Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome everybody to the final episode of season one of Weekly Wings, the Dronelife.com podcast.
We are getting very close to Christmas and very close to the end of 2024. We will have a very exciting information. I think a little opinions. Here is we're closing the year out not just with Dr. Drone industry growth, but all these sightings. It's a really interesting way to end the year and it's certainly setting things up to be very interesting for 2025.
Terry, how are you doing? Welcome to another episode, another week. We got Christmas week here. How you doing? Last minute shopping.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Doing fantastic. I've gotten most of my shopping done. Other than that, nothing to complain about. Turn 21 in a few days. Can't wait.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you're going to be celebrating. Going to be something like that.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: You could call it a celebration.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, exciting. We've got a really good episode today. We'll kick things off talking about the drone sightings all across the East Coast.
Terry's going to explain to everybody exactly what's happening and we won't be encouraging anybody to go out and shoot drones.
The the other things we'll talk about, we've got some cool tech things related to drone and laser communication. When I saw this article I just thought that is extremely fascinating because I've seen this Elon Musk is doing it. Starlink, this web of satellites and so in space, how do you communicate over these long distances? Quickly. And it's a laser. And so it looks like folks are going to be bringing this potentially to drones. So you could put a drone up at 400ft, maybe even higher with the right waivers and start using lasers in order to do communications here on Earth and then also drone batteries. From a tech side, it looks like DIU has put out some requests for information in regards to drone batteries. Trying to bolster and develop the manufacturing and production of drone batteries by companies here in the United States and organizations that are going to be in approved at a national level.
We'll look into a little bit more on The NDAA for 2025, which covers some language that's pertaining to the drone industry and a trip overseas by Oklahoma governor related to trying to build out partnerships.
And then we'll wrap things up talking about another record being set when it comes to drone light shows. I think we talked a couple months back about how interesting it was going to be leading into the holiday season and how companies could use that as a way to market and get visibility and really pump up their, their organizations and then drone delivery it looks like a little piece came out in the New York Times. It's not little. It's actually a really long piece by someone who seems to have been somewhat questioning the viability of drone delivery and the future of it and recently had a chance to go see the Amazon hub. And maybe they're starting to think that there actually is a future or real potential growth in the drone delivery space.
And before we dive into things, looking at some of the stocks, RCAT holdings is up like 20% today. Thirty or ten and a half dollars, I think, per share. And UMAC Unusual Machines is trading at $12 right now, which is up $1.79. It's up like 15%. So it's super interesting. You know, why are these things jumping so significantly? And when you step back and look at the bigger picture, that is so opposite of what the whole market is doing. Like what. What the hell's going on there? Terry?
That doesn't. That doesn't. I know. You don't have to answer that question completely. That doesn't make sense because I didn't even think about that until just this very moment. But both RCAT and Unusual machines are up 15, 20% when the market. Well, I guess the Dow is up. I need to. Haven't taken a look. It seems like things might be recovering. But anywho, drone sighting. So a month ago, if you typed drones into Google and.
And then clicked on the news tab, all you would have seen, right? Like here type in drones in Google and we're just hitting, you know, news. It is literally all about these drone sightings with. You know, it's probably because I clicked on. The only reason this is probably showing up is because I clicked on it earlier. Everything has to do with these drone sightings in New Jersey and then all along the East Coast.
And I just saw this one here. Terry, before you tell me what, what you think's going on or your thoughts from, you know, our previous episode. It looks like there's a novelty candle. So the Daily Beast is hitting people up with a New Jersey drone inspired.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: What does it smell like?
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Gunpowder, conspiracy and fear.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Badly cropped drones on it too.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: This is. But that's like the, the token. I'm sure there's a Jersey drones token that someone's come out with. Just like that CEO shooter's jacket token.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I was looking at the. I looked up drone news today and I got to page 14 without seeing anything else but New Jersey drone sighting. So it's kind of hard to find stuff. Thankfully have dropped dronelife.com to go to and source some stuff to talk about.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: And so what do you think? Like at this right now, I know you have some, some friends that are in New Jersey along the East Coast. What, what is your thought here? It's not right or wrong. Just like with the experience you have in drones, what you've been able to read, what do you think is going on? And I do want to just before you answer, like, think about UFOs, right? Think about UFO sightings. Because I've started to think to myself this is almost following the same like it is.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: So my thoughts on it. A lot of the sightings has been around a, a military like production area, I guess, factory, something like that. It's like a base, but it's like a, they produce stuff there.
They're just testing out their stuff. They have, you know, they're. And then that's why they're, they're coming out and be like, yeah, they're not dangerous. Don't worry about them.
They're just testing stuff, flying it at night. They're not really breaking any rules. They're just flying at night.
And, and that's the reason they're flying at night. You haven't seen one of these at daytime? In daytime? I don't think so. So, I mean, less visibility of it, you know, they still got the lights on them. I'm going to wreck into stuff.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Well, they're hard unless, you know, the drones there during the day in a noisy area, they're pretty hard to, to see.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, car siiz drones, you know, he seen one and it was, he said it was the size of a car. So I don't know if he was hallucinating.
I'm not going to talk about him too much because I won't give him trouble at his job. But he, he, he seen one and he said it just disappeared over the tree line. Then that was it. He called his dad because his dad's been asking him questions about it. He lives in New Jersey.
He, he seen one though.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Man, I wish I had this photo because this person that's been in this industry for a long time, they're an attorney. They used to work for DJI Legal affairs, like heading it. They're now. Guy's name is Brandon Schulman.
He's now with, he's now with Boston Dynamics. And so there was this post right here.
Let me share this. This guy's been in drones for a long time and when the first person started to get like into legal issues, he was representing them. And so he, Brandon has like built a reputation. He is the vice president of policy and government relations at Boston Dynamics, the company that builds Spot.
