=== Let's Drone Out — Episode 261 ===
Title: LDO 261 - Airspeeder (Tony-Sized Manned Racing Drones)
Recorded: 2020-08-27
Hosts: Andrew "Frank" Hyams, Neil "NJ Tech" Jones, Wayne "CurryKitten" Andrews, Tony "TheTonstar1" Marchant
Guest(s): Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder)
Total audience: 1,949
Platforms: YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ItQtjY7wIg); SoundCloud (http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/883652017-letsdroneout-ldo-261-airspeeder-tony-sized-manned-racing-drones.mp3)
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[0.0] Curry: Welcome to Let's Drone Out, the original and best drone themed podcast.
[5.0] Curry: We record the show live on the Thursday night on youtube.com forward slash Let's Drone Out
[10.0] Curry: and our lovely patrons help with the editing costs.
[12.0] Curry: These are...
[13.0] Curry: Wacky Wes
[14.0] Curry: Mikey Dread
[15.0] Curry: Art Faulkner
[17.0] Curry: Carlos Campos
[19.0] Curry: Thank you
[20.0] Curry: Now let the trees recover
[21.0] Curry: Let's Drone Out now
[51.22] Frank: Good evening and welcome to Let's Drone Out episode 261.
[56.22] Frank: This week we have Curry Kitten
[59.22] Frank: Hello
[60.22] Frank: We have Tony
[62.22] Frank: Roger
[63.22] Frank: We have N.J.
[65.22] Frank: Hey guys
[66.22] Frank: And we have Steven from Airspeeder. Hi Steven
[69.22] Frank: Hello
[71.22] Frank: I'm Frank
[72.22] Frank: So yeah, we've got Steven on this week to talk about Airspeeder
[77.22] Frank: So we'll definitely dive into that in a bit.
[82.22] Frank: We've had some questions through from listeners
[84.22] Frank: So sorry
[88.22] Tony: Tony
[89.22] Tony: That was so bad
[90.22] UNKNOWN: Five years
[91.22] Tony: I don't want to shout over April
[94.22] Tony: I'm just going to mute myself and hold my head down for a minute
[98.22] Tony: Well before you go Tony
[100.22] Tony: If it helps, I did it as well Tony but you couldn't hear me
[104.22] Curry: We need some kind of hat that you have to wear
[107.22] NJ: Everyone has one and then that person has to put it on
[110.22] NJ: Oh my god, I sure do
[113.22] NJ: I sure unmuted everything
[116.22] Tony: Right anyway, that was a 15 second delay
[121.22] Tony: Sorry
[122.22] Tony: Bye Frank
[123.22] Tony: Tony
[124.22] Frank: As you've spoken up, what have you been doing over the past week? Have you been flying anything?
[130.22] Frank: No
[133.22] Frank: Me neither
[135.22] Frank: It's been naff weather
[137.22] Frank: We've cursed the nice weather too much
[141.22] Frank: And it's now gone away and it's now winter for the rest of the year
[145.22] Tony: I did fly actually, I flew at Croydon Airport
[150.22] Tony: Where the spit pliers used to take off and done a little shot of that
[154.22] Tony: It was quartopia 4 but it didn't really happen so we ran out of a place to go
[160.22] Tony: So Rich hosted it so we went to Croydon Airport, flew our drones there
[165.22] Tony: And then went back to his and flew some more drones round his garden
[170.22] Tony: Nice
[171.22] Tony: Yeah, it was quite good
[173.22] Tony: I didn't know that was a Spitfire and Hurricane point where they used to take off in Croydon Airport
[180.22] Tony: There's a turning circle still left in the time
[184.22] NJ: I think back in the day they'd take Spitfires off anywhere they had a Spitfire
[191.22] NJ: Which was everywhere
[193.22] Tony: It was everywhere
[195.22] Tony: Yeah, so I did fly, I was lying
[200.22] Tony: Sorry, and I marked up the thingy
[205.22] NJ: We've been quite lucky here actually
[208.22] NJ: I'm constantly checking the live weather radar to see exactly how the
[214.22] NJ: It was very interesting the other day obviously with the Storm Francis
[218.22] NJ: Sailing up and hammering Manchester and watching the rotation of everything
[225.22] NJ: But for the last, while it's been really volatile, luckily everything has either been ever so slightly north
[232.22] NJ: Or ever so slightly south of where I am in Bedfordshire
[237.22] NJ: And yeah, I've actually had some, apart from that day, that wasn't flying weather
[241.22] NJ: That was stained doors weather
[244.22] NJ: But yeah, I've actually managed to do a bit of flying because somehow most of the bad weather's missed where I am
[250.22] NJ: That's good
[251.22] NJ: It was really windy on Saturday
[254.22] NJ: I don't think it was gusts to out
[257.22] NJ: I think we had it as high as, because we were right on the edge
[261.22] NJ: The outer edge of the rotation and it was anywhere up to about 55 here
[265.22] NJ: It was pretty brutal
[267.22] NJ: It was
[268.22] Frank: And the question is, NJ, have you been following these storms to see whether you can fly FPV
[272.22] Frank: Or have you just been chasing the live weather in Microsoft Flight Simulator?
