WEBVTT - Redefining Advanced Air Mobility

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

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<v Speaker 2>You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and

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<v Speaker 2>Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, you might recall last week's shares of the electric

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<v Speaker 1>vertical takeoff in landing vehicle from Archer Aviation fell eight percent.

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<v Speaker 1>That was on Friday. Actually had a pretty bad week,

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<v Speaker 1>but they fell on Friday. After the company reported results,

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<v Speaker 1>they said they were buying Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles.

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<v Speaker 2>Which is super interesting.

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<v Speaker 3>Archer's saying would offer shares at eight dollars each to

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<v Speaker 3>certain institutional investors to raise gross proceeds of six hundred

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<v Speaker 3>and fifty million, part of which will be used to

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<v Speaker 3>fund the acquisition. There's a lot going on in the

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<v Speaker 3>EV tall space.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's why we have Lisa right in here. She's

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<v Speaker 1>foundered in CEO of Landings. It's a company that says

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<v Speaker 1>it's building a landing in ground operations network for inverted

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<v Speaker 1>ports for these EV talls. She joins us here in

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<v Speaker 1>our Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Welcome. Have you ever been

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<v Speaker 1>in an EV tall?

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<v Speaker 4>I have sat in one, Actually I have sat in two.

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<v Speaker 1>Well it was flying, No, it was in the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>Has there anyone ever been in one while they're flying?

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<v Speaker 4>There have been, There have been test flights with pilots.

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<v Speaker 4>I believe Betam made a flight to JFK. It wasn't

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<v Speaker 4>an EV tall, it was a C tall, but it's similar.

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<v Speaker 4>So there have been passengers, although it's still all INtime.

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<v Speaker 1>When do you think you will be a paying customer

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<v Speaker 1>of one of these.

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<v Speaker 4>Companies, whether I pay or not. I'd like to be

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<v Speaker 4>a customer within a.

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<v Speaker 1>Year, I believe you really believe that in the US

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<v Speaker 1>within a year.

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<v Speaker 4>I didn't say in the US.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, where where? In the Middle East?

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<v Speaker 4>In the Middle East, most likely Dubai is ahead of US.

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<v Speaker 4>I probably won't get to ride one in China, but

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<v Speaker 4>they're flying in China. There's about I think sixty already

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<v Speaker 4>in the air.

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<v Speaker 3>Listen, I think about, you know, Lisa, what's gone on

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<v Speaker 3>with the EV space just in terms of cars, right,

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<v Speaker 3>and part of it is like the infrastructure needed to

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<v Speaker 3>back it up, and there's been this you know kind

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<v Speaker 3>of push pull, tug and back, you know, back and

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<v Speaker 3>forth in terms of cars getting on the road but

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<v Speaker 3>needing places to charge and so on and so forth.

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<v Speaker 3>We need the infrastructure, and I feel a little tortuous

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<v Speaker 3>that it's been what do you see in terms of

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<v Speaker 3>the infrastructure that's needed, because this is where you guys

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<v Speaker 3>play in what's needed for this industry to no pun

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<v Speaker 3>intended take off?

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<v Speaker 2>And then where are we in that process? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 4>Absolutely, I mean exactly what you described is what we

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<v Speaker 4>were seeing a few years ago when these aircraft were

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<v Speaker 4>starting to get their flight worthy credit creditness, and we

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<v Speaker 4>said the same like where are they going to land?

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<v Speaker 4>Where are they going to charge? And as you know,

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<v Speaker 4>EV's had a huge problem the bottleneck and getting EV's

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<v Speaker 4>on the ground was actually not having enough charging for them.

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<v Speaker 4>And you can charge your ev at home, you cannot

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<v Speaker 4>charge your ev t all at home. So that was

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<v Speaker 4>the basis of us saying we need to build not

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<v Speaker 4>just one or two in order to make this real

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<v Speaker 4>point to point travel, which is the promise, we have

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<v Speaker 4>to have thousands.

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<v Speaker 1>What do they look like and where can you build them?

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<v Speaker 1>Especially in these places this this land is at a

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<v Speaker 1>premium right.

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<v Speaker 4>So well, most of the companies right now and the

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<v Speaker 4>big money is all in cities. My company is focusing

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<v Speaker 4>most first of all in rural and rural communities and

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<v Speaker 4>so the land is less expensive there. But also because

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<v Speaker 4>vertiports can be they're very similar to a helipad. They

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<v Speaker 4>don't require thousands of acres of land. We can put

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<v Speaker 4>them on manufacturing sites, we can put them on industrial sites,

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<v Speaker 4>we can put them on retail locations, we can put

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<v Speaker 4>them on logistics centers. They can go on just about

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<v Speaker 4>any type of real estate that we want where helipad

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<v Speaker 4>could go.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, how do you envision the customers of these vehicles

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<v Speaker 1>using them? Because if I think of high demand routes,

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<v Speaker 1>they're not necessarily from rural area to rural area, correct.

