from Korea, to Germany, from Alaska, to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you, the American people, against aggression. This is the big picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the big picture, here is Sergeant James Mansfield. The toughest men in uniform today. That is the reputation won in battle by the men of the United States Army Rangers. This elite body of combat troops can proudly boast of gallant fighting dating back to 1742. The Rangers were with General Washington's colonial troops. In World War II, they fought the German and Italian armies. They were in the Pacific fighting in the action at Luzon. And when the communist aggressors struck in Korea, the call for the Rangers sounded again. Rangers are men who volunteer from all units of the army. If they pass the physical and weapons test, they are sent to the mountains of Georgia and the swamps of Florida for the most rugged training in the army today. Here, recorded on film by Signal Corps cameraman, are the United States Army Rangers. My Rangers' mission is to blow this power plant over here. The reason for the mission, the enemy is using it to launch guided missiles against our friendly forces here. These men are Ranger students. They are at the mountain camp of the Ranger department Infantry School Fort Benning, Georgia. They are about to embark on a 72-hour patrol as tough and realistic as anything short of combat can be. This is their last and most difficult patrol problem. If they complete it successfully, they will be Rangers, the elite of the infantry. But much had to be accomplished before they were ready for this, their final test of courage and ability. It all started about seven weeks ago, back here at Fort Benning, Georgia, the headquarters for what is rated as the toughest school in the army. A new class is just reported in. From units all over the world, they came to take this course and earn the title Ranger. There are tactical officers addressing them. It'll be the attack officer's job to orient, observe, and appraise this class to make sure it runs through the rugged course as smoothly as possible. And although the students will operate their own administration through their own student officers, they will always be responsible to this man, their attack officer. Now, it takes a good soldier. It takes a man with stamina, moral courage, and intestinal fortitude to complete this particular course. We know that you men are volunteers. Your company commanders have had faith in you. Don't let them down. Company, change, hop! The Ranger department believes in the buddy system. And early in the course, each man teams up with another. For eight weeks, they will be inseparable. Let's follow these two through the course. Hey, how about I have a cigarette, boy? Thanks, I will. Yeah, I see by a patch of them the 508. Yeah, a head-second. No kidding. I used to be in second myself. You know Sergeant Applin over there? Yeah, he's a first sergeant head-second. I know him well. Say, my name's Ricketts. Bill Brayman here. Say, what say we be buddies to this Ranger course? All right, might as well, I guess. You will find that everything here is done on the double. Cross-country running builds the kind of endurance you need to keep going day and night out on patrol. The bayonet classes strengthen bodies and encourage a spree, as well as teach the technique with a long knife. Teaching, that's the emphasis here at Fort Benning. Teach the men what to do. They will have plenty of opportunity to apply what they have learned when they start leading their own patrols through the swamps of West Florida and over the mountains of North Georgia. Learning how to use demolitions is important to a Ranger. He must become familiar with all types and still maintain a healthy respect for the danger involved. Knowledge and care are the two prerequisites to success in handling such high-powered stuff. Training the mind and training the body. A Ranger may often have to lead a small unit behind enemy lines. Proficiency in the precise side of hand-to-hand combat is a must. And we'll take up the overhand row. I really want to hear you stand off, make funny noises, tire. PT, lots of it. A man has to be in top-notch physical shape to get through this course. Exercise of the body, twist. That's it, Sean. And so the fort-bending phase of instruction is almost over. This has been merely preparation for the tougher training that lies ahead. 200 miles further south along the Gulf Coast of Florida. It's about a six-hour bus ride, and the class gets an early start. The Florida Camp of the Ranger Department is located at Auxiliary Field 7, Eglin Air Force Base, 35 miles from civilization. It is here in this desolate wilderness of scrub oak, slash pine, and cypress swamp that the Ranger students will get their first taste of day and night patrolling. The camp commander, Major Simons, in his welcoming address left no doubts as to the difficulties to be expected. We believe that a prerequisite to successfully completing the course is to be able to operate in a sound tactical manner after you've been put under extreme physical strain, to be able to have your mind work when your body is tired. As far as we're concerned, an infantryman is limited by only one thing, what he's got in his guts and what he's got in his head. We think that before you're through here, you'll find that you can push yourself and force yourself to go a great deal further than you've ever gone before, or that you thought it was possible for you to go. Are there any questions? After the major got done, it was double time over to an outdoor class on survival. Here is where you learn to live off the land. A palmetta can be a source of nourishment if you know what to do. Not much left from the size plant we started with. This is it, man, this is what you eat. Here, take a try and see how it tastes. Tough and not too tasty, but it can keep you going. Survival also means knowing the ways of the wildlife in the area. This big diamond back can put you out of commission for keeps. Learn to recognize him well. On the other hand, if you play your cards right, well, rattlesnake meat is a gourmet delight and costs a pretty penny. You're in luck, this one's for free. There are lots of snakes around here, but the majority are harmless. To prove the point, every student handles one. Ranger, you don't seem happy with the situation, but then neither does your little friend. Speaking of little friends, here's another one you might meet any day or night for that matter. He's really just a baby, so much mouth and all so hungry looking. You can take what pleasure you may from the cold fact that no ranger students have been lost down alligator gullets, yet the men were learning about the swamps and what to expect from them. They were destined to become familiar with them on a much more personal basis. They watched as one of the instructors demonstrated the rope drop confidence test. The confidence tests, a prerequisite to graduation, are well named. The problems involved are not really hard at all. You would think nothing of walking a plank if it were on the ground, but 30 feet in the air with swamp water underneath, it is somehow different. The purpose of this test is to prove to each man that the difference is only in his mental attitude. If he can do it on the ground, he can do it here. And he does it, and he learns that he can do more than he thought he could. He becomes more confident of his own ability. But the bulk of the time here is spent in patrol activity. Every patrol is organized and carried through by the students. But with every patrol, there was an observer, an officer instructor from the ranger department. During the problem, he gives no advice, corrects no errors, he merely observes. As soon as the patrol is over, he holds his critique. This is where mistakes are brought to light and learning accomplished. Here a ranger combat patrol moving through the swamps by day clashes with some of the enemy. Infantry school personnel wearing the distinctive uniform and playing the part of aggressors, hand grenade simulators and blank ammunition, recreate the fury of a firefight, a bus ride back to Fort Benning, a day to clean up and rest a bit, and then up to the mountain training camp in North Georgia. Situated about 20 miles from the famous old mining town of Delanaga, the camp is in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here the ranger students become familiar with another, perhaps tougher type of terrain. The first few days are taken up with learning the technique of traveling in the mountains. Here man's best friend is his rope. And ranger students learn to make good use of it. This is a rope bridge for getting across a narrow ravine. Ranger Ricketts gets ready for a ride on the horizontal traverse. This is a method for sending men in material over rough terrain, the easy way. Next comes a class in repelling. An instructor demonstrates the correct technique. Pelling is the mountaineer's method of descending a sheer cliff. It is dangerous only if you don't know what you're doing. The ranger department instructors make sure every student knows well what he is about. Goober, the camp mascot says he'll take a rain check anyhow. But the class moves over and down the cliff. They may have to use this technique someday. It's a long way down the first time, and it's kind of good to get solid ground underfoot once again. The mountain camp has their own brand of confidence test, casually called the death slide. It takes guts to pull yourself 100 feet up this swaying rope ladder. It takes guts to snap a pulley block onto a steel cable and let yourself go. It takes a lot of guts, but there isn't a man who has done it once who wouldn't do it over again just for kicks. Despite the apparent danger of much of this training, the ranger department has never had a fatal accident and few serious ones. Thorough preparation eliminates accidents before they can occur. There are patrol problems in the mountains too. For here again, the emphasis is on student leadership in a combat situation. The patrol observer chose Ranger Brayman for the first leader. He is completing his patrol order. Every man will carry his rifle except Ranger Waraz. He will carry his light machine gun. Ranger Sanders will be his ammo barrel, and every man will have his hands and face thoroughly blackened. And anything that will rattle or make noise will be securely tied down because we're traveling at night. They've got 50 miles from this point to the objective. Now this is 50 miles we've got to go. And it's pretty rough territory. The last patrol problem is the toughest and most difficult. It takes two days and three nights to accomplish the mission. Simulate the destruction of the Blue Ridge power plant 50 miles away. While the ranger students are being briefed for their mission, other infantry school personnel are drawing weapons and blank ammunition. These are the aggressors, the maneuver enemy. They will seek every opportunity to keep the rangers from accomplishing their mission. This patrol problem will be as realistic as training will allow. Later, the man under the direction of the student patrol leader, blackened their faces. This will provide a better concealment at night. A shiny face can be seen a long way, even in the dark. Goober can't go along when he gets the treatment anyhow. Then the patrol draws the equipment that Ranger Brayman has specified they should carry. If he has forgotten anything, they will have to do without. The observer makes no corrections. The students will run this patrol problem from start to finish. Raffle machine gun ammo. Thank you. Greenberg, demolition is unraveled. That night, under cover of darkness, the patrol moves out. They pass through a friendly outpost and reach Valley Divide Road. This is the battle line. Somewhere on the other side waits the aggressor. Scouts move out first to reconnoiter. All clear. The main body crosses in a rush and the patrol starts working up the hill on the other side. Then, aggressor outpost. The object of the patrol at this point is to avoid contact. A firefight now could ruin the mission. So they swing around, pass the outpost. In order to avoid further contact with aggressor forces, Ranger Brayman has purposely chosen a difficult route, but his planning pays off. Once across Rock Creek Dam, the patrol will be behind the aggressor main force for sure. But it's a long way to go and you've got to keep moving. The mountains make for rugged going, especially at night. The area is full of fast water. It's cold and tricky underfoot. But you keep pushing. Daylight gives the patrol a chance to rest and stash away the few cans of sea rations they brought with them. And although some can rest, there must always be others out on security details to make sure that the patrol is not surprised by aggressor forces. Right now, it is very vulnerable. The next night finds the patrol on the move once more. The observer has selected a new leader. They have reached the Takoa River and the point is searching for an easy crossing. He spots Swan Bridge. Then he moves up for a closer look. It is guarded by an aggressor sentry. So he waves up the patrol leader. The patrol leader decides that there may be other aggressors in the area. There's nothing for them to do, but move back downstream and make a wet crossing. Two men have gone ahead to secure the other side. Now the main body moves across. Once across, they reorganize and push on. Towards dawn, they reach the shore of Lake Takoa. A quick glimpse at the map tells the patrol leader that it's just about where he should be. Down the lake a few miles is their objective, the Blue Ridge power plant. But soon it will be light, so they will camp here on a finger of land. Security has been set up and the patrol can rest. They're dead beaten without food. They were supposed to rendezvous with a friendly partisan to obtain added rations, but somehow they missed him. Perhaps he was never there. And I'm so bushed if I had a porcupine I'd use it for a pillow in the right to sleep. If I had a porcupine, I'd eat him. Yeah, it does seem like our last can of sea rations about 10 years ago. Well, anyway, we made it to the lake. Tonight we'll blow the power plant and it's all over, but it's a critique. I will make it. The next night there is a new patrol leader, Ranger Ricketts. As soon as it's dark, they move out towards the objective. Okay, there she is. I want you to place your security in a perimeter on the high ground to our rear. Place the machine gun on the right flank to cover our assault on the power plant. I'll lead the assault group down this draw to our front. Got it? Right. The security group sets up their machine gun. They will cover the advance of the assault group. Ranger Ricketts leads the assault group up with care. Everybody's tired, bone tired, and hungry enough too. But they're pretty well out in the open now and they have been through too much to get careless so close to success. Man knows exactly what to do. Each has a job that was specified back at the base camp when Ranger Braemann gave his patrol order. In the assault group, there will be a two-man demolition team. Ranger Ricketts will dispose of the aggressor sentry. The rest of the men will act as security. As they get closer, two men drop off to either side to act as local security. Then the rest of the assault group makes the final rush to the wall. A dummy charges set inside the installation. Then the patrol takes off, picking up their security on the way. As they move out of the area, a real charge goes off outside the plant just for effect. Back at camp, it's coffee and sandwiches while the observer holds a critique. First off, we had a good patrol. We got a pretty good patrol order. We had a pretty good route. We moved out through our own lines. We hit the objective. Three days later, we got back. Ranger Braemann, Ranger Holloway, Ranger Ricketts, three patrol orders, leaders, did a good job. One thing I was wondering, Ranger Braemann and your patrol order, you only got one machine gun. After all, we're moving pretty far behind enemy lines. Hitting an objective, it's pretty important and well guarded. Then it was so far, I figured it would be