So he had posted this four days ago with like three points about Jersey and this was the photo that he had posted and it said, I haven't flown these planes recently, I promise.
And so these are drones by definition, kind of. Right, because they're flown autonomously without human intervention, but they're flown like an airplane and they fly fast with certain abilities. You could make these things hover and fly very slow. But like, I mean those are pretty, pretty good size and they're like very well lit seaplanes.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: I mean, RC planes aren't new, but.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: They have six foot wingspans. Like have you seen.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, though I brought that up when we originally started talking about it. It's probably some dude flying around as RC planes that are the side, like 1/30 scaled RC planes.
They exist, I've seen them.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: And then so in his post he mentioned how right now people are just trying to add to the hysteria, trying to, you know, get a viral video. There, there might be collusion between someone who's saying that they're seeing something that they don' what it is. And in reality it's someone that they know flying it.
The all these federal agencies have kind of come out and basically said there's lots of drones out there and we're getting a ton of reports. And of all these reports, very few, a small percentage are actually like drone sightings. And so there's no way to, you know, remote id. And we, we talked about it. And so it's, it's weird because when you're, when someone you know, you're innocent until proven guilty. And the, the government here is, is kind of like at a loss because they have to either prove that this is what's happening. Hey, you said you saw something, this is what you saw. They have to come improve what these people are saying, which is a threat, a risk, or they have to be able to provide evidence that says that person is wrong. And so it's like either way they have to defend the people making the reports that there is a credible threat, or they have to be able to come out with like, you know, irrefutable evidence that nothing is happening. And so they're, they. Either way, I don't think they could do either. So it just seems like in a normal situation it's like, yeah, but where are the people with the proof that something's other than. Well, I saw something and it went away. And here's a recording and the.
Yeah, so what you brought up, or I guess what, what you had found was, you know, potential technology, radar system, you know what, what?
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, so this, this radar system, I believe it was Germany purchased about 50 of these for Ukraine if I'm not mistaken.
One second, let me disable my ad blocker because everybody hates that apparently. All right, we're in.
It's a, it's a 360 degree like field. So you just kind of place them up wherever. I was looking at their website earlier, pretty cool technology. They can track up to I think 100 miles per hour or 100 kilometers an hour camera. Exactly which one? And apparently it's like real.
Like they're using this. Like this isn't just like a product that exists that nobody really knows anything about. This is being used by the military in Ukraine. So I think they're requesting some of those to come over and possibly give us an idea what's happening.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty interesting. It's like a technology that was developed for detecting small objects such as birds and bats in the vicinities of like windmills.
But when you think about the size of small drones and you know, even medium sized drones, typical traditional radar systems are like trying to identify, you know, aircraft, like a car size plane.
And so it's like here's an example of a technology that was developed for something not drone related. And you mentioned here it seems as though in early August the Dutch Ministry of Defense purchased 51 radars and was planning to donate them to the Ukraine.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: 100 kilometers an hour. So 60 miles per hour is how fast it can detect up to.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: I.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Mean this is pretty cool technology, especially if it works. And obviously it works or they wouldn't have been buying it, you know.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Well, here's. Yeah, it's.
The technology exists. It's just like where's the funding going to come from in order to bring it to fruition?
Where's the, the market need, like the demand?
So now all of a sudden there is state radar that exists. You know, there is like federally managed systems.
And so when you look at commercial air transportation, this isn't just one state, this is every state. Commercial air transportation is connecting people between states. So there's, there's a huge benefit to everyone. So having radar in North Carolina is beneficial to people in California because they want to be able to get on a plane in California and fly to North Carolina and you know, being able to have radars in places of Congestion and higher traffic. It didn't always exist until the market and the demand and the money and the people were buying the plane tickets and the, you know, the money. The money was there. And so now you see, you know, hey, this technology exists, but does it make sense to have a bunch of these on tripods, you know, mounted, scattered? Or is it like saying, hey, we really need to do this the right way in the beginning.
But even with the radar, the issue is you don't know if it's a drone or a bird. So the ability for that system to. To differentiate, which they probably can, you know, based on the, like, reflectance of the surface. But the other thing is remote ID is supposed to, you know, help tie all this together. But I feel like there is going to be a lot of. When there's opportunity, I think a lot of waste happens because, like, not every company that tries to make and get that contract or get that that sale is actually going to make it. And so a ton of other people are out there literally just throwing away money.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Well, it's interesting for this company that made the Irish drone radar because they didn't start out, like, doing this for the drones, and then they just kind of stumbled upon it and was like, oh, we can use our product here too, with a little bit of tweaking. You know, they were just looking for birds.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: And so that's huge because you go from having one market to, even if you're not selling to all the people in the drone industry, you're. You're capturing a small portion of the market.
And that's how businesses win, is over time, you increase market share and then you find new markets to. To enter, to break into as an insurgent and, you know, go up against the incumbents, like the typical defense contractors who are all working on this, right, as we've talked about for the past many months.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: So I think they can tell exactly what it is because it, like, gives them a 3D model of what it looks like, if I'm not mistaken, from reading this, like, fact sheet.
So, like, they can tell if it's a bird or not. Unless the drone's shaped like a bird, then it might be a little hard to.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: And how far bird and drone detection.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Will share this tab, unless it means.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: 3D is like, you can share your screen, can't you? Like, you don't have to right now, but you have the.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I can. I think I can.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. See, here's the. Here's the great thing about the Internet, right? So here's Robin Radar Systems. Homepage bird batter drone. Our 360 radar logs. Thousands of observations detect, track, and classify drones in real time. Yeah. So it seems like I'm just curious at how far out. You know what I mean? Like, at what point, how. How far. What is the range? You know, everything has its limitations.