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<v Speaker 4>So we're looking at it as a first a logistics

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<v Speaker 4>and freight issue. So already we can handle say heavy

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<v Speaker 4>drones which can carry freight. We can also there's smaller

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<v Speaker 4>aircraft that can be flown today that are called light sportcraft,

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<v Speaker 4>where you can carry emergency service personnel to an accident.

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<v Speaker 1>So there's already they can land anywhere a helicopter could land.

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<v Speaker 1>These ports are really just for charging and taking off.

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<v Speaker 4>Exactly, so they can land in a helipad. But if

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<v Speaker 4>the helipad doesn't have the charging equipment, you wouldn't be

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<v Speaker 4>able to charge there. What's the cost the cost so

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<v Speaker 4>ours are fairly small. They range from two acres to

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<v Speaker 4>twelve acres, which is relatively small. The cost for the

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<v Speaker 4>smallest one is about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars

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<v Speaker 4>and that has slow charge. It doesn't have fast charge.

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<v Speaker 4>The vertiplexes, the larger ones, which will have you know,

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<v Speaker 4>pilot centers and training and storage, parking, et cetera. Those

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<v Speaker 4>will cost closer to three million dollars.

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<v Speaker 2>So how do you build out responsibly? Exactly?

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<v Speaker 3>Because it sounds exciting, but as we keep talking to

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<v Speaker 3>people in the industry, you know, we're yet to really

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<v Speaker 3>see it take off in a big way, and we've

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<v Speaker 3>all just kind of been watching this closely for I

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<v Speaker 3>feel like a few years now. So what is the

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<v Speaker 3>role at that you envision?

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, so we're approaching this in the way that American

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<v Speaker 4>Tower approached it approach cell service essentially.

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<v Speaker 1>Because the reate that looks at that owns a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of the cell towers exactly.

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<v Speaker 4>Okay, a ninety billion market cap. I believe what they

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<v Speaker 4>did was while everybody was focusing on the cities and

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<v Speaker 4>getting cell service in the cities, as they went out

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<v Speaker 4>and went across the nation essentially and got options on

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<v Speaker 4>the land. I know you just were talking about land

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<v Speaker 4>man earlier. I like to call myself a land woman.

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<v Speaker 4>We're essentially getting options on different pieces of property. We're

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<v Speaker 4>asset light because we're not purchasing them right now, we're

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<v Speaker 4>not paying any leases on them. Essentially, we will get

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<v Speaker 4>the capital to build the vertiports and the energy network,

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<v Speaker 4>and then we're going to share the revenue with the landowner.

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<v Speaker 1>So we just spoke to John gittleson of our Blueberg

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<v Speaker 1>News and he talked about two data centers that are

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<v Speaker 1>in Santa Clara, California that are empty because they're awaiting power.

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<v Speaker 1>How are you able to get power to these verta ports.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, power is going to be the biggest difficulty, similar

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<v Speaker 4>to data centers. However, we don't require as much energy

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<v Speaker 4>as a data center. We can use five acres of

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<v Speaker 4>solar to power one of our verteports.

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<v Speaker 1>Will there be those acres of solar in this administration?

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<v Speaker 2>Absolutely? Absolutely.

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<v Speaker 4>Solar may not be the priority and there may not

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<v Speaker 4>be see the public funding for it in the way,

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<v Speaker 4>but there are still a lot of private money going

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<v Speaker 4>towards these networks.

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<v Speaker 3>So, Lisa, we're talking with Lisa Right, founder and CEO

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<v Speaker 3>of Landing. Lisa, so, is solar your power of choice? Like,

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<v Speaker 3>are you guys already thinking in terms of how you

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<v Speaker 3>build this out? That there will be asolar farmers part

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<v Speaker 3>of it.

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<v Speaker 4>Indeed, many of them will be co located. We are

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<v Speaker 4>trying to connect to the grid and some of the

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<v Speaker 4>smaller regional airports we can do that we can connect

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<v Speaker 4>to the grid. It may not be a lot of

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<v Speaker 4>excess energy. So we're working as well with communities to

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<v Speaker 4>provide basically a battery backup system that will use peak

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<v Speaker 4>demand and becomes resiliency for the community.

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<v Speaker 1>Just thirty ten seconds. Are you working with any ev

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<v Speaker 1>tall companies right now?

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<v Speaker 4>I'm working with all ev tall companies, so Archer, Beta

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<v Speaker 4>and Joby. I'm also working with a short takeoff and

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<v Speaker 4>landing company called Electra, and the sportcraft companies are Pivotal

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<v Speaker 4>and Jetson.

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<v Speaker 3>Yes or no, you've got your funding already or you're

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<v Speaker 3>working on I'm working on it all right, Let us know,

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<v Speaker 3>stay in touch.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>Lisa Right, founder and CEO of Landings, joining us in

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<v Speaker 3>our Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio