FAA Reauthorization Act & Drone vs. F1 Car | May 27, 2024

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 deep into how these remarkable vehicles are impacting construction, education, 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 another fantastic episode of Weekly Wings. Happy Memorial Day. Thank you to all those who served and especially to those who gave their lives fighting for our great country. Happy Memorial Day. How are you doing, Terry Samuel? Samuel (01:13) I'm doing great and I like that intro we have going on. Bird's eye view of all the news and all that. That's pretty nice. But yeah, I'm doing great. Terry, how are you doing? You said you're doing good? Terry Neff (01:26) Just fine. Happy Memorial Day, everyone. Thank you for your service. Sorry. Samuel (01:31) I think we have some fun topics today. Just as a go ahead, Paul. Paul Rossi (01:33) Yeah, we gotta grade it. Yeah, great episode today. A lot of really interesting stuff. The theme of drone light shows just continues to make its way into the news again this week. We'll be talking about the FAA Reauthorization Act. We'll be taking a look at the world's fastest camera drone, putting it right up against a Formula One fastest man in Formula One, Max Verstappen. Samuel (01:42) Yeah, you can say that again. Paul Rossi (02:05) Talking about Port San Antonio and some eVTOL drones, what's happening there. From a regulatory perspective, we have a story right here coming out of the great state of North Carolina. Those are the cool things we will be discussing in this week's episode. The FA Reauthorization Act. Terry, what can you tell us, general kind of summary here, what sticks out at you with the FA Reauthorization Act and how is that maybe going to lead to developments? Terry Neff (02:52) well the biggest thing i've seen was giving a time frame for the f a to give us a rule set for the bv loss that i mean i think it's he said five th th thirteen months so they gotta make a rule set by our proposition by the fifth month and then make it final by the thirteenth month As we all know, the FAA are not the fastest human beings on the planet, not like Max Verstappen by any means. So this is really big to push development forward for the drone community. Paul Rossi (03:30) Yeah, BVLOS, Beyond Visual Line of Sight. Drones have made such a huge impact across the country, across the world, even just being operated within visual line of sight, a lot of manual piloting, real estate, information, data, construction, marketing, just police, public safety, the ability to quickly deploy a drone. And then maintaining that visual on the site from a Compliance E standpoint and it's safe, right? How do you make sure? That that drone is an impacting manned aviation Helicopters fixed -wing aircraft You know those those other aircraft they can't necessarily see the drone But also the five and the 13. I don't know where Where you got those numbers from? I think four, right? Four. Terry Neff (04:26) Sorry, sorry. 16 months is the cutoff. Paul Rossi (04:31) Yeah, so four months. So from the reauthorization, there will be four months in order to propose a BV loss proposed rulemaking. And then 16 months from that date would be the timeline in order to get these new proposed rules. into effect for operators across the US. So a potential 20 -month timeline, which I think, Terry, you mentioned seems fast in the speed of the FAA. What do you see in Samuel, your thoughts, FAA Reauthorization Act? Samuel (05:16) Well, I just kind of wanted to put it into perspective too, for like civilian people that are not familiar with drones or even new drone beginners, like what BV loss means for them. Because as someone who has flown over years now, I initially, you know, beyond visual line of sight, kind of, you know, kind of iffy, but now that I've been in the industry, the field, and I understand the capability of the technology we're using and how safe it can actually be and how. close we actually are for it to being a reality. I'm a believer in it, you know, and I just kind of wanted to shine a little light on to like why that is specifically for some of those new people that might be being introduced to this. Like why, why should it be that way? You know, but I think it's just because we've proven that it can kind of be done, you know, with I don't want to hog the floor with this conversation, but. Being able to see like, hey, you know, we have all of the telemetry coming in. We're seeing that from all of the instruments that are being used. We're seeing great stuff coming back. Why specifically do we need eyes on? Yeah, there's a good reason for it to have eyes on, but if we're doing it safely and pushing forward kind of that technology, I don't know. I think that's kind of a good thing that we're seeing coming out of this. Paul Rossi (06:40) Yeah, and a huge right, it also gives the FAA the funding that it needs in order to just continue all operations over the next five years. $105 billion was voted on. And then it's just waiting to be signed by the president. So. The rulemaking, I think two additional test sites. So some of the other, we've got here the article pulled up, dronelife .com. Some of the other key elements of the reauthorization is the additional test sites for companies to leverage for what seems to be package delivery. testing and then other kind of advanced UAS operations. Extending the Beyond program, which centers around developing standards, engaging communities, and informing policies. So the Beyond program has helped advance operations on the package delivery side, but then also from a security and inspection standpoint, longer range operations. less operations and less risk environments of less risk. And then providing the authority to expedite approvals for, again, lower risk beyond visual line of sight operations, think pipeline inspections, remote areas, areas where even if the drone were to say fail, because that's probably one of the most important things we have to think about is if this drone were to completely fail, what would happen? Is it going to? be putting people at risk? Is it going to be putting property at risk? Or is this going to be happening in the middle of nowhere in a region where humans just don't go? So and then also empty and low population density and shielded operations. So within 100 feet of the ground, right? Being