And sure, it looks like here, as you can see on the screen, they've got their max for bird. Bird detection. And then you've got your Iris, which is potentially drone, and then your Elvira. Oh, Elvira, right there.
So 3D coverage and 2D detection. So if you're trying to get above, directly overhead.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: So is that what that means, is it's just overhead, but 3D, you can, like, kind of visualize it.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: 360 azimuth coverage. 3D coverage in a small but mighty package. So that's what I would imagine 2D for our 29kg.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Doesn't even weigh that much. I've seen that they had it mounted on a car in one of their photos, and that's pretty sick.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Civil, military, wind farms, security, defense.
I need to buy a Scarecrow Bird Dispersal Systems.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: What?
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Yeah, man. What are we getting into here?
Scarecrow Bird Dispersal Systems. Scarecrow is a Robin Company bioacoustic bird control technology.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Oh, it like, makes noises so they leave them alone.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the Scarecrow bird tab hits.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Them with a frequency they don't like.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: Anyhow, I like their logo.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Well, that's interesting. I wonder. I wonder if Chuck Schumer is going to be able to get it out there. Who knows if by the time this podcast comes out, if the government shut down or not. I don't.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Seems like that's probably why they're shutting it down. There's so many people talking about the drones. They're like, we got to do something, guys. They're talking about our technology.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Yeah. We're just gonna shut down and we'll come back and no one will even.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: No, they forget they have pea brains. They'll just forget about it.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll be on to something else. They'll be more concerned with Tick tock.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Quickly say we're gonna ban TikTok and.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: So technology, laser communication. I think I'm gonna get a Starlink receiver here before the end of the year. What are you gonna say? It's like a business thing, though. Go ahead.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: So I. I mean, I guess I'm kind of talking it right now. Sorry to cuss, but my friend has it. You don't play video games, so I don't think you really got to worry about this. But it does give him problems here and there when he's playing video games, like to enough to make him mad. So I would be concerned with that. But that's his only option. So he's grateful for it.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: But it's. I got you. So he's using like the, the. The OG Starlink.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Not exactly sure. I know he had to mount it on top of his house, so whatever that is.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: And so that's like the primary Internet like this. Does he allow Internet in other options or.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: No, they. They kept jerking him around for about two months when he moved into his new house and he just finally crumbled and bought Starlink.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Right on. Well, moving along. Lasers. We could look at that later. Starlink the. I guess it's just something to have or then traveling because like hot hockey pock hot spots like are the, like small portable one. Well, there's. You can take the bigger one and move it with you. But that was originally designed. Choke my dog out.
The Starlink was originally designed really to be like, put on your house and like permanent fix. But people started taking it with them. And so now there's a Starlink.
My understanding is there is a Starlink.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Mini, but I think that's what it is.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: All I'm seeing is a standard. So I don't.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: I've heard people think it's just a panel.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: So you can buy it from Starlink for 120 bucks or you can go to Best buy and pay 500 for it.
I'm a little confused.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: Starlink room. I see. So there's like different versions. I'm just going to share this now. Obviously everybody's curious. There's like Starlink for your house or your business. And it is the standard antenna. It's fixed, it's mounted, and they've come out with like, this is your.
You know, this thing goes on your house and it just stays there. It mounts, it mounts to a. Maybe a boat.
They're shown it on a vehicle. But then you have this thing called Starlink. Roam.
Roam with Starlink. Stay connected on the go for the mini kit for a limited time. So it's 4:49 for a mini kit. And.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: That'S a small price to pay if you're like living in a van, you know, traveling in the mountains, doing your own thing.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: And then so you. And it's small. So it's, it's like. See how it's in comparison to the one that goes on the roof?
At least that's what I think, I don't know. They call it mini as you go.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: That's pretty cool.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Plug it in, point it at the sky.
It's hard to really tell, but I've seen these things. People are like mounting them to the top of like a sun. Like you're in your backpack one.
I think he's just carrying it, the guy. It's a case like this is. So when you travel like you can keep it in the mountains because literally you could throw this out, attach it to a solar panel. So low power consumption.
And this is $50 a month for 50 gigabytes of roaming data. So you can basically go anywhere in the US and then unlimited is 165.
So the roaming one is you can go anywhere. You can move it around. It's not fixed. When you get the other Starlink stuff it is, it requires you. You cannot move the antenna.
It has to stay in that location.
But of course it's 450 for the Mini kit for a limited time. So it's $150 off.
But your standard kit that stays at home is $349. So like it's a hundred dollars more for the thing. But anyway, this is a congestion. There's a congestion charge in your area. What, what is a congestion?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Your, your address is right there.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: That's not my actual address.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: If anybody wants to go here.
Good call. Good looks. I was like, where's my address? That's funny. I mean people can kind of see how with my name, I think people can pretty much find that out through like business filings or whatnot.
But yeah. Anyway, Starlink, let's move on. We got a couple, a lot more to cover here. Communication. Laser communication on drones. A new frontier for resilient data transfer.
This is pretty interesting. Pretty interesting. So like I said in the beginning of the episode, having getting very close to completing my masters in space operations, I've started to learn about the value of lasers in space to cover very long distances for communication purposes, creating mesh networks. So satellites, a satellite on the other side of the earth could send communications through, you know, four other satellites and then that could be sent to the ground. So instead of sending the signal first to the ground and then relying on the ground network to move the information, instead you send that communication all through the air and then the final beam right is to the ground.
And so it should just like it's doing in space, it should provide for a much more way lower latency communication channel.
And so a German based Kikuyo and French company Kavak have announced a strategic partnership signing an MoU to integrate innovative laser communication terminal into a professional drone platform.
And that payload looks like this.
So there's the Kikuyo P100, a free space optical communication device.