[276.22] NJ: I might have already tried to spot the odd storm and then go flying in Microsoft Flight Simulator
[283.22] NJ: Now, interestingly, the weather patterns are, the systems are there
[287.22] NJ: You can fly up, the systems appear there on the weather radar in the Garmin 1000
[292.22] NJ: You can look at it and go, you know, if your plane's got the weather radar, it's there
[296.22] NJ: But they haven't really properly modelled in the storms as such
[300.22] NJ: So they have a storm model, which is very good
[303.22] NJ: But it's not, you know, obviously
[306.22] Tony: They text us in it tonight, isn't it?
[309.22] NJ: I think I'm really bad at doing that for them
[312.22] NJ: Yeah, I think I did try initially going into it
[316.22] NJ: Which, what's the name of the one, is it Laura, isn't it?
[318.22] NJ: Is the name of the latest nasty one out there
[322.22] NJ: I did fly into that, but the wind speeds were like four, five mile an hour
[325.22] NJ: And that wasn't what the weather radar was going, so
[328.22] NJ: It definitely wasn't that, but I'm sure it'll improve
[332.22] Frank: And Curry, I saw you were starting up again on the code on your simulator
[338.22] Frank: Yes
[340.22] Curry: We had a whole, I tried to make Wednesday a coding day
[344.22] Curry: It ended up between two and five, so I managed to get three hours in
[348.22] Curry: Of doing some stuff
[350.22] Curry: But we got some stuff done, mainly the UIs
[353.22] Curry: And talking to the back end of the network stuff
[355.22] Curry: So I could make rules to say you're allowed a quad in here
[358.22] Curry: Or you're allowed anything in here
[360.22] Curry: And then people's decisions about what they wanted in there
[363.22] Curry: Now I just need to actually put the physical models in there
[366.22] Curry: For next time
[368.22] Curry: Which may be next week, hopefully
[371.22] Curry: I'm getting a bit snowed under
[373.22] Curry: Because of this weather, as a mostly reviewer
[377.22] Curry: For some reason, suddenly everything turned up at once
[380.22] Curry: So I had like ten packages through the post
[382.22] Curry: Which like five are ready to fly
[384.22] Curry: And I can't do anything with them, so I'm a bit stuffed at the moment
[387.22] Curry: Just sort of sat here, twiddling in my thumbs
[389.22] Curry: Oh
[390.22] Frank: Fingers crossed there's some decent weather to catch up on your reviews
[395.22] Frank: Have you got any reviews hanging around then, Jay?
[398.22] NJ: Have I got any reviews or to-do?
[401.22] NJ: Yes, oh yes, I do have reviews to do
[404.22] NJ: I've got the big stack of reviews I need to get done
[409.22] NJ: One of which I did get a tango to from Wayne over at TBS
[416.22] NJ: Which I need to do a deep dive on and pull apart
[419.22] NJ: Which I promised I would
[421.22] NJ: Because the last one was very, very, it did very well
[427.22] NJ: And then I've got some stuff from TruRC
[429.22] NJ: Do you know TruRC?
[431.22] NJ: I think I'll bring them in touch with you
[433.22] Curry: They're going tenors or something
[435.22] NJ: Are they an antenna from TruRC?