able to keep that drone, I think we've talked about previously in environments where Samuel (08:54) completely empty areas essentially. Paul Rossi (09:12) Again, there's lower risk that that drone is going to be coming into contact with a helicopter, fixed wing airplane, or any other aircraft in flight. Samuel (09:30) Honestly, it seems kind of revolutionary to see this going to be put in place and practiced. Kind of just, I'm assuming this is like the proving ground per se to say, hey, this is what we can do with this and let's see how well it works. Paul Rossi (09:49) In the DFR, Brink has unveiled a responder drone with a box for DFR. We discussed last week the congressional hearing, which was really neat to hear. Of course, Country of Origin came up, security came up. What's the biggest challenge for DFR? It's not the technology, it's the regulatory aspect. So a lot of folks on the public safety side just sat in Washington at the end of last week and testified saying, hey, DFR, Drone as a First Responder, is really helping departments. It's helping the communities. It's advancing public safety. But... There's huge regulatory challenges when it comes to real value added DFR, where you got the drone in the box 24 -7, remote deploying it. Because if you can't send that beyond the visual line of sight of the remote pilot or even a visual observer, then how is it going to get to the site in 90 seconds unless everybody's perfectly positioned? So I don't know if it's interesting or strategic. in the sense of, hey, here's everybody talking about DFR. You've got these companies coming out with these DFR drone -in -a -box solutions. The costs are getting lower. And at the same time, here's four months. You need to come up with a proposed set of rules. And then, hey, within 16 months after that, we need to get these rules into effect. Samuel (11:30) I'm just kind of curious, have you by chance actually gotten to see drone in the box for practical uses? Like, I don't know if you've seen anyone use it in the field and seen it. I don't know, I'm just kind of curious if that's kind of starting to be integrated in an actual aspect. Paul Rossi (11:46) So they're 100 % outside of public safety. There's multiple companies, Nightingale out of California, they've got a drone in a box. And they were actually mentioned, the company came up during the congressional hearing, I think, New York City is either using or has used or has tested their product. I know they have a product in operation here in North Carolina. You've got... In addition to that, at the like a 10 federal storage location in Raleigh. There's the hive or the can't remember why the just can't remember that company right now, but they have a drone in a box solution that's more tailored to security versus public safety. So there's just like Acelon. We talked about Acelon and I think the first episode, right? They've designed and developed a drone in a box that's there for security purpose, but it's not a first responder. So it's never going to leave the confines of the property you own. So that's the other thing. Having a drone in a box that's readily deployable beyond visual on a site, it doesn't always mean it's going to go save somebody's life, right? Businesses want a drone in a box. just to fly around their construction site. A really small footprint and they don't ever want the drone to leave that footprint. So there's companies that are trying to tackle, again, all these various use cases because just like you have a truck in a fire department uses a truck to tow their boat for their life saving operations, that same truck is on a construction site. And it's being used to haul materials. So same exact vehicle being integrated into two totally different operations. And that's exactly what drones could be compared to. Samuel (13:57) I'm just kind of curious. I mean, from my understanding of how that would work is like me, if I, if I had those automated flights going, so I set it for 2 PM, it, takes off from its drone in the box area with its wireless charging in the box. This is me just speculating from what I know, but takes off, does an automated flight, everything it needs to come back after 10 minutes and it lands again. Me as the operator, I would have to be engaged with that. mission, right? I mean, I'd have to sit there and make sure that, okay, you know, it's 2 p It's about to let's go make sure everything's good. Prior to that flight, I needed to do my pre -flight and then my post -flight afterwards because it's automated, right? But you still have to be somewhat involved. I don't know, just from your understanding of how that mission would, what do you think that would look like? Paul Rossi (14:45) The drones are ready just like that. It's like a Google calendar. You can schedule it. You could say every Monday. You could say every other Monday. You could say the first Monday of the month. You can say the time. So that technology is 100 % ready to go. It's available. It's a couple tens, thousands of dollars, right? And... The to actually capture that value of deploying on a scheduled basis, you've got to integrate your DAA, right? Your detect and avoid. So your ground -based radar, those autonomous systems that can do what the operator would be doing. And when you are... So taking the human out of the loop from a construction standpoint, because then yes, so a construction company might want that drone in a box to go off at the same time every day, and they have the technology in place for detecting a void so a human doesn't actually have to be in the loop. And it's in a very confined space. Samuel (15:58) Hmm. Paul Rossi (16:02) Right? Same time, it becomes very scheduled with the ability to tap into that drone at any time and manually fly it. So with DF -R, it's... larger area and the calls are going to go to very unknown locations. So automating that fully becomes very difficult unless you have a sensor that goes off, a gunshot sensor that it can detect the location of or an actual camera. Otherwise, you know, you call 911, a human answers, and then they're dispatching something. to that address or that location. So you need the system where that dispatcher can then just quickly say, boom, boom, boom, the location, and then the drone goes right to the location. And from the moment you deploy it with the known location, it's all