One gigabyte per second over distances up to 40 kilometers, and it only weighs 1.5 kilograms.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: So I believe I'm a bit ignorant regarding this.
Can you. I'm gonna ask a question and you can kind of like explain it to me how you want to. So this is just like pointing a laser at a receiver and it's just flashing light really fast. And that's how it works, like, that's how it communicates.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: So say that one more time.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: So it's a laser that is pointed at a receiver and it is flashing like a. More than I can count to per second. And that just, that's how it receives the data, or is that, Am I completely just lost here?
[00:30:56] Speaker A: No, that's in layman's terms. Yes. Think of it like the fiber optic cable.
The fiber optic cable goes into a pipe, it goes underground, it bends, it moves. So you're using that optical means to move and carry the message. But in the cable you can bend it in free open space.
You don't necessarily need. My understanding is you don't necessarily need the cable because the cable is the conduit. But when you're going through free space from transmitter to receiver, there is, you know, that is the, the carrying.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Okay, so a bird could block the signal.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Okay, that's what I was trying to get to. Just like you can just like put a piece of plywood over it and it's just done for.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Yeah, like if this, if that, even if that became covered or blocked. Absolutely.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: So their tracking system has to be pretty good if they're putting it on a drone.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yes.
And so what they're also saying though is that somehow with the inertial reference is that this, the P100, could serve as a substitute for satellite based navigation. So somehow this could also be used for navigation when you don't have gps.
So if you could potentially communicate with another device, like if you know where that device is and you know it's like using that same kind of channel for geolocation.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: So I know one of the points that were brought up, I think was that it's like moving to where you can't like be jammed. Like it, it goes away from being jammed.
I feel like that could be pretty easily, like use some type of infrared, whatever they use to.
I'M sure you can see the laser somehow and then you just block it.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Well, that's. See, so like, like you said, I, when you said an optic, you know, fiber optic cable. Oh, like, so how are you going to do that? And you could just cut the cable like a fiber. It's, that's a novel idea for a commercial business where there's no threat or risk and you've got space, you know, but in the battlefield, that's like being tethered is like one of the biggest.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: What happens if this goes behind a tree? It's done for.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Well, you can't. So the whole idea is that this can go 40 km. So imagine that the transmitter. And this is what they're saying, implications. So I'm glad you brought this up because it's basically saying the laser communication ensures that data is transmitted efficiently and secure. Curly. Without relying on regulated communication frequencies.
And it was up here they're testing. So their start, their, their phase will involve the terminal's ability to establish a laser communication link between the drone and a ground station. So if you have a ground station that's elevated behind a forward operating base, right, Secured, you can put a drone up at 400ft and the, the enemy's not going to be able to just stand up a, a piece of plywood, you know, there's not a piece of plywood tall enough to interfere with.
I mean, there could be, but, you know, you know what I'm saying?
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh no, I just, I heard, I thought about it and I immediately tried to poke holes into its vulnerabilities.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: And so, yeah, like think, if you do think about it with you with a laser, like, you're not relying on satellite, you're not, it's not going to the air and then coming back, you have a laser beam that's otherwise invisible unless you have right optics to see it. You have an invisible line of communication which isn't on a frequency. Right. You can't analyze the spectrum, you can't break it, you can't create a second remote.
The only thing you could maybe do is like, you would have to then shoot your own laser at the receiver of the drone. Like how would you. You would have to establish your own laser link.
And so the only thing you could do is interrupt the, the beam itself without knowing where, where it really is. And yeah, that's pretty interesting. I wasn't even thinking of it like that. I was thinking of it from the space aspect where you're just, you're just using it as like a yeah, there's nothing. But you're using it as a bridge, right? It's more or less just a bridge. Whereas this is actually the. The way that you command the vehicle. It's the way that you get the video feedback and it's almost invisible. That's pretty cool.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: What if you shoot a laser at the laser? If you figured out where the laser was, that, that would interrupt it, right?
[00:36:33] Speaker A: There'd be some refraction, right? Probably like where they would head and you probably.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: It just gets fuzzy.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: You'd interrupt the.
It probably be just like the same thing as sticking a hand or whatever else. Or what you would have to do is you would have to do something to the ground station. Like if you were able to, instead of interrupting the laser itself, if you could hack into the ground station and shut down the laser or if you could basically fry it, that. That is the only other like susceptible method.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Comically large sheet attached to drone flying and blocking the laser.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Flock. Flock of birds. You know, like you don't know where it is. So you just send like a massive swarm of small drones, AI birds.
And so with all these drones that are going to be flying, how are we going to power them? Right? How are we going to power them? We talked about this weeks ago, right? Skydio. This whole NDAA thing came out.
The drones, the DJI drones are still sitting at US Customs. It's been weeks, months since DJI product has pushed through the US Customs. It's insane. And the response to that by China was, hey, we're not, we're not exporting your batteries anymore. And so here in the sky, an article, you know, U.S. drone manufacturer Skydio face sanctions from China due to customer relationships in Taiwan.
So not just the regulatory political stuff, but skydio doing dealings in Taiwan led to China, you know, putting a squeeze on batteries. So now the Defense Innovation Unit has created a new project. It's called family of advanced standard batteries for Unmanned systems. They're calling it Fast Bat U. You like that one, Terry?
[00:38:43] Speaker B: No. That is the worst name for anyone I've ever heard. They need to clean that up.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty bad.
And what this is aimed to do is create innovative battery solutions to enhance the performance of defense technologies while boosting domestic manufacturing capabilities.
Geopolitical tensions.
And so think about this. We. This is one, Terry, where we got to dive into this and figure out which company.
Remember a little while back, I need you to go back, look at the notes here and figure out what was that company. Remember that company that spent like, was like $21 million on that plan.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Boston, wasn't it Boston?