[439.22] NJ: Possibly
[440.22] NJ: They do lots of little weird bits and pieces
[443.22] NJ: But they decided they wanted to make a
[448.22] NJ: To get on board the micro toothpicky three inch class
[452.22] NJ: So that they're actually making their own flight controller
[455.22] NJ: And frame
[457.22] NJ: And they've been, you know, have all the people that I've had feedback with
[461.22] NJ: You know my stories about trying to help E-chime back in the day
[464.22] NJ: And just having all ends up like losing hair, tearing hair out with them
[469.22] NJ: Mainly because they ask you for feedback
[471.22] NJ: And by the time you give the feedback they've already put it into production
[474.22] NJ: TruRC have actually been really receptive to criticism
[478.22] NJ: And they keep sending back new versions of frames making various modifications
[483.22] NJ: So they're working on a little toothpicky thing
[486.22] NJ: They've got their own F7 flight controller
[488.22] NJ: So yeah, there's a few bits and pieces that I need to get going on quite soon really
[498.22] Frank: Cool
[499.22] Frank: Yeah, I've seen a few messages in the chat
[502.22] Frank: Because it was another event at Laxton last weekend
[505.22] Frank: As Kelsey told us last week
[508.22] Frank: And Dave's story
[510.22] Frank: He looks like he did quite well
[513.22] Frank: Got second in a lower final
[515.22] Frank: So
[516.22] Frank: Well done Dave
[518.22] Frank: Yeah, good job
[519.22] Frank: Yeah, which brings us nice and neatly onto racing
[523.22] Frank: Because Steven is here
[525.22] Frank: This week to talk about, you know, some slightly bigger racing than the five inch quads
[532.22] Frank: That you might see at Laxton
[534.22] Tony: Bigger than this too
[535.22] Frank: Uh oh
[537.22] Frank: Yeah, bigger than Tony's X-Class
[539.22] Frank: Damn it
[541.22] Frank: Everyone kind of
[543.22] Frank: When they first see the X-Class go up
[545.22] Frank: Maybe goes and finds something to go and dive behind
[549.22] Frank: Because it's a fairly big and scary kind of thing to be
[552.22] Tony: It makes a nice noise
[554.22] Tony: A nice noise
[555.22] Tony: It does make a nice noise
[557.22] Tony: I bet your ones make a bit better noise
[561.22] Tony: Yeah
[564.22] Tony: A lot louder
[566.22] Tony: I bet
[568.22] Frank: Yeah, because
[570.22] Frank: The company you're working with, Airspeeder
[573.22] Frank: So they've got this whole vision for like
[577.22] Frank: Pushing the technology of drones and drone racing, right?
[581.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, so
[584.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): For anyone that's not heard of Airspeeder
[587.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I normally go into a little bit of a spiel
[589.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Airspeeder is
[591.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Flying car racing series
[593.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, you know, large drones
[597.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We call them speeders
[599.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They are huge
[601.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): A three-seater couch
[603.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): If you can put it into perspective
[606.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In the future that we piloted
[608.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But right now we're building the competition element
[611.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're building the vehicles themselves
[615.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And it's all centered around, you know, pushing that technology
[618.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's all centered around advancing
[621.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The science behind it
[623.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because we're sat on a huge industry
[627.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Around EVTOL
[629.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And drones and technology
[631.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And everything that goes into it
[633.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, yeah, there's
[635.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There's quite a lot happening
[637.22] Tony: We're talking about flying cars
[639.22] Tony: It's
[641.22] Curry: I was going to ask you very specifically
[643.22] Curry: We love it
[644.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Do you call them
[645.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We call them out with everything
[646.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's great
[647.22] Curry: I get that flying cars are sort of perhaps
[650.22] Curry: A sort of layperson's viewpoint
[652.22] Curry: It might be easier
[653.22] Curry: But was that it wasn't a sort of deliberate thing to say
[655.22] Curry: They're not drones
[656.22] Curry: They're flying cars
[658.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Our audience sits on
[661.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, speaking between us
[664.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Our audience sits between
[666.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, traditional drone fans
[669.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Pop culture
[671.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Technology fans
[673.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And motorsport fans
[675.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, you know, that whole Venn diagram
[677.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're, you know, we're playing around in
[679.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, yes, they're large drones
[681.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They're also, you know, flying vehicles
[683.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They're also a new form of urban mobility transportation
[686.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, all of this technology is going to be going into
[689.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): A multitude of different
[692.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Sectors at the end of the day
[694.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They're redundant, so you would be my main thing
[697.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): My sort of whole
[699.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Sort of angle as that of media is
[702.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think, you know, pop culture, motorsport
[705.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And drone racing is our key audience
[708.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The science and the technology behind it
[711.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The manufacturing side of things
[714.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That, you know, it is urban mobility
[717.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It is future mobility and drone technology
[720.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Absolutely
[722.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But, yeah, I love banging that drum about flying cars
[726.22] NJ: I wondered if the speed
[729.22] NJ: Was any kind of reference to Star Wars as in land speed
[732.22] NJ: I don't know if that has any weight
[735.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It does, honestly
[737.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It does, MJ
[739.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The problem with speeders in Star Wars
[741.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I'm going to get on my horse here
[744.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The problem with that is that they're quite
[747.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They just go on a straight line across the desert floor
[750.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There's no change of that
[753.22] NJ: We've got deserts in Bedford
[755.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah
[758.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They literally go across the desert floor
[760.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And ours are going to be designed to go up the side of mountains
[763.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Down the side into gullies
[765.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's going to be banking
[767.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, yeah, I mean, absolutely they're going to be called speeders
[770.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we do take a huge amount of respect
[777.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And direction from Star Wars
[780.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But, yeah, we feel that they can do even more
[784.22] NJ: Marvelous
[786.22] NJ: And what sort of
[787.22] NJ: Have you been in
[789.22] NJ: I presume there's been some pretty exciting testing
[791.22] NJ: That's been going
[793.22] NJ: I don't know how much you can talk about
[795.22] NJ: But what sort of things can you tell us
[799.22] NJ: Have anyone stepped in one yet?