hands off. But then once you get there, the drone doesn't have the brain to be able to look around the way an officer. or an EMT normally would. Where's the victim? Drones don't have that. They can go fly A, B and avoid things on the way. But now once I get there, what the heck am I looking for? So that's where you circle and you start to hover, just stay in point. But at that point, you can then manually jump in and take control. and kind of operated. So there's. There's, I don't even want to call it levels. I don't know how to describe. Samuel (17:47) I mean, I would say you're definitely maximizing your time and like your usage because I mean, if you hadn't like, Hey, I'm going to be at the site in five minutes. You fill out other stuff that needs to be filled out while you're doing, I don't know. It seems very efficient, you know, or be there in five minutes or ping you. Then you take over. Paul Rossi (18:06) Yeah, and the other thing, it's like to have this thing from a construction standpoint or from a consistency standpoint where you don't have to worry about charging the batteries, bringing it with you, forgetting something. It's taking off from the same point, the same location every time the dock has RTK built into it. So your accuracy. So there's a lot of reasons to just start integrating these. these docs even without that full automation and beyond visual and psychs. A lot of it still it's, I was just saying, it's like a book, you know, when you get the book and you open it and it's like, all right, if you answer this, then go to this page. But if you answer this, go to that page. So everyone's trying to, in a sense, do the same thing. But it's like there's 15 different paths to get to these. Samuel (18:55) Lots of ways to... Paul Rossi (18:57) 28 different outcomes. Yeah, it's crazy. And then as everything with the drone industry, new products keep coming out. So it only gets more exciting as the technology continues to keep pace with and just stay ahead of the regulations. And then hopefully, hopefully this will be bringing in the the EV tolls pave in the way for the electric, you know, pilotless air taxis with the. with the rulemaking that gets in place, because that's the other thing. Yeah, the rules are going to come up. But then it's like, all right, well, now let's see for the next four months what conversations take place and what ideas are thrown out there and then what's proposed. And then from what's proposed over the next 16 months, what gets accepted. So really neat to know that we're moving forward. But there's going to be so much work done in conversation and agreement and maybe disagreement. but hopefully it's paving the way for. for that future that we're all hoping to see that leads to more successful integration and more clarity in what can be done and how to do it. Samuel (20:19) Have you had, I don't know if you have been fortunate enough to see a pilotless air taxi. I know Miriam said she saw one, I believe, I could be wrong, first episode. But I didn't know if anyone, specifically Paul, I don't think you, Terry, have seen a pilotless air taxi in person, have you? I have not. Terry Neff (20:39) I haven't, I think I've seen a photo of Paul next one actually. Paul Rossi (20:44) There's one, there's the Ehang, which made a lot of noise in like 2020, 2021 Chinese company. But compared to the Joby's and the archers and the beta flights, it's really not in the same bubble, but there is one I did. You see them at the trade shows and stuff. So it's kind of neat. Get in it, take a photo. I've never seen one flying in person. Terry Neff (21:11) Yeah. Samuel (21:11) I want to see that specifically, you know? Because I feel like I've seen, like, you know, what you're saying in the trade show, vehicles and whatnot, but to see one in the air moving around, that sounds pretty awesome. Terry Neff (21:23) with people in it. It's gonna have to have a few thousand test flights for me to hop on that bad boy, but I'm excited to see it happen. Paul Rossi (21:34) And with that, so now we're kind of looking at the tech side of the conversation here in this episode of Weekly Wings. And what we've got, Terry, I'm going to share my screen here. Tell the folks, what are we talking about this week when it comes to some cool drone tech? we've got the... Samuel (22:02) The volume's down on low, right? Terry Neff (22:07) Yeah, mixture of volumes on that. Paul Rossi (22:11) And it's pretty low, right? We're not blasting anybody out. Terry Neff (22:14) It's alright, it's alright. Paul Rossi (22:16) What are we looking at, Terry? What are we talking about this week? Terry Neff (22:19) So we have a FPV drone that can keep up with a F1 car in simple terms. I think it reaches 190 miles per hour at its top speed. I could be wrong about that. I think 350 kilometers per hour. So I don't know what that translates to. But it's just impressive that you can even keep up with an F1 car with anything, let alone, I mean, it did. it's shaped like a torpedo so I'm sure that helps but I don't know I'm super excited I don't even know how to formulate my words it's just insane technology Paul Rossi (22:57) Yeah, and we're looking at on the screen 280 kilometers an hour, 313, I think straight line, like 320 kilometers an hour. And so what we're seeing on the video here is FPV. Terry Neff (23:17) Turn the volume down a little bit. Sorry, I couldn't hear you. Paul Rossi (23:21) I'll turn the volume off. Here we go. Yeah. So you got FPV pilot, right? Flying with some fat shark on his radio master. But what they end up doing, and this is really cool, you can look it up, it's on the Red Bull YouTube channel, world's fastest camera drone versus an F1 car. The video's really neat because it goes through the whole how they built these, put them together. The first one they powered on, it just shorted out or something, just completely fried the wire. So second one went up. Terry Neff (23:54) It had too much power. Paul Rossi (24:00) From what the video is showing, it's very entertaining. It seems like some overheating, but they continue to fly. And they're just taping it up and trying to find the perfect performance. And they're getting this thing flying over 300. There you go, 352 kilometers an hour. It's like Terry said, like 190. Samuel (24:24) I'm trying to look up the 107 max. Do you remember that off the head? Yeah, what is the 107 max speed? I think it's 120. 110 miles per hour. Paul Rossi (24:31) What, 107? Terry Neff (24:32) Is there a 107 max speed? Paul Rossi (24:39) of Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, Samuel. What is it, Terry? Tell them what it is, Terry. You know, 100 miles an hour, 100 miles per hour, 87 knots. So part 107 operations in the US. But again, here, they're certainly not flying in the US. Samuel (24:41) I'm not, I'm just, I'm literally just seeing this thing go so fast and it's like they got waivers, right? Terry Neff (24:45) I don't know. I don't have the capabilities. Samuel (24:53) I don't. Right. Terry Neff (25:02) Yeah, no, I think it's got to be in some European country. Paul Rossi (25:07) And so they get it built out and everything. And you can't be bringing Max Verstappen. He's like, this guy's busy winning races. So they get another Red Bull racer out to the track so they can do some testing. And like Terry mentioned, you can see on the screen some C2 issues. They're just traveling at speeds that are from a Terry Neff (25:35) Insane. Paul Rossi (25:36) drone standpoint, just not common. And then the size of this racetrack is huge. So trying to balance all those variables is really hard. Terry Neff (25:53) making it be able to turn quickly. It's just insane that they're even able to do this. Paul Rossi (25:56) It's the videos and the videos on here that you can see right now if you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening on the podcast or audio only, the drone is just taking these corners and turns on this F1 track as smoothly as the F1 race car. It's keeping up with it. It's what they're saying and they were saying in the video is you've never seen it like this before. And I just... started watching F1 this year, this season, and they do not show it like this. It's very hard to really understand the speeds that these cars are traveling at. When you see these drone shots, it is insane. And then this clarity, 295 kilometers an hour on the screen. The video that plays back, it's beautiful. Terry Neff (26:58) And I think this is, if I'm not mistaken, I think Red Bull's paying these guys to make these drones so in the future they can record for the TV for the viewer's experience. Samuel (27:11) thing does look kind of sick though. Paul Rossi (27:12) Red Bull drone one and so like Terry said yeah, they just look at that. They just like the race car, you know, they're putting some money into this and so they refined it they created a Red Bull worthy product and there is There is Max Verstappen suited up jumping in the race car. And you've got to, so if you listen in on audio and you don't, you're not seeing this, you got to look this up because it ends up raining and they still film this and. The car, the color, the green, the water coming off the back of this car. It's beautiful, right? Samuel (28:04) Peace. Terry Neff (28:06) Beautiful. This is in England, by the way. I looked it up just a second ago. Paul Rossi (28:13) This is amazing. Samuel (28:16) I'd love to see that blown up on a big TV, essentially, 4K TV. I bet that'd look so good. Terry Neff (28:17) I mean it's just a beautiful creation. Paul Rossi (28:27) And like he said, yeah, just to watch the race. Like if this was the race. That'd be a really cool, cool angle. Look at all that construction right there that they're doing on that track. Samuel (28:39) That's a video game right there to be honest. Terry Neff (28:39) Yeah, I'm sure it's going to eventually get to that. I'm sure it's going to get to the point where we'll have a video feed. Kind of, I don't know, the way they film drifting events nowadays where they have the FPV drones. Obviously, they're not going as fast, but they're filming them going around the corners drifting. They'll eventually have that for F1. And keeping up with F1 cars is no easy feat. I mean, they're putting millions and millions of dollars into making these as fast as possible under certain. Paul Rossi (29:15) Right here, he gets ahead, gets ahead, makes the turn. my goodness. Crispy, right? Right there. Wow. And then the other thing too, as I was watching this, I was like algorithms, AI. Just build the hardware and then write software that can track the... It's just tracking software, but being able to have the speed and stability. that an F1 car requires. You just write it, just, just write. Then you don't need the helicopter because the cost of. Because that's right, they're using the helicopters right to track and and give you some, but they don't have the same. It's certainly not bringing the same. Terry Neff (30:04) Yeah, it's not the same effect. It's not tailing the cars. I mean, could you imagine having an FPV drone going behind the final lap of the number one leader and just seeing like four car links behind him of just nobody and then see the last dude? I don't know. It would be cinematic to have that angle for them to use for promotional anything. I don't know. I think it's worth it. Paul Rossi (30:27) And to get down into show and perspective, like how far that lead is, like when, you know, traditionally, if you look at these races, you know, one person is seven seconds ahead finishing the race. So to have that drone down there in order to be able to sometimes see just how far that gap is, as I was, I was just, you know, super impressed and folks need to go. Watch the video because you see again these there it reminded me I had just recently watched the they they had this YouTube video from the the jump the ionosphere jump I don't know if you've watched that one or not. It's like 30 or 45 minutes And so they show how Red Bull basically created the system and the the ability to live stream that guy jumping from the 115 ,000 feet in the air. Well, that was like one of the very first live streamed events on YouTube. And they had to figure out how to actually put the cameras on this capsule. And then once they figured out how to put the cameras on the capsule, then they started live streaming it. And they had never had a live stream with like over a million or 2 million viewers at the time. And... there ended up being seven million plus live viewers watching this person jump out of that capsule from a hundred plus thousand feet in the air in the name of Red Bull. And so they came up with all this tech. They built the whole thing and the fail safes and