[00:39:39] Speaker A: They bought that plan. It was like $21 million between purchasing it and their investment. And their whole goal was to produce and manufacture lipo batteries for drones. They were like gonna kick out, like, remember, the measurement was like so many. There's an insane amountrilla watts or something like that.
That would be interesting to see if they're private, public, something's gonna go boom.
It's. And it's not necessarily a drone company, but what's interesting is you might see something like umac, unusual machines.
They might take all of this all of a sudden, they could sell off some shares. They could do something to then acquire.
Right. That battery component because they kind of have the goggles, from what we've seen. They've acquired the, the other distributor where you have, you know, the parts and components, but they're still lacking batteries.
So they're either going to spend a bunch buying batteries over years or they're going to acquire the. The manufacturer in the beginning. So this will, this will be interesting.
[00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll do some deep dives into some hot prospects for drone batteries, that's for sure.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: I'll be over here wrapping Energizer batteries into, like, packs, trying to sell them like, oh, yeah, these are American made, right? Energizer. Isn't that. Isn't the Bunny. The bunny we set, the Energizer bunny was from Ohio and we mentioned it last week or in the previous episode.
The National Defense Authorization act for 2025 was adjusted when it came to the drone language.
Passed the House, it's passed the senate, and the NDAA 25 is now awaiting President Biden's signature, which does have some significant implications for the drone industry, but is not going to have a ban on DJI products.
How do you feel about that, Terry?
[00:42:00] Speaker B: It's good news. No bands. I mean, doing some other things. But this is, all this is doing is trying to make us number one for drones. And you can't really hate on that if you're from the US you can hate on a little bit because it makes your life a little harder in the end. But.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: You can hate on the process, I think, not the, the outcomes.
Right. The process sucks.
The process is awful. All this back and forth and the.
I mean, it's just like the drama and the people are trying to sell themselves and it's all about an agenda. It's all about posturing. It's just like this whole shutdown thing that's happening Now. So, yeah, the process really sucks. The outcomes.
It is what it is. I think it's like. Go ahead.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: It's. It's like one of the. The bald eagle, he. He turns a certain age and as his beak's not as good as it once was and his feathers are dense, so he goes into that mountain and sits in the mountain for 120 days, smashes his beak, pulls out all of his feathers, and then he comes out and he's brand new, man. You know, this is exactly what this is. It'll eventually get better.
It has to.
[00:43:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
Either way. I mean, either way, the, the industry will grow. It's just making sure that, I guess it's like not one person or one entity or group should really solely benefit over the other. But how do you divide things? How do you figure that out? It's just like, like the divorce situation. It's just long and it's drawn out. And the purpose is to get to the best possible solution. But at the end of the day, you're going through so much just like the ridiculousness to kind of get there. And so it's kind of weird because it says that the DHS, DoD, DNI, NSA or FBI, or a combination of, has to conduct an assessment on any, you know, Chinese drone or, you know, drone coming from a subsidiary, a third party or American company that's using any kind of DJI or Chinese components. And that's supposed to be done within the first 12 months. And if nothing is found, then it's good to go. If things are found, concerns and credible risk, then the DGI or Autel or whatever the manufacturer is will go on the, the ban list. But what it sounds like DJI is saying is it also states that if no agency conducts a study to determine risk within one year, the legislation states that DGI and other Chinese manufacturer would automatically be added to the FCC's covered list.
So if they don't do the deep dive from a security aspect after 12 months, they just get banned anyway.
So it's. It's kind of interesting. I haven't had the ability to dive into it, but really it just goes into a lot of language that stresses the need to strengthen the domestic supply chain and further investment in the US Supply chain and defense, noting that funding for drone detection and mitigation is increased by $336 million across multiple budget lines, totaling more than $1.7 billion.
So $1.7 billion just for drone detection and mitigation timing?
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but that's not really tiny.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: I mean, no timing, timing.
We can't detect these drones.
No one can detect these drones right now. And now, now 330 million more dollars is going to research development.
So a company like Robin's, you know, Radar Systems, and Chuck Schumer over here was like, yeah, we need some of these. He's like, hey, Chuck Schumer, you know, do you have any stock in that company or, you know what I mean?
[00:46:52] Speaker B: Portfolio, pal.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: I get it. They gave some of these things like they're in the Ukraine. So again, well, if it's in the Ukraine, let's bring it here. But is it working? Is it, is it, is it working? Is it doing what it's supposed to? So we're going to send Terry over the holiday break to the Ukraine. Yeah. To go figure out if these radar systems are actually able to determine if it's a bird or, or a drone.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: So we're sending me to the front lines. I'd be dead in approximately 48 hours. I probably wouldn't survive no longer in that. So I will not be coming back to give you the information. Maybe I'll send it via laser. I'll put a really big stick up.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll get systems go. We'll have four to eight hours to collect as much data via drone laser as possible. That's funny. That is some funny stuff. So it's all about bolstering. Oh, we're going to bolster the U.S. we're going to bolster this. Well, how, with what? And who? There's 50 states who's respon, who's, who's supposed to lead the charge, how are they going to do it and with what?
Because if this doesn't exist. And so pretty interesting Read in drone life.com Just this past week, Oklahoma Governor Stitt's Taiwan visit expands drone and aerospace partnerships.
So amidst all this, just, just weeks, just days before Christmas and the end of the year, right. We got a governor from Oklahoma going overseas. A state level collaboration advances US Drone market and strengthens economic ties with Taiwan in energy and aerospace.
So all this is happening and here's this guy and everyone in Oklahoma is like, yeah, Oklahoma. And you got this guy wearing a cowboy hat, right?
[00:49:02] Speaker B: I bet China hates this photo.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: And the United States is working to increase their, their, their. We just explained that. And so to me, this is the crazy part of why it's just like we're a whole country, right? Like a you, we, the United States, we're trying to bolster this and make this work for the whole country. And now here, a governor is rushing over to Taiwan in order to establish and cement deals for the state of Oklahoma.