[801.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That really
[803.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, we're building a global testing program at the moment
[807.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, multiple locations
[810.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Think Xtreme E
[812.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): If you're following the sort of Xtreme E story
[814.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): About global locations and global races and global testing
[817.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In various different
[820.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, in different places
[822.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, not Bedfordshire
[824.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's definitely not going to happen
[828.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Might do
[830.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Eventually, but, yeah, I think
[832.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're going to be going into various different types of locations
[837.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're going to be in the desert in Coober P.D.
[840.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Towards the end of September
[843.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Beginning of October now, COVID
[847.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To do quite a bit
[849.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we then aim to go abroad
[854.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And do quite a few adventure testing
[858.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Fantastic
[860.22] Curry: Nice
[861.22] Curry: Does anything about the sort of tech
[864.22] Curry: In the current ones you've got
[866.22] Curry: From the outside, we can see how you just sort of blow up bigger motors
[870.22] Curry: Bigger ESCs
[871.22] Curry: But then I think
[872.22] Curry: Well, you're probably not going to be running it on a little
[874.22] Curry: Beater flight controller
[876.22] Curry: Are you developing your own stuff here
[878.22] Curry: Or are there some off-the-shelf products
[880.22] Curry: That you're able to utilise and customise?
[883.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): A bit of both
[884.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, I won't get into the details of it
[887.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because we have to keep our secret source
[889.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But if you think of it like F1
[893.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because we're building a racing series here
[895.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we want to encourage teams to come in
[898.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to encourage technical partners
[901.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're about to sign an F1 technical partner
[905.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In the next few days
[907.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And announce it in the next week or two
[909.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So keep your eyes peeled for that
[911.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Big name as well in the game
[915.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, we want to become a platform for testing
[921.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to become a partner to these companies as well
[924.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And iterate and constantly push
[927.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, we want to be that platform
[932.22] Frank: Nick, we were saying
[934.22] Frank: When we were talking a couple of weeks ago
[936.22] Frank: You were saying
[937.22] Frank: With the teams that you're looking to get on board
[942.22] Frank: Probably what will be happening is that they'll be taking the main core
[947.22] Frank: Of what you've been developing
[949.22] Frank: As the kind of stock airframe
[951.22] Frank: And then adding their own kind of secret source onto it as well
[955.22] Frank: Is that the idea?