got all the approvals and they... overcame all these challenges. So when I was watching them build that, I was like, they're going to figure this out because they're supporting Red Bull and Red Bull's always supporting those who are willing to push the limits, but do it in an extremely safe way. So really cool. And then again, they were doing it on just what looked like almost to explain like a kitchen room table or. a kitchen dining table, it wasn't like in some big fancy place. So people always think innovation and technology and fast, it has to be coming from some well -developed space. And it's like, nope, some FPV folks built this up. Samuel (33:05) Going back to one of your points about automation, there is a very basic form of follow me for the DJI products and I'm assuming some other drones as well. It's kind of already being put in place, isn't it? Paul Rossi (33:06) and and Terry Neff (33:06) Yeah, get Tony on it. Paul Rossi (33:20) Yeah, in the battlefield. So tracking, but being able to track things at low speeds like, you know, a vehicle, your standard vehicle, traditional vehicle, right, going 25, 35, 40 miles an hour, right, even nowadays, tracking a vehicle going 60 is easily done tracking the F1 race car that's, you know, hitting 100. in 80 and then stopping on a diamond turning and then getting back up again manually, you can do that. But I think it does go back to what we talked about is like a jet that's piloted by AI. So if you can have AI... We got that phone ringing in the background. AI, making those types of movements and control manipulations in a very high speed, then it's certainly something that we could see programmed into the drone technology. It then becomes comes down to how reliable is the hardware itself? Is the hardware capable of breaking, slowing down, and then speeding up that quickly? from an autonomous standpoint. But if you could manually do it the way he was, then there's no reason you couldn't potentially train your flight software code into an autonomous type of tracking. It's just never going to give you that smooth. Right, because you can do tracking in with your off the shelf drones, but when you get into the cinema world, they're always going to be like, well, we're manually flying because you can push the limits a little bit more. But I think again, AI is challenging, you know. Terry Neff (35:14) I think it would be best to probably keep that manned. Just for the pure fact that if that drone crashes and it couldn't take any avoidance to avoid that crash and it lands on the track and one of those cars hits it and they're going 160 miles per hour, probably not going to be the best outcome for that driver. I don't know. I feel like keeping it manned would probably be the best option. I like AI, but not that much. Paul Rossi (35:41) But we're definitely, yeah, I think, but in the future, you'll definitely have drones that go at speed. And the other thing is with the regulations at 100, I was thinking more of this is Pete, there's other folks who probably could have built this and here in the States, they're like, we've been doing that, but they can't post it on YouTube. And, you know, there's certain, you know, it's being done, but to potentially see it be done at scale, to see it get integrated, because that video is two months old. So to potentially see this. this get into something else and heck Red Bull is doing fast things all across the world, not just with cars. So this drone could be something that they see being valuable to them in, I don't know, even air races or yeah, absolutely. And with that speak. Terry Neff (36:31) More than one endeavor, for sure. If you have any crazy ideas, sorry, if you have any crazy ideas, send it to Red Bull, they'll make it happen. Wildest dreams. My bad. Paul Rossi (36:44) Yeah, your wildest dreams done safely at a high rate. So speaking of manned, unmanned, Port San Antonio, preparing for advanced air mobility, Port San Antonio plans construction of an EV tall vertiport. What do we know about vertiports? Vertiport? Samuel (37:07) I'm sorry, I'm just a little interuptured by the concept art. Terry Neff (37:07) I don't know much about them, personally. Paul Rossi (37:11) by the concept art, vertiport. Samuel (37:14) I'm staring at this article and just like it looks next generation essentially I suppose that is kind of what eVTOLs are they're just that next form of transportation from relatively short distances to where you need to go you know like if you are in a hurry like you need to get from one major aspect of a city to the airport you hop on the eVTOL at least that's some of the examples I've seen. Terry Neff (37:14) The art is pretty cool. It's obviously AI. Samuel (37:43) Especially with it located on the site of the former Kelly Air Force Base. That sounds pretty significant too. Paul Rossi (37:55) Yeah, you know, I was, it's amazing how everybody wants new things, new buildings, commercial spaces, employees want to work in new buildings, people want to buy stuff and shop in new buildings, right? The mall is an old building, people don't want to go there, especially when the outside looks not new. Samuel (38:24) Hmm. Paul Rossi (38:26) but also from a military standpoint, I think there's a lot of bases, installations that... like had value during different times and then things consolidated or moved somewhere else. And you're still left with communities and homes and people who own them. So for a military installation to just shut down and like pack up, it really would devastate a community, even a small base that's not growing because... All the home values and the commercial property values are attached to the fact that people are working at that installation. So by. Converting it to something else, it at least still helps the community be able to thrive in something like a vertical. It's really neat. $100 million for renovations should end up looking pretty new. And it seems like there's, you know, the port overall, the port itself, right, has a lot of employees. And so the ability, I don't know, for this vertiport to potentially become a new mode of transportation that is able to go. Samuel (40:07) Currently 18 ,000 employees over the past six years. That's crazy. Paul Rossi (40:17) and plans could call for another 12 to 18 ,000 in the next seven to 10 years. So that can just a lot of. transportation. Samuel (40:32) I think it's really kind of enlightening too, because it's initially built as a military installation. It was designed to be located at the end of the road and somewhat difficult to get to. Now becoming much more of a center of technology and talent integration, we need to make it easier to get to. That was one of the direct quotes, and I think that's kind of hitting the nail on the head there, because it's making it easier to get to and showcasing some of the greatest technology that... we're making right now in my opinion. Some really great technology, not quite the greatest, but I just think this is a really cool thing. Paul Rossi (41:12) And so Terry, you had mentioned that. It's for the, potentially this is actually for employees. And now I'm seeing here as I've got pulled up, it looks like the initial goal is to serve as the transportation, mode of transportation for the port itself carrying folks across this massive campus. Terry Neff (41:46) Yeah, man, you can take a raggedy bus or you can take a $1 million EV toll to your burger spot on the campus. Paul Rossi (41:57) That's what I was going to say. Is that how you're going to get to the dining facility at work here? He said the raggedy bus. I bet you it's a nice new electric bus. And some people are probably kind of upset about this. You know? Samuel (42:14) I'm kind of curious too though, is this going to be the start of a greater installation throughout the city of having Verta ports and then just kind of like crisscrossing or even making its own system of going from port A to port B to port C to port D all the way back to port A and making a new center of connection that way? Because that, I don't know, I see a lot of potential with that. But... The start is something, I should say. Paul Rossi (42:51) Okay, let's see port. Terry Neff (42:54) It's like a airport, from what I can tell. I don't know. I don't think that's like, it's not like a regular airport. It's for like FedEx and logistic companies to move around, I think. Paul Rossi (43:13) Yeah. Terry Neff (43:13) Boeing has stuff there. Paul Rossi (43:16) So here we are in San Antonio. Here's the airfield. Air Force Base. Terry Neff (43:31) And it's going to be interesting how they deal with incoming traffic. I'm assuming they're going to have corridors they follow to move along it. but that'll be interesting how they kind of deal with that. Paul Rossi (43:53) Yeah. I mean, I think this too is just like, hey, you got to establish there's kind of like, what what is the horse and what is the cart? Like what what? You know, we're building the vertical port, what aircraft are going to fly exactly where they're going to fly to from this vertical port? You know, is there going to be another landing? It's it's so. But I think people getting ahead, I think knowing that the funding is there, there's some plan in progress and. It's definitely a place to continue to be looking at as the industry continues to grow. And again, this section and this segment, go ahead. Samuel (44:28) I mean, I feel like. Well, I was just going to say, I feel like it was kind of the beginning of EV chargers. Like, you know, in the beginning, they weren't exactly sure what EV chargers were going to be looking like and where they should place them. What's the best, where's the best spot to place them? How do you optimize it? And now the more I hear about it, the more I see incredible places they can go where they can be partnered with businesses. So that can attract certain... Like, Hey, I need to charge my car. Let me just park at the bookstore for a while and go read a book. Come back. Hey, I'm good to go. You know, but I don't know. Maybe poor example, but I can just see a lot of potential for the. Verta ports to evolutionize themselves throughout the next couple of years. Paul Rossi (45:16) It is standard. This is the first, it's all like first mover. So once you can do this first Port San Antonio, it could... It could bring people in to see it and understand it and drive business from an awareness and just kind of put this area back on the map while everything continues to. to kind of figure itself out. But we want to take questions every week. We do want to try to field some questions from our listeners and the audience. So during this segment that we just did, hopefully you guys can comment, ask questions on the YouTube channel, or send an email to miriam at dronelife .com, or you can email myself, paulrossi, r -o -s -s -i, at 910drones .com. Moving on for our last couple segments of this week's episode, Memorial Day. Again, happy Memorial Day to everybody is. Drone light shows. Talking about drone light shows again. It's just crazy because at this point we should probably, yeah, we should probably just turn this segment into the forecasting. What drone light show thing will happen next week, Terry? But we even talked about this. So for anyone who wants to go back and check me on that, I mentioned, I think, Terry Neff (46:24) again. Samuel (46:25) Deja vu. Paul Rossi (46:51) Goodness, can't even remember the company's name off the top of my head right now. Pablo Air, they have drones, right, with pyrotechnics attached. Well, here we go. United States Sky Elements debuts pyrotechnic drone shows in the United States. So this was just published two days ago. 300 drones marking a new era for drone light shows. Terry Neff (47:23) I would like to note this is just such an American thing to do. Ooh, that's loud. It's very loud. But this is such an American thing to do. Cutting edge technology mixed with explosives, forming a bald eagle in red, white, and blue in the sky. No, it's amazing. Samuel (47:37) It's kinda sick though. It looks so cool. Terry Neff (47:45) And to think we were talking about this like two weeks ago, like when are they going to start putting fireworks on drones? Well, here we are. There they are right in front of us and it's beautiful. Now we just need to start putting mortars on it. Samuel (47:54) I was kind of wondering what the aesthetic practical purpose would be, but now that I see it, I get it. I get it. Paul Rossi (47:56) It is. And yeah, I mean, just when you thought you couldn't make something hard or enough challenging, now you throw in the logistical nightmare of like the light of the pyrotechnics. It's just I mean, the timing of that, that is that is that's pretty intense. You