better to travel light. Well, that's good reasoning. The only thing is, you can carry a BAR or a submachine gun. You'd have your extra firepower. You'd still be pretty light going. Everybody's dead tired, but this is where learning is accomplished. And the whole patrol is eager to find out how they did. After the critique, there's only one thing left. Graduation back at Fort Benning. Their training here at the Ranger Department is done. There are not so many now as started, but every man who saw it through is a better soldier for it. Even Goober learned a lot. Every Ranger will now return to his parent unit, where his new knowledge will spread to those around him, until the entire unit will be a better fighting team, stronger and more wise. That unit will owe a great deal to these men who had the guts to get through the toughest course in the Army and win the patch that dubs you, Ranger. Their training completed, men of the Rangers are rejoining their units, proud to carry on their traditions as the hardiest and most daring fighters in the history of warfare. In time of all out war, the Army looks to the men of the civilian reserve components to make up the bulk of its fighting strength. Next week in the story of Corporal Greg Bennett, we'll tell you about the Army's organized reserve corps. You'll see how the new Armed Forces Reserve Act affects all of us, soldiers and civilians alike. This is Sergeant James Mansfield inviting you to be with us then. The big picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas, produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center, presented by the U.S. Army in cooperation with this station. You can be an important part of the big picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.


Oh yeah, sorry to bother you, I was just wondering, would I be able to get two nights off work? Yeah, it's in December, it's Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd. It's just like the DCU Media Productions Society are hosting. It's annual 24 hour broadcasts, during the 24 hour broadcasts. Students from all over DC would be creating contents, trying to raise awareness for homelessness. To raise money for the Peter Mac Ferry Trust. Last year we raised over 7,000 euro. We really want to smash that this year, so, em, can I please have it all? Well, the 2nd, 3rd of December are really busy times for us. But, for such a good cause, how can I say no? Alright, you have it off. Best of luck, just one question. How do I tune in?


And thank you for joining us again to Adventures of Commercialization. Today, I am really excited to have Steven Tibbets, a chairman and CEO of Ziva Arrow on our show. A little background about me personally, I have a family who comes from the airline industry. My mom works, my mom and stepdad both work in airline maintenance. So many of my dinner conversations were around aviation. And I have had the pleasure of watching Steven present his company in front of investors and pitch multiple times. So I'm really excited to have him here on the show today to talk to us about his transformation of our aerospace. Welcome, Steven. Thanks Zoe, thanks for having me. So tell us, so Ziva is the company that you have founded. And I know it was founded in about 2017 for a competition at Boeing. Can you tell us a little bit about how that came about? Yeah, let me give you the extended story a little bit if you have time for it. We had, I had back in 2003 timeframe, I had, I did a consulting job and I made bank. So I decided, hey, I'm gonna take a couple months off and just get my pilot license. So I did that and ended up buying a little Cessna 172 and what my dream was, I actually bought a folding mountain bike and my dream was to throw my folding mountain bike in the back seat and then fly in too close to where I wanted to go and then just ride the last mile. So I'd be able to best of both worlds, jump over the traffic and just go where I wanted to go. Turns out that my dream didn't really work out because all the little airports that I knew about growing up were gone. I live in the Puget Sound area and between Portland and Seattle, there's over 300 airports that have vanished over the last 50 years. So I was kind of frustrated and at the time, general aviation was, it's kind of dying. It's dying away because it's not useful because all in our area, all the little airports are gone and it's in the avgast expensive. So that just got, being an engineer that got me thinking about, okay, what's going on here? What can we do to improve it? And so, hey, what about flying cars? So I thought about that for a while and there's a bunch of guys out in the world doing flying cars. The problem with flying cars is they still require runways. So you can't really fly exactly where you want to go with those either. So the conclusion was that we needed to do vertical takeoff and landing. And since I'm an electrical engineer, it had to be an electric vertical takeoff and landing or what's now called EVETAL. Anyway, so by 2005, I'd gotten around to making a SBA grant proposal to NASA and submitted that to NASA in 2005. And I got two thumbs up and one thumbs down. So I didn't get the grant, but I kind of mapped out this whole, this revolutionary period that we're in now back in 2005. And I shared that paper with a number of people, including some of the founders of some of the EVETAL, successful EVETAL companies. And I'm sorry, the audience may not know, EVETAL stands for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing. So that's, and then in 2017, we learned about the Boeing sponsored X-Prize called GoFly. And we'd put a team together to pursue that. So at that point, I knew the world had kind of caught up to my idea and all of a sudden it's a thing. So this vertical flight became a thing. And we put a team together to build a machine specifically for the Boeing GoFly competition. And what were some of the criterias of the GoFly competition? Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah, it was, you know, it's still an ongoing competition. They set the bar super high. The requirements are it had to be a compact machine. So the entire aircraft had to fit within an eight and a half foot sphere. It had to be relatively quiet. And the course it had to go through consisted of six miles around a track and then hover, do a touch and go, and then stay in the air for a total cumulative time of 20 minutes. So it's pretty, it was pretty tough challenge. None of the teams qualified during the main events, including Ziva, but we certainly gave it the old college try. Awesome. And so tell me a little bit about the structure of the device itself. I heard it's electric. Yes, it's 100% electric battery operated. Of course, it's zero carbon emissions. If you're lucky enough to live in a state like Washington then it has green power, so hydropower. And our particular vehicle is a blended wing body. And it looks like a flying saucer, if you haven't seen it yet. But the idea is that it takes off vertically. You stand up and it takes off vertically and it takes off vertically. You stand up and it takes off vertically. And then the whole aircraft transitions to forward flight and it's a lifting body that goes 160 miles an hour. So it's, that's what we're working on. Okay, and who flies it? How does it fly? Well, do I need a pilot's license to fly it? Today you do need a pilot's license to fly it. In the future, we're hoping that the FAA, excuse me, at some point will allow autonomy, in which case you won't need a pilot's license, you'll just get in it and tell it where you wanna go with AI and automated air traffic management. Okay, and how long in the future do you think that air traffic control would permit a device like this to fly? It's happening really fast. I mean, Ziva is a leader, but there's probably about nine other companies around the world that are flying full scale models and the leader, the one that's kind of leading the pack is Joby right now and they are claimed that they're close to getting certification. So they're making really good strides and I think that the longest pole in the tent is gonna be the autonomy piece. So they'll be able to fly with a pilot's license for quite right away. But in order to get the autonomy, you can imagine that that's a lot more complicated certification process, they don't even have the rules yet. Okay, so if our viewers would like to see what this looks like, ZivaAero.com, so that's Z-E-V-A-A-E-R-O.com and you can see what this whole device looks like, this flying saucer, as you mentioned. I really like that how it kind of hovers and you set up right in it. And then it's got almost like drone, I wanna say wings on it or propellers. Is that correct? Is it similar to a drone? Yeah, I mean, we call it motor pods, but it's more or less an octocopter. So it's got two blades on each corner, if you will. And it's controlled by a very similar flight computer as you would find in a really high-end drone. So the technology's kind of all merging at the same time in order to make it all happen. The flight control system, the lightweight composites, electric motors and the battery density is improving almost every week. So all of these considerations are converging to allow us to create these kind of vehicles. And how fast does this thing go? Well, it cruises at about 160 miles an hour. I think the top speed is probably shy of about 200. We haven't pushed it to that speed yet. So we are in the process of raising more money and getting geared up to go out to a much larger flight range where we can turn it loose and see what it'll do. That's so exciting. That's pretty fast. We're gonna be getting places not only skipping traffic but also going pretty fast to get there. I like the concept a lot. But you also, so one thing that you mentioned is currently you need a pilot's license. What's the vision for the future? Is anybody could be able to hop into one of these things and get to work or skip traffic? We have, I mean, there's two, I guess there's basically a fork in the road. We hope to be at some point autonomy, like I mentioned, certified and autonomous. The other approach which some of the co-peditors are doing is making it an ultralight. And it's very challenging because the ultralight rules are written to favor gas powered airplanes. But if we can get into the ultralight category, that means that anybody can fly it without a pilot's license. So, and would that be kind of set up? I know that there's drones out there that do videos and transport objects. Would that kind of be, would there somebody be controlling it like a video game while you're hopping into it, not needing the license? Or would there be some sort of other AI that would take care of that? Well, I mean, it'll come in stages for sure. I mean, I think some people are planning on using what we call