This fireside chat recap is from FLYING’s “What’s Next in General Aviation” Virtual Event on Wednesday.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Bye Aerospace is creating innovative electric designs to build and market advanced aerospace products.
DETAILS: FLYING staff reporter Thom Patterson sits down with George Bye to talk about how the need for pilots continues to grow as well as the cost, and how advances in technology can help drive down the cost of flight operations and improve flight school economics while driving down cost to the student.
SPEAKER: Bye is founder, CEO, and chairman of Bye Aerospace.
BIO: Bye, the innovator behind Bye Aerospace, has two decades of experience as an aerospace entrepreneur, engineer, and executive, balancing internal development with research of advanced concepts. He has developed several aircraft designs and is the driving force behind the concept and development of a new all-electric eFlyer 2, eFlyer 4 and eFlyer 800, which Bye Aerospace launched in 2013. Previously, he led the company that launched and developed the Javelin, a transonic two-seat jet for military and civil applications and holds the design patent for the Javelin, which first flew in September 2005. He is a well-known pioneer and conceptual design engineer and has been asked to consult with major OEMs on their advanced development programs.
KEY QUOTES FROM BYE:
“Aviation has been in my blood since I was just a youngster. My mother introduced me to flying. She was a pilot. We learned to fly in a Piper Cherokee 140—what a great little airplane. And then in my teenage years, I continued to fly. I became an Air Force pilot eventually. But I tell you the key moment in my life was going solo in a Cessna 172 in my early 20s. I remember that vividly. Becoming that only person in the cabin, flying that airplane, changed my life. And we are here today in large part because we want to invigorate and inspire young people just like myself so many years ago to join the general aviation industry and become a part of this adventure.”
“The electric game-changing event has really been an evolution over so many years. It hasn’t just suddenly appeared. We can really go back to EV in automobile to electric with the Toyota Prius and Tesla and so many others. That transition has been taking place over a couple of decades altogether. … Bye Aerospace was inspired by that transition and looking forward to embracing that technology and all of its benefits for general aviation as our responsibility to kind of pioneer the future.”
“The prototype came first—an amazing and remarkable process and very challenging—but it gave us the background and proof that electric is real and can be brought to market.”
“We immediately point to battery cells technology [as the tech breakthrough that’s going to be needed for electric flight]. Many of us miss that electric motors haven’t been the primary propulsion system on an airplane until now. Quite frankly, the electric motor revolution, as a primary propulsion system, is equally important as the obvious energy storage system.”