He's over there meeting with the president of Taiwan. The governor meeting with the president to discuss areas of collaboration in energy, critical minerals, and aerospace, including unmanned systems.
Signing an MOU with the Minister of Economic Affairs. Between Oklahoma and Taiwan, it's just like the family business, you know what I mean? And the dad and the grandpa are still alive. And, like, the grandpa wants to run stuff, but it's too old. So, like, the dad is, you know, taking over the reins, but now you got the son who wants to go do it their way. And I. That's the way I see. This is like, Oklahoma's just going out there, and it's just like, dude, I understand why you're doing it, but you're really putting Oklahoma first.
I don't know. His constituents are probably pumped, you know, But. But think about this. If. If. If China got pissed at skydio for selling some drones to the Taiwanese, what the hell are they thinking about this guy, Governor, like you said, going there.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: And signing cowboy hat, dude, that's the biggest. That's the biggest thing here, I think. No, yeah, this is gonna have some implications, I'm sure.
[00:51:17] Speaker A: And Oklahoma is home to a branch of the federal government's beyond program in partnership with the Choctaw Nation.
Dude, North Carolina is home to a branch of the federal government's beyond program with drone delivery wires. Governor Roy Cooper.
Roy, why aren't you in Taiwan? Roy?
Governor Cooper, are you really gonna let Oklahoma, Texas, all these west Midwest states just pass one of the original 13 colonies? Man, this is. This. This was. This was an interesting read. This is pretty good one.
I wonder if he can speak.
Is it Taiwanese? What do they speak Mandarin?
[00:52:11] Speaker B: Oh, there's no shot. There's no shot.
I had. I. I seen a mouse pad once. It was like a world map, and it came from China, and Taiwan was not labeled on it, so that's fun. It just said China, China, China.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: What do we got here? Sky Element is at it again. Terry, tell us what they did.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: The world record drone light show. I don't remember the previous number for world record, but I feel like it was more than 5,000, so I'm a little confused.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: It is. Yeah, it's confusing. I'll try. I think last week the same thing happened. And so with the Guinness record of high grade and whatever, it's like they had the biggest record, but it wasn't the record of the most drones. It was the largest display Remember, they literally made the biggest size screen and so sky elements, I think it was November 27th.
On November 27th, they actually used 5,000 drones to create the largest gingerbread village in record.
So the record wasn't about the number of drones, but it was the size of the gingerbread village. This was like the.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: So we're just giving out records to.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: Anybody we're doing for anything. And apparently the. As long as you pay. Because I was thinking about this, you have to have the Guinness record folks there to observe it, but you have to pay for them to be there. So if you fail, you're paying anyway.
They don't just show up. If you want to give a Guinness record of I ate the most hot dogs, you're paying them to come there to validate the record.
This stuff isn't free.
And so that right there, that is the largest gingerbread visual image ever in the history of Guinness.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: They just wanted a title, didn't they?
[00:54:47] Speaker A: It needed at least a thousand drones.
So like there's some, you know, requirements here and had to have at least a thousand. They had four hundred and four thousand nine hundred eighty one. And the, the production manager mentions how it's super easy for the verifier to tell how many drones are up in the air.
And so what's really interesting is again, this wasn't a paid for show.
This wasn't a show that you could have bought tickets to.
This was a show that they planned and coordinated with the Guinness, you know, World Record association.
And it was all for marketing and publicity.
However, people in that area were able to just watch it because it's this giant image floating in the sky.
So that's so crazy. It's, we, we literally kind of like forecasted that holiday season. People were going to use it just to do shows, not even to make money, but to literally market their, their offerings and their services. And then like the article went into saying that since they've done that show and there was like a video that went viral, they've had, you know, non stop emails, phone calls, dms and so their business is doing well. And actually what I needed to mention is they're doing a show in Myrtle beach on 21 December. It is a free holiday drone light show. So on the 21st of same day. So there's going to be a drone light show in Winston salem on the 21st at 6 o'clock and there's going to be a Show in Myrtle 21st at 6, 6 o'clock and the show is free. Because they're doing it, you know, right by the beach. So you can pretty much just show up there. And being on the beach should be pretty good viewing. Where are you going, Terry? To the beach or to Winston Salem or. Neither.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: So neither. I was planning on going to the Winston Salem one, but my sister that doesn't reach out often asked me if I wanted to do something tomorrow. So I kind of gotta do that.
[00:57:09] Speaker A: There you go.
As fate would have it.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: Right on the day I wanted to go watch a drone show for the first time.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: Well, it's Christmas time. There will be more drone shows.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: There will be. I'm sure there'll be another one in Myrtle beach soon.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And then we'll see, like, February, there's going to be some. Maybe like a Valentine's Day. There would definitely be some Easter shows. There's. These things are growing and people are going to need business. And so what they're going to do is the price might start coming down in order to get more people to adopt it. But right now it's, you know, you don't want to undersell. You don't want to, you know, give it away when you don't have to. But what I did realize is they did 5,000 drones. Sky elements, it mentions they did it in partnership with uvi. So I don't think they own all those drones. I think that they're collaborating. They're. They're getting loaner drones, and then also they're dispatching teams all across the country. So they'll bring a bunch together to do one show. But when they go out to. To Myrtle beach to do a light show, they're not bringing 3,000 drones because people aren't paying for that. That's a lot of money. They're bringing like 200 drums. They're shipping 200 drones, putting it in a van, a couple people. It says to do that 5,000 drone Christmas show, it took like over 50 people.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: Oh, Lord.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Yeah. To get them all laid out and set up and situated and, you know, volunteers and so.