[957.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, absolutely
[958.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So louder than manufacturing the Speeders themselves
[962.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which is the sister partner company
[965.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Who build the frames and the stock, let's say
[970.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And then yes, each of the teams will then come in
[973.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And provide their own elements to it
[978.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we want to encourage that as much as possible
[983.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because that's how change happens
[986.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we don't want to restrict, restrict, restrict
[989.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You must use our stock completely
[991.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And there's only a finite amount you can change
[994.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's not going to help the industry
[996.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's not going to help science and tech move forward
[1001.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, we want innovative companies coming in
[1005.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To add their hardware and software into it
[1009.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And they keep pushing the boundaries
[1012.22] Frank: Absolutely
[1013.22] Frank: And shiny video stuff in the chat as well says
[1016.22] Frank: Considering how much F1 did for the automotive industry
[1018.22] Frank: In terms of technology development from the 1940s onwards
[1021.22] Frank: This promises to really fast-track consumer-man vehicles
[1024.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, absolutely
[1028.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We really do feel that we're at that start
[1032.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Of a new form of mobility
[1036.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): With the industry sat on, I think there was a recent study
[1040.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That the urban mobility sector is worth 1.5 trillion
[1047.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And you've got big players like Uber in air taxis
[1051.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You've got Hyundai, similar
[1054.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You've also got big names playing around in this
[1059.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, we're sort of at that forefront of defining
[1063.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What that new motor sport is
[1066.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And I think, yeah, it's hugely exciting
[1069.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And yeah, we do see ourselves as pioneers
[1071.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We absolutely do
[1073.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And yeah, it's harking back to the Henry Ford's
[1077.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I mean, that's saying something
[1080.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But these are new forms of travel that we're producing
[1083.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's the new Air Horse
[1086.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Don't quote me on that, that's horrible
[1089.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's the new unicorn of travel
[1092.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We don't have rainbows coming out the back of it though
[1096.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, it's super exciting
[1100.22] Frank: Yeah, I imagine also just thinking about it
[1104.22] Frank: Having the kind of core that then gets modified
[1107.22] Frank: Just because everyone is going to know that
[1110.22] Frank: I follow a lot of the rules in terms of drone flying
[1114.22] Frank: And report it back to everyone else
[1117.22] Frank: I imagine having a core that can kind of get certified
[1121.22] Frank: To a big degree that is then going to make it a lot easier for everyone else
[1125.22] Frank: To kind of have something that's at least allowed to fly
[1129.22] Frank: I imagine that's the big part there
[1131.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, I mean, we're doing a number of things
[1133.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Airspeed is sort of an umbrella term
[1136.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): For a number of things that we're doing
[1138.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): One is we're building a new sport
[1141.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're defining what the competition is
[1143.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And where the locations and all that goes with doing that
[1147.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're also building a new form of transportation
[1150.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which has its own challenges with regulations
[1155.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Writing that and proving that and being safe
[1162.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And then also it's making it exciting for fans
[1166.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And making it immersive and watchable for the fanbase
[1175.22] NJ: So there's quite a big picture here isn't there
[1179.22] NJ: Well obviously you've got the racing and that kind of F1
[1183.22] NJ: Fast exciting side of things of what you're going to do with these drones
[1186.22] NJ: But also there's the bigger bubble
[1188.22] NJ: And there's obviously an awful lot to think of
[1191.22] NJ: As that expands out
[1193.22] NJ: Encapsulates all these other things
[1195.22] NJ: Because you're in at ground zero with it
[1197.22] NJ: You've got to by default think and uncover all those things I guess
[1200.22] NJ: Yeah, it's massively
[1203.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Choose no words carefully
[1205.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Thinly spread at the very start of these things
[1207.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think you can imagine how you're building an F1
[1211.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You're building a new form of sport
[1213.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And you're constantly iterating at the same time
[1218.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You're keeping up with the technology too
[1221.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, great challenge to have
[1224.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think what's clear to us now is
[1229.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're at that phase now where we're starting to design
[1232.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What these races might look like
[1234.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And how fun we want to make them
[1237.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And that will inform the engineering on how the next iteration
[1244.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The next mark four, five, six, whatever that is
[1249.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And what they're capable of doing
[1252.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Should echo what the fans want
[1254.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And how we design those races
[1256.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, really pivotal
[1258.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): This is a key moment for us now
[1260.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're coming into what we consider a sort of season alpha
[1264.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which is next year
[1265.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Covid has pushed everything back
[1267.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we're coming into a year now
[1269.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Where we get to test our thoughts behind it
[1273.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And test what the fans want
[1275.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Test what the partners want to put into it
[1279.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And keep iterating for season beta the year after
[1285.22] Curry: So I know the sort of the man thing is like after alpha and stuff
[1289.22] Curry: But you were just talking about how you were thinking about designing the races
[1293.22] Curry: So I really was interested to know
[1295.22] Curry: What you envisaged as it being at the moment
[1297.22] Curry: In terms of what would the course look like
[1299.22] Curry: How many races would you have in there
[1302.22] Curry: And how are you going to do like pit stops
[1304.22] Curry: And is it going to be like laps in a certain amount of time
[1307.22] Curry: Or certain amount of laps in the winner
[1309.22] Curry: And yeah, especially on like the pit stops
[1312.22] Curry: Because presumably I think you were talking about
[1315.22] Curry: 12 to 20 minutes on these quads
[1317.22] Curry: So presumably it's like bring them in
[1319.22] Curry: Change the batteries
[1320.22] Curry: Get them out again
[1321.22] Curry: Which brings in whole sorts of interesting strategies
[1324.22] Curry: When you're saying there's not a set thing
[1326.22] Curry: Like could you just load something up with batteries
[1328.22] Curry: And go a bit slower
[1329.22] Curry: As opposed to go fast with a single set
[1331.22] Curry: And do pit stops and things like that
[1333.22] Curry: What was the sort of vision at the moment for that?