know, getting the drones up there and then how do you. How do you kind of know when to time it? So it all must be triggered through the software, the ignition of the actual pyrotechnic. But how crazy is that? Samuel (48:42) one extra additional or a couple additional steps added into that show. Terry Neff (48:52) Yeah, I wonder what the drones itself, like the ones with the pyrotechnics on it actually look like because I mean, I'm assuming they've had problems with overheating from the fireworks going off because obviously it produces heat. So I wonder how the drone deals with that. I wonder if it just has like a heat shield. Paul Rossi (49:12) But it's weird, you know how you can hold the Roman candle? It's really like that, like you can hold a firework. The way that they're cased and everything, you can encase this and all it's doing is just, it's like a firework, but it's kind of more like just a sparkler. Terry Neff (49:28) It's like a sparkler. Yeah. By the way, Paul is not suggesting you hold fireworks. Samuel (49:31) Part of me wonders if there's like a special patent. I was kind of wondering like if there's a special patent or some kind of like duct, you know, like homemade looking type thing. Paul Rossi (49:34) No, do not hold firework. These are modified like now, but I did want to point out it's pretty funny. You've got right a Dallas Fort Worth, Texas based company. Man, so much drone stuff in Dallas. Fort Worth, Texas, but a Sky Elm and Strone shows has six Guinness World Records to its name producing light shows across the United States. Really. Yeah, really just amazing stuff. There you go. Nice little still shot. Terry Neff (50:11) partner and would Red Bull get it done. Paul Rossi (50:21) At a drone event this week, I had a chance to bump into one of the folks that made the light show here in North Carolina happen and big congratulations to them, the Air Vision. But it was exciting to be able to talk to someone who was there right in the thick of it. I was sitting back just going, I was like, hmm, the darker it got, I was like, the less likely this is going to happen, because normally you'd want it to go right as the sun sets, because the darker it gets, the harder it is to figure stuff out. So it was exciting to talk to Scott and just get his take on everything. But drone light shows, what's going to happen next week? Drone? Yeah. Samuel (51:14) it's kind of crazy, I've been... Terry Neff (51:17) Yeah, what's your guys' predictions for next week? Are we going to get mortars? Paul Rossi (51:21) Samuel's going to tell us here. Mortar's drone, drone light shows that you shoot. Samuel (51:22) Well, I was gonna say I've been keeping my... Hmm. Been keeping a pulse on some of these drone light shows and apparently that they've been having like I've seen two pop up one at the EDC in Las Vegas. I think Electronic Dance Concert, which is a huge event. They have a drone shows there before with FPV to capture footage of the event. But now they're incorporating the drones into the show, which just happened. Paul Rossi (51:30) Like you launch him out of a tube. Terry Neff (51:31) That's actually a solid idea. Samuel (51:51) And then, you know, one of our first episodes, we were talking about how Universal, the theme park was incorporating it. Walt Disney stepped up and now they're doing drone shows at a Florida's. What is that? They have one of the shopping centers they have in Florida, Orlando, doing a drone show there as of May 15th, an article came out and I'm just like, that is crazy. Like that's two, three, four drone shows I'm hearing about within the last two weeks, which I don't know. A month ago, I've only heard of one happening every couple months. Paul Rossi (52:22) No kidding. Terry Neff (52:23) I'm gonna have to go see one eventually. Is there like a calendar with all the upcoming ones? Samuel (52:25) There's a real, let me share this link. There's a. Paul Rossi (52:29) Disney Dreams That Soar New Disney Springs Drone Show Holy Cow Samuel (52:35) I'm about to share this EDC article as well. Paul Rossi (52:38) This was just yesterday, like they must have just done their first... Samuel (52:41) They heard Universal was doing it. Paul Rossi (52:43) Let's see. Yeah, they were like, we're going to do it first. Terry Neff (52:44) Disney took that personal. They actually have some pretty solid animations too. Samuel (52:49) I think that's what's really gonna sell those shows is how cool it looks. Cause that American Eagle with fire co - or the sparks coming out? Paul Rossi (52:49) Is this one blare? Is this one blast in volume? Look at this. Look at this. This is at, what did I say? Samuel (53:06) Disney Springs. Paul Rossi (53:08) Disney Springs, because that's where they have all this space, right? Look, you put these drones over the water. And this. Samuel (53:15) It's a giant little lake pond. Yeah. Like it's, it's a nice area and it's going to be even cooler with this drone show. That is so cool. We're seeing Dumbo. Is that Dumbo? Terry Neff (53:17) safe. Paul Rossi (53:21) This is - This just came out yesterday. Flying through the clouds, yeah. Samuel (53:32) Yeah, made of drones. That's crazy. I can't wait to see what we talk about next week with, yeah, the house from up with balloons. That's so cool. Terry Neff (53:41) That one's nice. Paul Rossi (53:52) And see, it's all about having more drones that are ready to go in the background that are like almost already kind of lit in the sense to where. Samuel (54:02) That is insane. Paul Rossi (54:03) as one image fades out. I'm not a fan of whatever that was. Terry Neff (54:09) I don't know what that's from. Paul Rossi (54:11) And move next, next. It's like the drone show. You're like, next. Yeah, I don't know what this is, a cat. Samuel (54:20) I think I need to brush up on my Disney lore. Paul Rossi (54:20) That's a crazy looking cat? What was that? Hyena? Terry Neff (54:25) Yeah, that might be... what the the is it the lion king i think that's from the lion king Paul Rossi (54:33) That thing looks rank - that thing looks, I don't even know, special? Terry Neff (54:37) Why are they putting wings on all of them? Paul Rossi (54:41) And then we got one, the one that fell. Samuel (54:45) there we go. Terry Neff (54:45) did that one break? Paul Rossi (54:47) No, I think it was just kind of like setting you up for the. look, it's