Yeah. Yeah. Very few folks right now. The market for a massive drone light show is very small.
[00:58:51] Speaker B: 40 to 60 hours of prep work. Jesus.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: That was just for the animation.
Prep work for animation is what I got at from that.
Not even like the setting the drones up also.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: They're just using the world record thing. I. I looked on their website. They. They have the biggest mockingbird display. They're just using that. So they're in the headlines with world record every single time you see their name.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: Oh, and you can put these cert. Like, they have the certificates probably hanging at the, you know, office and headquarters. And you look at that and it's just like little motivational things. What can we do next? You know, it keeps people motivated and inspired.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Guinness World Record. They. They love these people. They just keep giving them business.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: I'd imagine it's not like, cheap. I could imagine it's like fifteen hundred dollars minimum, just for like a validation. If you're getting someone out in the middle of the night, you know, for a whole day counting drones, that's.
I don't think it's free. I don't know how the hell they'd be paying for it. But one last article before we wrap up this episode, this final episode of 2024. And didn't even think about it. But we'll end it on drone delivery and we'll end it on Amazon. Everybody's doing their Amazon shopping last minute. Once this comes out, there may still be time, depending on when you listen, to get your last.
Last items. But Amazon drone delivery. So an article came out, New York Times, and this individual had a chance. Like I said, it's not short because if you look at. Just to listen to it, it's 15 minutes most of the time. You see, it's like, listen to this article. It's like two or three minutes.
This person went and visited their Arizona hub very recently.
And what they mentioned in the very beginning is that this visit just happened to coincide with all the New Jersey stuff going on. So timing. Right. But this person was somewhat skeptical of the drone delivery. But after their visit, they seem to be a little bit more convinced. Here's a pretty interesting video.
This is the MK30, I believe is what it's called. Look at this delivery method.
Crunch.
[01:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah, like, what's in that box? It just kind of got pushed away, too. There's probably nothing.
[01:01:32] Speaker A: I was like, is there a string on it? And then I realized, like, that's some pretty significant prop wash. And the box had to have been emptied. It's just like force. It's like Luke Skywalker, like.
[01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so get out of here. Well, don't order an iPhone through this, whatever you do.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: And so that's wild. I mean, this thing's what, 15ft?
That's like 10ft off the ground.
[01:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:01] Speaker A: And then it just drops the package.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: So they were impressed with the drones.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:02:19] Speaker A: And. And the progress made. And I guess this guy right here, David Carbon, is vice president and general manager of Amazon Prime Air.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: Looks very cool. I Would like to know.
[01:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Very stale dude. Like, very stoic.
Yeah, like a 300 warrior.
[01:02:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks like he was in the Gladiator movie. That's a compliment, man.
[01:02:44] Speaker A: Right. And then the lighting, I think the way they did the lighting, it's like.
But yeah, it dives into the MK30 and its ability to fly twice as far.
The imagery in here was just really cool. So I don't think it's so much as like the words that the person can write. It's a very long article. I mean, if you are interested in getting like, into some of the more specifics of like Amazon's program because you're investing in them or looking for a job opportunity, I would read the article. The person's obviously been following and is educated and had their doubts.
Like, but seeing these drones in this facility, it's not like they have one of these. They have many of them. And I'm sure they've been doing a lot of flying and they're allowing this person to come in and. And basically take these. These images. Seeing it deliver, it's really the first time I've seen any imagery of it delivering.
Seeing it here on this cart where this person is loading it.
And then there was this one. Not this. That's a massive war. How about that warehouse?
This image right here?
Like, that is crazy. Look at them rolling this drone. This drone has like wheels built into the.
The chassis, the frame, like the lathe. I can't tell. Like, if you look at the ones in the background, it almost looks like that's the landing gear.
And then they have this like, thing that they put on the. The airfoil. See that like, hand? It's like a handle that slides. And so literally the, like, the drone has built in rolling mechanisms because what we've seen in the past, remember seeing it on those big carts and they're like rolling it around. It just seems crazy if you had to pick it up and off a cart every time instead of being able to just like throw a. A handle on it. It's.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: And they have multiple of these like, sites. Right?
[01:05:20] Speaker A: I am not entirely sure from what I understand, they're supposed to be in. In the Dallas. I think they're in the Dallas area. But it seems like they're making most of their development in. In Arizona. And that's where this person was in Good. Goodyear, Arizona.
[01:05:39] Speaker B: They rented that house. That's fantastic.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: And rented the house and got some Brazilian bum bum cream. So that's.
They bought like 1.2 ounce thing of bum bum cream that came wrapped with a lot of paper.
[01:05:59] Speaker B: Fantastic.
45 minutes. It's not too bad. It's an Amazon package. I mean, I wouldn't be too mad if my can opener got delivered like that, you know, but like technology, maybe not.
[01:06:22] Speaker A: 45 minutes. He hung out with Mr. Carbon for 45 minutes, waiting on the package.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: Insisted it wasn't very loud. Sounds like an angry swarm of bees.
[01:06:40] Speaker A: Seconds after the package landed, a neighbor came over. He introduced himself as Gino and asked if we were from Amazon. He said people in the neighborhood had started to associate the whirring of drones overhead with the mystery drones in New Jersey.
You guys scared the life out of a lot of people, he told Mr. Carbon.
[01:07:07] Speaker B: He's like, we've been here for how long, guys? You just now noticed us. So they're not that loud.
[01:07:17] Speaker A: Missing radioactive material. That has to be one of my favorite right now is people think saying that there's missing radioactive material and the drone searching for. For.
[01:07:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely interesting. Is that the pad right there? Show that pad.
Okay, so does that stay there?
[01:07:39] Speaker A: It looks like that might be like the charging mechanism maybe.
[01:07:50] Speaker B: That is a thick drone, by the way.