[1337.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The vision at the moment for that is iteration
[1340.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So like you say
[1343.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Having battery modules that we then replace
[1347.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Either our octocopters or quadcopters etc
[1351.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I mean it's constantly iterating for both those
[1358.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): How the pits will look
[1362.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to echo right now what F1 does
[1367.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But that's not set in stone at all
[1370.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It might mean the way that we can change batteries
[1376.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or props
[1377.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That might change again an iterator
[1379.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And I kind of keep pushing back to
[1381.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's what season alpha next year is designed to do
[1384.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's designed to go
[1385.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): This isn't working in the way this pit is working
[1388.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Let's change it
[1390.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Let's make it elevated
[1393.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And make sure that the battery is in a position
[1396.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Where we can quickly change it out
[1398.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And the props are out of the way
[1402.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And just to clarify
[1403.22] Curry: Season alpha is the sort of three quarter size unmanned ones
[1407.22] Curry: That are going to sort of race in the same general idea
[1410.22] Curry: Before you go and actually put people in them
[1413.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yes, correct
[1414.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We will be testing the unmanned smaller
[1422.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Mark III
[1423.22] Tony: I would love to do both
[1425.22] Tony: Test fly it from FBV point of view
[1428.22] Tony: And get in it
[1429.22] Tony: Because I'm quite light
[1431.22] Tony: I'm slim
[1432.22] Tony: I reckon I'll make a good little pilot in one of them
[1435.22] Tony: You can sign up on the website
[1437.22] Tony: I can say that
[1438.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Tony goes in one as well
[1440.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We won't
[1442.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You can actually sign up on the website to be a pilot
[1445.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I already have
[1446.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to take people from drone operators
[1450.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To e-sports gamers
[1453.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To professional pilots
[1455.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Commercial pilots
[1456.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because, yeah, there's so many crossovers that we can
[1461.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, you can utilise
[1463.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Someone was saying the other day
[1465.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): MotoGP is probably a really good area to hunt for pilots as well
[1469.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Very in the future
[1470.22] Frank: If anyone listening does want to sign up
[1473.22] Frank: Then they can do at airspeeder.com forward slash pilot dash sign dash app
[1477.22] Frank: Which is also in the description or in the show notes
[1480.22] Frank: If you're listening to the podcast
[1483.22] NJ: Interesting
[1484.22] NJ: The bit that really fascinates me about all this is obviously me being me
[1489.22] NJ: It's the engineering side and the aerodynamic side
[1492.22] NJ: But I did have a thought on this a while back
[1495.22] NJ: When I was thinking about very fast-moving drones
[1500.22] NJ: And one thing that struck me as an interesting idea was
[1506.22] NJ: So you know with helicopters you have
[1509.22] NJ: Your sort of understanding the concept of centre of thrust
[1513.22] NJ: And it's kind of a speed-limiting factor of a helicopter
[1517.22] NJ: It's the fact that you've got a retreating blade and an advancing blade in the direction you're going
[1522.22] NJ: Which is why helicopter blades teeter is so that the one that's advancing can flap up
[1527.22] NJ: And essentially dump a load of lift out of one side
[1530.22] NJ: So that as they go faster they don't just sort of tip over at one side
[1534.22] NJ: So this is why helicopter blades can flap on a teeter and rotate
[1538.22] NJ: Now with drones you've got obviously two blades going in
[1545.22] NJ: Contradicting opposite rotation at the front
[1549.22] NJ: But the centre of thrust of those are going to be moved outward towards the advancing blade
[1555.22] NJ: And you've still got that problem with a retreating blade that's offering less thrust, right?