Wally. Samuel (54:52) Wally. Yeah, that's so cool. I wonder how, like this is, I'm curious if this is a forced perspective or how it looks from other angles, you know? Terry Neff (54:55) and Eve, right? Paul Rossi (54:58) Never seen the movie. Wally in space. Terry Neff (55:08) Yeah, I think they probably had a viewing angle that you had to be in. Paul Rossi (55:09) Hmm. Well, it's a 3D object. Yeah. So it would look awkward from any. Samuel (55:23) Well, I'm just saying specifically, Paul, the drone show that we saw in North Carolina was basically mostly 2D, and this is incorporating more 3D elements to it to give it that depth and that distinctive look, I would say. Paul Rossi (55:23) That's interesting. Like you'd see through it. Terry Neff (55:39) Yeah, and. Paul Rossi (55:39) Right, but even the 2D show, if you were like directly 90 degrees to a 2D show, all you would see is a line. Samuel (55:48) Hmm. Terry Neff (55:49) Yeah, I think this one's more dynamic than that. It's definitely 3D. Paul Rossi (55:52) I see this guy's head. But like the Death Star, you could see it from back here. but it would look different because you would see through it. Samuel (56:03) It's weird because I don't think they have the backlights for it, you know? Paul Rossi (56:06) That is so cool. Samuel (56:09) and they're shooting lasers off of the Death Star as it's rotating. Paul Rossi (56:12) We'll see. And then notice how the light and then look how the lights just appear on the edge. Like they're actually disappearing on this edge and they're appearing on this edge. And then when it dissipated, when it did, the Wally was like full 360, right? Samuel (56:18) Right. Terry Neff (56:24) I think the WALL -E one was different. Yeah, because it was rotating actively. Samuel (56:31) And this is a 14 minute video, so that's pretty impressive, like... Paul Rossi (56:32) Holy moly, look at this thing. wow. Yeah, we're about to get the Michelin Man. Yeah, we're gonna have to wrap this up. Samuel (56:37) We gotta share this. The mission that the big hero six. Paul Rossi (56:46) Big hero. And then it'll be like, to be continued. Samuel (56:55) Wow. Paul Rossi (56:55) That's crazy. I just had to skip ahead. See, now it's like I was saying like a wall. You could make it like a screen. Next week, we're going to be like, did you see they put 4 ,000 drones up and they made a TV screen with drones? That's what we'll be talking about next week maybe. Samuel (57:05) Mm -hmm. Paul Rossi (57:17) And this guy's hair. Buzz Lightyear. And then it just turned into Buzz Lightyear like so fast. Anyway, yeah, how neat. Look at that. Dreams that soar. So this is what they're calling this show, Dreams That Soar. Samuel (57:30) I don't know if you want to do it. I don't know if you want to do it right now, but check out that EDC link when you can for some really cool photos up close of the drones. Paul Rossi (57:50) drone stories. this is the thing I saw too, is just like the lines that they've done with the drones at the formula cars. Like they've, yeah. Samuel (57:58) That's so good. Paul Rossi (58:05) Because it's not one drone. They just have a bunch of drones lined up and they're just moving the light. Like they're moving the light and it looks like it's moving fast. Samuel (58:12) They have a fleet. Paul Rossi (58:20) Yeah. our drone shows Burning Man. So these are all past. Terry Neff (58:25) I didn't send anybody to the mental hospital. Samuel (58:28) What's that? Terry Neff (58:31) I said I hope they didn't send anybody to the mental hospital. Samuel (58:34) my god. Paul Rossi (58:35) See, we don't fly drones, we fly dynamic pixels. Samuel (58:39) Huh. Terry Neff (58:40) We all know what happens at EDC, I don't need to say it. Paul Rossi (58:42) Except clearly the color file is not. Samuel (58:46) And Terry makes a good point there. Paul Rossi (58:48) I'm not a listen... What? What? Samuel (58:51) Just not everyone's going to be completely sober when they're seeing that at EDC, so they probably have some wilder reactions. Paul Rossi (59:01) yeah, I mean, this is why it's getting integrated here first. Look, they even did the Disney Plus logo in there. Did you see that? That is crazy. Well. Samuel (59:05) Yeah. Terry Neff (59:05) Yeah. Samuel (59:09) Yeah. Paul Rossi (59:15) Well, that was awesome. Check that out. Disney stories. What was it? What was that? Whatever. Just Google Disney drones. Go. Go. But but we're universal, right? But we want universal first. Samuel (59:22) It looked like they had the company name behind it too. I think - Terry Neff (59:27) Disney Dreams That Soar. Samuel (59:33) I love some of the universal properties, but also that drone show looks so cool. So I'm, I don't know. Paul Rossi (59:37) Yeah. some of the universal properties. Let's not talk about Terry's shirt. We managed to go through the whole episode without mentioning shirts. Terry's repping. It's all right. Jurassic Park, Jordan, Modela. Yeah, we're a diverse clothing repping group. So everybody, thank you. Drone Light shows certainly taking over and drones as a first responder. So drones that light up, drones that store. Terry Neff (59:53) the UFC related. Paul Rossi (1:00:16) themselves in boxes and drones that go as fast as Max Verstappen. That's what this week's episode was all about. We touched on the FAA Reauthorization Act, talked about the world's fastest camera drone, the Red Bull Drone 1, talked a little about EVTOL and the Port San Antonio and what they're doing out there in order to maybe move people around the work campus a little bit quicker and get themselves set up for the future of pilotless air taxis. And then spent a little bit of time watching some really neat drone show videos. Shout out Sky Elements out of Texas with their pyrotechnic light show drones. We look forward to getting your Questions across the various platforms. Hope to dive in to answer some of those in next week's episode. Again, happy Memorial Day, everybody. Thank you very much for tuning in. Thank you very much for supporting DroneLife .com and checking in regularly for all of your news, insights, and... industry happenings. We look forward to connecting with everybody next week and on next episode of Weekly Wings. Have a great rest of your day, morning, day or evening. Thank you, everybody. See you on the next episode. Samuel (1:01:57) Fly safe, see you next week.