[01:07:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it's a beast, dude.
[01:07:57] Speaker B: He's. He's a boy. He's definitely big. Been fed his greens.
[01:08:07] Speaker A: That's so funny.
The drone comes over.
It's just interesting because it's like a car comes into your neighborhood and it's dropping something off and.
And you know it's not. You have these delivery vehicles that were marked and labeled. And so people know, there's the UPS person, there's FedEx, they're comfortable with it. But then all of a sudden, these third party delivery companies. And so you see this vehicle, you're strange. You don't know what it is. Do you, do you question it?
And people could be pretending to deliver stuff. I could just show up in my car and hold an Amazon box in my hand and walk up to a front door and like drop it off and at the same time try to break in. Or you. You know what I mean? I could impersonate those delivery drivers.
And so the risk there is just accepted. You just. People give the gate code to the delivery. You live in a gated neighborhood. If my neighbor. I don't want. Go to the gate, right? If you want something, go to the gate and pick it up. Don't give the code to somebody who doesn't live here. And then they can give the code. And then. So a drone flying overhead, you don't have to give a gate code out. And, and so if it, if this drone shows up and it hovers over the neighbor's house and it's very easy to see, it goes down to 14ft. It's in the doors open and then something comes down and then it closes and then it flies away. Why would you free. Why? What, what, what, what about that is scaring the life out of somebody?
[01:09:55] Speaker B: I just, I think that was more in reference to the drone sightings in New Jersey.
[01:10:00] Speaker A: But this is what I'm. Have any. Has anyone in the drone sighting said that a laser beam shot out and put a hole in their yard? Is a dropped thermite? Has it.
[01:10:10] Speaker B: You know how fear mongering works? It's just people are saying stuff like, oh, it's searching for a nuclear bomb somewhere hidden in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: Yeah, but we should have the stats. We should just have the stats run every day that says this is how many people died this year from or today. This many people died of heroin overdose. This many people died in car accidents. This many people died of alcohol related something. This many people died of cancer today. Like throw all those things out there so that people can literally be able to say what is a risk and what is not a risk. And seeing a drone hovering and then not seeing it 30 minutes later, it's, it's just, it's just so silly. So for someone to walk over, it's like, dude, you're just bored and you just really want to have human interaction. You walked over here because you're tired of, of, of, of just posting it online. And you, good for you. You came over here and got the, you got the truth. You know what I mean? You didn't just take this video and post it. You're engaging with people in the community and asking questions instead of just sitting there and typing up nonsense.
So hopefully that person goes and explains to their neighbor and this will happen for a few more years and it'll just become.
You know, I think one thing is just people never look at the sky. People really, truly have never looked at the sky, have never realized what color lights are, even on aircraft. Why would someone know the lighting of an airplane? I, I went to school to become a pilot and had to learn that. And sometimes I forgot. Is it right? Is it, you know, left? Is it green? Which is it? Is it white flashing?
But anyway, that was a great episode. Lots of information.
[01:12:08] Speaker B: It's pretty good. A little long, little, little long.
[01:12:12] Speaker A: We're giving people a little extra for the holiday.
Well, extra, extra gift for everybody to enjoy during their travels or if they're hiding in their office from in laws and family. Anything Terry, you got for us? Any, any projections for 2025?
[01:12:32] Speaker B: Projections for 2025.
[01:12:34] Speaker A: Unusual machines to $40.
[01:12:37] Speaker B: Unusual machines to $4,000. Retire me.
Let's see. I think the drone market's going to take a steep increase upwards, particularly in the battery sector probably because it just has to happen maybe not overnight, but towards the end it should go up quite a bit.
We'll see. There's gonna be a lot of new tariffs. We'll see how that affects everything.
Should be funnier.
[01:13:09] Speaker A: Batteries. Yeah, so I think that's, I think we'll see the price of DJI and Autel drones probably increase by that 2025% mark.
It's just gonna get passed on to the consumer and yeah, I think batteries, it'll be interesting. I hope that happens because that's one of the huge components for.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: Well, I think, I think Elon Musk or Tesla or whoever had control of this, they recently opened up a mine in the US I don't know where, like a lithium mine maybe. I'm not sure it was for making batteries though.
[01:13:46] Speaker A: Well, I think drone delivery is going to absolutely blow up in 2025 in Dallas and everything that's learned there over the past few months. We're going to see UTM unmanned traffic detect and avoid and EVTOLs. I don't know. It was projected 2025. Now they're saying 2026. I think we might see some, you know, pilots, air taxis starting to fly in the United States. We're going to see a lot of partnerships really, really pan out, but there's not going to be any revenue generation maybe till the end of 2026. But between batteries, political tariffs, EVTOL and, and beyond visual line of sight, it's going to be a really, really exciting year. And, and then the counter uas, right. The detection, giving local law enforcement and state agencies the ability to respond to these drones. That's going to be, that's going to be pretty exciting. But I can tell you this, if that, if that comes to fruition, it's not only going to deter like a foreign adversary. Right. Everyone's saying Iran and this, it's, it's going to deter your, your, you know.
[01:14:56] Speaker B: Local high school student that's being stupid.
[01:14:58] Speaker A: Oh yeah. You know, to start setting examples of some people and getting that, that information out there.
Kind of clean up the, the streets, you know, clean up the skies a little bit, especially as things start to become even more. More congested, you know, with those delivery drones, the beyond visual line of sight, and pilotless air taxi. So, man, fabulous episode. Appreciate your time and attention, Terry. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Really appreciate all the support throughout 2024 and our first season here.
So we, we will be wrapping it up. We wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays, and a very fantastic new year.
Because the next time you see or hear from us, it will be 2025 and episode one of season two. Thank you, everybody. Have a wonderful holiday season.
