mode. Turbo mode.
Terry Neff (44:17)
As if mountain biking wasn't dangerous enough.
Samuel S (44:17)
That's crazy.
Paul Rossi (44:19)
And for the most challenging trails or steep inclines, activate boost mode.
IN -SANE. It's got walk mode.
Samuel S (44:32)
I wanna see more videos of them going up with it, cause it's just making it look like a breeze.
Terry Neff (44:36)
Not walk mode.
Paul Rossi (44:40)
So this battery is just in the frame. They built a super lightweight frame using materials. And DJI has taken this technology that they've, right, the same type of electric propulsion, charging, right, zero to 75 in an hour and a half. Anyway, don't know. How the hell did we get on bikes?
Terry Neff (45:06)
How much does this cost?
Paul Rossi (45:07)
That's a good question, right? You want one? It doesn't say. I don't think, did they put the price out? Yeah, they didn't. I subscribed. just so you know, I put my email in here because I was like, I might need a new hobby. Yeah.
Samuel S (45:10)
Go to the top right order button.
Terry Neff (45:11)
Not me, personally.
I'll be waiting, I'll be waiting.
Post this link in the discord for me. I'll send it to my friend and if he gets one I'll let you know how it is.
Paul Rossi (45:30)
We'll have them on. But it's it's crazy. It just goes on and on and it's got the app. It's got anti theft. It's I mean it'll lock itself up. It will literally lock the. Go ahead.
Terry Neff (45:37)
That's pretty cool.
Mountain bikes take a lot of hits. I wonder how durable it is. Because I mean, there's a frame there. Yeah. And it's a square frame. I wonder how like hard it could get hit before it just breaks completely.
Like that's a lot of repairing to do for that. Cause that's the whole frame that probably costs like 600 bucks easily.
Paul Rossi (46:10)
Yeah,
That's a good question. It looks like they have a couple of different options here as far as how many watt hours. You got 800 watt hours, 600 watt hour options.
I mean, looking at what from the images and stuff they have on here, looks like they've like built.
built a legit mountain bike and they've just figured out how to insert. Yeah, and then just insert this into the system. I do that? I'll drop that in the chat. So that was some cool stuff. How did we get on the bikes?
Terry Neff (46:41)
make it faster.
Samuel S (46:52)
Harley bikes, then to the e -bikes, then the mountain bikes.
Terry Neff (46:52)
Getting a little off topic never hurt anybody.
Paul Rossi (46:55)
Yeah. Bikes. was good one there. See DJI. And then when I saw that, I'm like, my God, they're going to steal your bike route information. Whoa. Like, like, like when, yeah, it's just like, it's like, so even if you take this, it's just like, this company is literally finding a way to take that, that proven electric propulsion motor drive and, and, and build it and adapt it into other things.
Terry Neff (47:04)
No.
Paul Rossi (47:21)
moving on. Couple stories to wrap up here. Our success story, case study success story for the week. Youngstown Police Department in Ohio. Drone used to catch suspects in chase.
City Patrolman, Dillon Bell.
Heard the call for a chase early Tuesday morning. Dylan Bell is the midnight shift officer. He's the only drone pilot on the midnight shift for the Youngstown, Ohio Police Department. Tuesday morning on North Side, he started to head that way from the South Side B in case he was needed. He didn't know that he would not only end up helping out, but he would be using one of the department's drones for the first time.
when there was an actual crime in progress. The drone tracked two people who had banded a stolen Mercedes.
Two and a half years, Sergeant Bell has been with the PD and he became a drone operator after his lieutenant who leads the drone program for the police department asked him if he'd be willing to become a drone operator. He's mentioned it's something that's going to bring the police department into the future.
This Sergeant Bell had taken some online courses that lasted about a month and then he took the exam. And what he mentioned was he had received the 107, his remote pilot certificate, very recently. And all of his flights really up until this point had been flying just in more of a training environment.
What an awesome success story how first time out, right, this patrolman deploys the drone and is able to suspects of a stolen vehicle.
Samuel S (49:42)
Pretty impressive.
Terry Neff (49:47)
I'd be upset if I got caught by a drone, at least when they use the helicopter that took effort. That's just some dude sitting in his patrol car, put his DJI on top of the roof, doing it as lazily as possible.
Samuel S (49:59)
That's called effective skills put into a practice, I'd say. Yeah. Yeah.
Terry Neff (50:03)
That is effective. It would make me upset.
Paul Rossi (50:04)
He
He said sitting in his car putting the drone on his roof.
Samuel S (50:11)
The Cruiser.
Terry Neff (50:13)
This is third shift worker we're talking about, He was asleep most likely when he got the call.
Samuel S (50:15)
You think he threw out the launch pad?
Paul Rossi (50:17)
You know, this is like two in the morning. It's dark out, you know, what are you supposed to like? Like you could go chasing like this for departments that don't have a drone. This is there's like what two outcomes they have to chase the person. Into an area that they aren't familiar with. Where the person's maybe laying in wait or they don't even chase him at
And they just go, meh, meh, the car's here. Do we need to catch the people?
Samuel S (50:54)
Well, I feel like this is a really interesting point too, because it talks about he got one of them and then the other two got out. So I feel like at that point you don't even bother chasing. You might as well like, Hey, you know, I can't chase after someone who's like already a minute ahead of me, but what can I use? can use the technology at hand and speed up and catch with them, you know, especially with thermal.
Paul Rossi (51:22)
Yeah, you're right. The driver of the Mercedes was taken into custody. other people ran away. And then the other thing too is when you have three people running, it's like, how do you know where to go? You might have two officers. It's nighttime, right? One verse three, even two verse three, you don't have the upper hand. Most folks are taught, at least in the military, you're taught, you really don't standard operations.
You don't engage if you know you don't have, right, an advantage, an upper hand, some sort of superiority, whether it's location, troop size, weapons capability. Like there's very few instances with special operations and, you know, the things you see in the movies where it's like, yo, we don't have any other option. There's five of us. There's three of us. There's four of us. Like that movie Lone Survivor comes to mind where it's
You know, your back's against the wall. So search for the people in the darkness. In darkness, he was looking for their heat signatures through the drone's thermal camera. And you mentioned Samuel, after 10 minutes, he was able to locate two of them. So a real force multiplier.
And I'm sure he got out of the car, Terry, and like at least folded the arms out, you know?
Terry Neff (52:53)
I I was
i was joking man, we gotta add something,
Paul Rossi (53:00)
Well, soon it's going to be from a computer. Why not have it be from a computer? DFR, drone as a first responder. The officer doesn't even have to be on site. You literally just click a point on the map. That's, that's, that's
Terry Neff (53:12)
That person's definitely going to be asleep. Working from home, 12 a .m.
Paul Rossi (53:17)
ultimate efficiency.
And now, so go ahead, Samuel.
Samuel S (53:21)
Nah, I had this crazy vision of like, there's a tube on a tall building somewhere and it shoots the drone, like it does a pneumatic air cannon, shoots the drone out, the drone's active, it turns on, it starts going to where it needs to go, just... I don't know where my mind's going, I just envisioned that when you said... Yeah.
Terry Neff (53:41)
it lets out smaller drones so it can scan the area more effectively.
Samuel S (53:45)
That's crazy.
Paul Rossi (53:46)
That's what they're shooting out of like aircraft. They're like they're like instead of shooting like a missile you can shoot the drone I think one of them was called the switchblade
Terry Neff (53:55)
Yeah, we went over that, I think, right? The Switchblade, I'm pretty sure.
Paul Rossi (53:57)
Did we?
Samuel S (53:57)
Was that the?
That was like one of the first episodes I think.
Terry Neff (54:02)
potentially. Yeah, that's a while ago.
Paul Rossi (54:05)
Yeah, I think so. It just shoots out and then unfolds like a switchblade.
Terry Neff (54:10)
mortars that are more dangerous somehow.
Paul Rossi (54:12)
Yes. And so the last thing in closing here, one of the two last things is the NDAA, which we've discussed previously.
The Senate version of the NDAA has been published. And so there's the House version, there's the Senate version, the House votes on theirs, the Senate votes on theirs. And what we've seen, and there's a DroneLife article that was posted this week that discusses how the Senate version of the NDAA does not
the countering CCP drones
The House version includes it, but the Senate version doesn't. So when the Senate put theirs together, it doesn't include any of this ban anti -Chinese, anti -DGI, none of those drones anymore. So the House voted yes for that version. The Senate is voting on a different version.
If they're approved and there's differences, then they have to have a committee, which the article explains, then that committee comes together and they have to hash out and compromise like, all right, you know, let's get rid of that. You know, we should include this. And they come to an agreement that agreed on final version is revoted on and likely accepted. So.
while things were looking doomy and gloomy like two weeks ago with the way that the House version was being approved, the fact that it's been left out of the Senate version means that there's still hope. So then they approve this, they get together, and then someone's really going to have to explain why that ban has to take place. But I think a lot of people have spoken
And I think that there is momentum in order to prevent that. Now, what the Senate version has is not, they didn't include the Countering CCP Drones Act, but what they have included is verbiage and wording that speaks to the direction we should be headed. authorized increased funding for the development of new and innovative...
design manufacturing and productive techniques of uncrewed systems, and then requires a strategy to develop a secure domestic and allied supply chain of critical components for drones. So they're not saying, let's just ban DJI. What is that going to fix? We need to fund the development
and secure domestic and allied supply chain. We need to create something that's not going to just stop and make a change today, but something we can actually build on for years to come. And then it also includes language that applies to counter UAS technology, which we talked about previously with the drone cannon or gun or whatever it is.
And it's saying we need to develop and have our own systems just like we need our own UAS systems. So things look promising. mean, there is certainly some common sense still in existence.
at this level. Any thoughts you guys have on
Samuel S (58:16)
I think that's really some good news that we've received over the past. mean, how many episodes we've been talking about it comparatively. It's exciting to hear. I was kind of thinking things were not looking so great. So that was brought up to the table.
Paul Rossi (58:32)
Yeah. So for the drones that you have that are DJI that are in existence, whether it's your Phantoms, your Avadas, your Avada 2, your FPV stuff, your mini drone, you're going to be able to continue to fly that and enjoy it. no one at a consumer level needs to be losing any sleep that their drone is going to get taken away, zapped, or become irrelevant.
And at this point, the future outlook for new products and systems for the commercial and civilian side, it is looking hopeful that a more phased approach can come. If this is a security risk, then we should not be using it at the federal level. And those limitations already exist. There's already bans on these products.
I think the industry is in a good position. A lot of people have spoken out. We mentioned Luis Figueredo in our first segment. He is one of those people that is as active as anyone else of making sure that people hear the value of that DJI product in public safety. And how I guarantee you, I don't think it said
But the Youngstown Police Department guarantee you it was a DJI drone. And so at this point, public safety agencies, they want you to know they're using drones. They're probably not just going to come out and say, hey, it was a DJI drone. Because what we really need for the industry is just for people in general to talk about the value that they're adding.
And if we can continue to use DJI, there's going to be a lot more conversations about how valuable drones are without the brand being attached to it. And that's what's going to drive government support at the federal level, state level, positive VC investment, not no bullshit stories, but like the truth, the truth of what drones can add.
A great episode.
Samuel S (1:00:41)
exciting topics like the EV bikes.
Paul Rossi (1:00:41)
Another great episode. Yes, starting out. definitely some real -time political drama happening in real time. And as I mentioned to someone else, the politics and drama have probably always gone hand in hand. I think I'm getting old. I know I'm getting old.
I have kids. One can hit a baseball that you pitch to them. So I'm like, this is awesome. But when I'm even thinking or recognizing more of what the hell's happening in politics, you're not 20 years old. Well, there are some people, there's some definitely youthful folks heavily involved in politics. But for the most part, know...
I don't think there's a lot of 20 year olds that had the news on TV while they were going in and out of washing their car. But any who we were able to dive into that and discuss a little about how drones could have helped at this event and how people will probably be not just dropping drones off at these sorts of events going forward, but really taking a
dive into if a drone was here and available or if a drone was sitting in a box and wasn't used, how should it have been used? Where should it have been used? And hopefully we see that in the future. We talked about the ultralight electrostatic VTOL drone with the feat of engineering, the
the new method of power and then also how small it was. was a really cool story that Google provided Terry this week. Spent more time talking about Harley -Davidson than I ever thought I would in my whole entire life. But that's cool, this whole electric thing. And hey, if the money's there, use it or lose it, that's what they say, right?
I'm sure Harley, Harley isn't complaining and who can argue against jobs. Police in Youngstown using drones to help aid in the search for suspects on foot during nighttime operations. know, congratulations to Sergeant Bell out there for, you know, his first mission using his drone and applying his
107 certificate. job. Great job there. And then, know, little ending the episode on a positive note with the Senate version of the NDAA, which looks like it may leave the door open for a phased approach to tackling this, you know, UAS manufacturing puzzle that is still...
still very much in pieces. So thank you everybody for tuning in and for listening. As always, we appreciate your time and attention and for you checking in, reading, and supporting DroneLife .com. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Samuel, for all the value that you added. Really appreciate that. And we hope everybody has a phenomenal week, and we'll see you on the next episode.