remotely piloted. So there would be a pilot, but he wouldn't be in the machine as an interim approach. But ultimately the goal is to be, have an artificial intelligent agent in the machine that you can converse with and just say, take me to work or whatever like that. And then the vehicle itself will communicate with air traffic management system and route a path for you from point A to point B and then just execute on that flight plan. Okay, awesome. But we're talking probably beyond 2026 before that. No, probably later than that for that to happen. Probably 2028 onwards we'll have that. Hopefully, the FAA will give approval for that. And so speaking of the FAA, I know so this became, this was a competition that turned into your business. Did you have to get any sort of file for any sort of patents to, I know that you said co-predators and co-predators and people also potentially coming out of competitions like this, did you have to file for any sort of ownership of this idea? We did, we do have a patent pending right now. So we do have a file patent and it's kind of a single patent but it's what we call an omnibus patent. So it covers a bunch of different of the technologies that we're using in the single patent. But it's an interesting, there's many, many different configurations of these vehicles. And I mean, I think on one hand, we're fortunate to have my 2005 NASA paper because I have outlined a number of different configurations in there that I can point to and say, well, maybe you have a patent on it but it's right here, it's been here the whole time. So there's some protection with that as well.  I really like that. I've seen, I saw you pitch several years ago over, I wanna say almost five years ago now. So it's, I love to see the journey and how far you've come with this. So what does FAA approval entail? What kind of steps are you moving forward with now? We are taking it one step at a time and the initial step for us is to get the experimental certificate. And then beyond that, we have people on our team that are working out the details of what the next steps are. So there's a lot of people out there that think, oh my gosh, it's gonna cost a billion dollars in 10 years to get this thing certified. And I don't agree with that. I think that they're comparing like what it would cost to get a new jumbo jet certified to a smaller vehicle. I think it's apples and oranges. It's not something that you can compare directly. Certainly it's gonna take some resources and a dedicated team to get all the certifications we need but it's not a billion dollars and it's not 10 years. It's far less and far shorter time scale than that. Another advantage we have at Ziva is that we're small and nimble and we can, on one hand, it's kind of ride the coattails of Ziva or sorry, Joby, for example, because they're kind of the pioneer out there pushing the envelope. And once that trail has been blazed, it should be pretty easy to follow along. Very cool, great things. So the device is called Zero, that's what it's named. That's right, yeah. Is there any particular reason why you've picked that name? Well, it's the first one in a series. It looks like a big, big zero and it's zero emissions. So a couple reasons. All right, I'm digging the theme. That sounds great. Do you have any other models in the works or is you're just focused on this one as the baby for now? That's great. We do have another model in the works and we're always looking at the future. The zero is a prototype that was meant specifically for the Glowfly competition. And not having the restraints of the size will give us the ability to be a more, not only more user-friendly, but more efficient. So the one that we're calling Z2 is going to be much better. And in the short period, we hope to put that up on the website for reservations. Very cool. So you're having active flights with it currently. Is it, I saw pictures of it out in the field. Is that correct? You've done your first flights? Yeah, yeah. We spent quite a bit of time flying inside on Tether like over a year and fine-tuning our flight computer and flight control system. And once we were comfortable with that, then we went out to the farm and as shown in the video that's on our website. And that was a big moment for us because we've been building up to that point for a long time. Very cool, great, great success there. So I'm glad to see that it's up and running. And the sky is the limit for Z2 you called it because you don't have those type of restrictions. Right. So Biden sets goals for 50% of new US vehicles to become electric by 2030. And they're projecting that 90% of vehicles could be electric or sold, at least sold on the market electric by 2050. Do you think that that's somehow, since these are new technologies that are emerging, gonna be a competitor for Ziva? Or do you think that because everything's electric and going zero emission, that this is just an added benefit for Ziva? It's a huge added benefit. I think, you know, initially I think the EVTOL vehicles really shine in places where there is no good infrastructure. So for example, if you compare, let me let me back up and say, Ford sponsored a study about two years ago to show, and they showed what the study showed is that EVTOLs are actually more efficient than ground electric vehicles in some cases. And I would contend that electric aircraft are gonna be, are much more efficient in a lot of scenarios. And that's where they're gonna be deployed first. Let me give you one example would be Norway, where you've got, you know, your highway system looks like a zigzag because you've got all the fjords, right? If you can fly as the crow flies from point A to point B, you cut down the travel time, but by cutting down the travel time, you're cutting down the emissions enormously as well. So another example would be, you know, the Hawaiian islands, for example, or because there's no road that goes from one island to the other. So the most obvious way to get from point A to point B in a hurry, for example, for emergency services would be a vehicle like Ziva. And then there's lots of areas around the world like that. So that exists the Amazon rainforest, you know, the Delta is really almost impenetrable. There's the Indonesia has 17,000 islands. So there's a lot of places around the world that can really benefit from vehicles like this. And I think they'll initially be deployed for emergency services and helping save lives. That's great. I didn't even think of the medical field and how fast response could be from a device like this. And so we mentioned a little bit about not needing as much funding as on the grand scale as maybe others may think, just because we're not comparing these to jets or other vehicles. But what kind of funding have you pursued from the Boeing for the Boeing competition and then after the Boeing competition? We have pursued largely friends and family. We've been looking, you know, we had an angel funding as well. So we've been most successful with friends and family. And then, you know, personally, that members of the team putting money in to keep us floating. We haven't, you know, I feel like we've done amazing things with the amount of budget that we've had. But I also feel like we're just getting started. We're just, we need to get out of the starting blocks and we need significant funding to move forward. So, you know, that's, it's exciting times. And it's also trying times to try to find the dance partners that want to move forward. But, you know, you mentioned some of the Biden's initiatives and stuff coming out of Washington. There's a lot of incentive to get green. And I think that there are a lot of corporate corporations that have, that are in the, you know, transportation industry that are gonna need a partner like us. So, you know, we can, Zeva's kind of set up to mass produce, you know, personal air vehicles. They're compact, they're fast and they can be made inexpensively. So that's, you know, it checks all the three boxes for entrepreneurs out there, you know, faster, smaller, better and cheaper. So that's kind of what we're aiming for is that making something that does the job in a safe manner, but is also very affordable. And how large is your team right now? We've got about 25 people on Team Zeva, but they're not all full-time. So we have maybe a core team of about half a dozen folks. And then the other people we bring in when we need them to work on a specific projects. For example, we don't need to do carbon fiber all the time, only when we need a new body part. So. And are we viewing this as something that could potentially be in every individual's home or potentially a service that people would want to tap into like Uber, for example? You know, originally the thought thinking was personal ownership, because I think ultimately that's the, that saves everybody the most amount of money.  So I can see that model happening as well. We're not tied to any one particular business model, but we look forward to investigating multiple business models around the vehicle capabilities. I like how you had a concept, but you're very open to where it's headed. So you're not on this, this needs to happen and this is exactly how I want it to be, but you're really open to the way that the market is and the way that the need or want of your audience is. So I think that that's very admirable from an entrepreneur. And so you have what, let's ask what kind of hurdles do you see coming up here in the future? You said the FAA and needing some certificates. Do you have any other major milestones that you're looking to hit this year? Yeah, we definitely want to get geared up to do a lot more flight testing in, and like you mentioned earlier, doing the higher speed cruise testing. That's, and then at the same time, we want to make prototypes for the Z2 and expand our suite of vehicles. Right now we have one prototype and if something were to happen to it, it would really set the program back. So we need to make some more prototypes and continue flight testing. That's what's up for this year. And was your prototypes, they were built in Washington from mostly local products or local other businesses? Yes, well actually, we are fairly vertically integrated. We designed our own battery packs and had parts of the manufacturer and then we designed our own battery management system and as you can imagine the batteries are really a key piece. We designed a drive train and the control system is based on a open source platform but we've customized that.  We actually made the molds and did our own carbon fiber body panels as well. So again, I'm super proud of the team and what we've accomplished. Yeah, that is incredible. That's unheard of for a lot of companies to not have to house or so a lot of things. So your team of 25 sounds amazing, small, but robust and very full of knowledge. So that's amazing that you've collected that group. So I know that you personally, Stephen have been a entrepreneur or a serial entrepreneur and ran for five different startup companies? Yeah, yes. Were they all in the aerospace or in this realm or you said you were an engineer previously? So were they a little bit or were they of a different sector? Yeah, no, different sector. I spent most of my career in semiconductor design or computer chips and but the first startup was a miserable failure because it was way too early in the market. So first lesson was timing is super important. We did a software program for realtors and but the concept required the realtor to have a laptop and at that timeframe, laptops were too expensive for most real estate agents. So that was lesson number one. The second couple of companies were revolving around what chip design and so we did the consulting services for a lot of the chip tops. So semiconductor companies around the world and then we did a company called Silicon Reality and we were making 3D graphics chips when the graphics engine in the PC was converting from a 2D to 3D graphics. So we did that and then here we are at Ziva. FABLAB also was a moderate success although there was really no exit and involves COVID, that was a maker space. And one of the things that I attribute to creating this great team to was the fact that we had this high tech maker space and so I formed a network around that that where I got to know different people and what their capabilities were and then brought them onto the team. Well, you might be in the wrong space if you're knowing everything about chips with this chip shortage we have. I might have jumped out of that realm too soon. I know, right? Yeah, I think about that. Like, yeah, let's go do some chip stuff right now because there's so much money out there. But I'm loving what I'm doing and I think it all applies because you do have to have the deep tech knowledge to pull off the artificial intelligence piece and machine vision and all that kind of stuff. It's very high tech and involves a good degree of knowledge of what the chips can do not necessarily designing, but on what I consider the more fun side which is the applications of the tech. So, very cool. Yes, your experience seems to be relevant and helpful with what you're doing now. I'm very excited to see where this goes. I would be interested in coming and test flying one if you ever have somebody you need that doesn't have a pilot license yet. I would gladly be a guinea pig. All that sounds fun. And I guess just one last question before we leave this show is if you had any advice for other entrepreneurs that are out there currently trying to make it through COVID and get back out there, what experience would you try to advise them of? Yeah, well, first of all, I want to jump back and say you're anxious to see where it's going next and I would say it's up into the right, right? We're going up. Anyway, the two big takeaways from my experience really are it, you know, for me, you know, being a bootstrap guy, cash flow is everything and sustainability. How can you organize your company so that you can survive? You know, in our case right now we've been going for over four years on a very limited budget and, you know, basically, I think success comes through those who can survive and so that's probably number one is just control your cash flow, figure out how to do things very quality but inexpensively and then just, you know, to quote Winston Churchill, never, never, never give up. So you'll want to give up a thousand times.  I mean, it's just fundraising and doing these kinds of businesses are horrendously difficult.  And the second big piece is along those lines is that it, you know, you've heard it but it's very, very true. It's not what you know, it's who you know.  In fact, I think I have to relearn it almost every day which is, you know, build your network, you know, connect with people. People are what it's all about and making those, you know, friendships and established connections are super important and especially if you're trying to change the world, you know, it takes, you can't do it alone. You need to build a team and you need to build a network of people that are willing to help you and stick their neck out a little bit and make it happen. Great advice. Networking seems to be a common theme within this show. Thank you so much, Stephen. I'm excited to see about your transformation of transit in the future and where this goes. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you in about two weeks on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Hawaiian time. If you'd like to learn about making money, join us. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


What is this?  It's not darshan. Is it like this? It's not darshan. So, it's a simple to do, because there is a quarrel of stuff, which has to find it this way. Most people cannot meditate unless they exhaust the karma of activity within their sats. There's not a lot of karma and it is like a quarrel spring, it wants to find expression. It will not spare anybody. The best way is to get into that kind of activity, that it will wear you up by the time you go to bed, go ahead, even two inches before it touches the pillow, you're dead. So, if you use yourself like this, now when I sit, if you sit, you simply sit down for a minute.