[1559.22] NJ: Stick with me for a second
[1561.22] NJ: So the idea was rather than having a teetering blade
[1567.22] NJ: Or something that could teeter and essentially dump thrust from the advancing blade
[1572.22] NJ: Rather than dumping thrust the better thing to do would be to create an aerofoil
[1577.22] NJ: Which would actually improve the efficiency of the retreating blades if you were rotating inwards from the front
[1583.22] NJ: So rather than losing you should gain efficiency
[1586.22] NJ: So you could have small either vortex generators or spoilers that would improve the efficiency on the inward blades
[1592.22] NJ: If you were running that rotation
[1594.22] NJ: If this ever makes it to something I'm happy to take a small commission
[1599.22] NJ: Just hang out there
[1601.22] NJ: I've got loads of ideas like these
[1603.22] Frank: Can we just put up a handwritten sign saying help
[1606.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): If we can send help
[1609.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Nice, good, honestly I think
[1611.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I've worked in autonomous vehicles and media
[1622.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And worked at Goodwood and Formula E as well
[1626.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There's some work there
[1628.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): The science and the tech and the engineering side I think is huge to get under that
[1632.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because people need to learn and want to learn about this new technology
[1636.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And I think it's for us now to start to tell that story as we go and update
[1641.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we've hired a team to start to get under the fingernails and educate
[1646.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Because we're creating that new, as you say, those new technologies and that new form of mobility
[1655.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And people want to learn with us
[1657.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So I think it's in our right to start to educate at the same time when we're not holding everything back
[1662.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Right now we're sort of teetering on the edges of big deals
[1666.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we want to start to create content that's going to educate and go into the science a bit
[1674.22] NJ: It's so exciting
[1676.22] NJ: I think it's going to be such an exponential growth, isn't it?
[1681.22] NJ: The second it all, as you say, just gets to that point where everything starts to happen
[1686.22] NJ: That's going to be hard to keep a handle
[1688.22] NJ: It's going to go mad, I think
[1690.22] NJ: Well, I can see it like a Red Bull Air Racing style
[1695.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Well, yeah, I mean, a Red Bull Air Race is slightly different
[1699.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We've got a huge purpose here regarding that we're start on this new form of mobility and electric future mobility
[1711.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And yeah, creating that new form of transportation
[1715.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We feel that we have a deep story here and take everyone on that journey with us
[1721.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, I think for me it's just a lot deeper in regards to that
[1730.22] Frank: This episode was recorded in front of a live online audience
[1733.22] Frank: Downloaded and edited to make sense when it's played audio only
[1737.22] Frank: Censored to please the iTunes people hosted on the internet
[1740.22] Frank: Forwarded through to your podcast provider, downloaded, playing on your device and is now playing in your ears
[1745.22] Frank: All thanks to our Patreons
[1747.22] Frank: Consider joining them and you'll also get other online benefits
[1750.22] Frank: Find out more at patreon.com forward slash let's drone out
[1755.22] Frank: I'm going to cut in and say so
[1759.22] Frank: We asked some of our listeners to send in some questions
[1765.22] Frank: And we got some technical questions that I think your colleague James, who I think I've seen in the chat at some point
[1773.22] Frank: Got some answers for us
[1775.22] Frank: I thought I'd just quickly run through some of them
[1777.22] Frank: So one of the questions was how long do you expect to get in flight time?
[1782.22] Frank: The sub two minutes of minicore racing or the 30 to 40 minutes of the big camera multi rotors
[1788.22] Frank: I think as Curry mentioned already, looking at getting 12 minutes on a pack
[1795.22] Frank: And swapping it in a pit stop
[1800.22] Frank: The second question was what are the pit stops going to be like
[1805.22] Frank: Is it going to be an F1 style quick swap of an arm motor prop
[1811.22] Frank: If the pilot pranks something or will it be a case of swapping the pilot from airframe to airframe more like Formula E
[1817.22] Frank: And the answer on that one was much more similar to the F1 style of safely replacing individual components during a live pit situation
[1828.22] Frank: And a final one we've got here
[1832.22] Frank: Which I think we've probably already covered
[1834.22] Frank: But anyway, in terms of safety does it have any backup triple redundant control systems, parachutes, airbags, etc
[1840.22] Frank: And the answer was safety is clearly paramount and we use next generation collision avoidance technology and redundant systems
[1846.22] Frank: Our pilots are elite operators drawn from military civil and UAV backgrounds
[1851.22] Frank: The collision avoidance one is interesting because that's kind of a bit of a hot topic at the moment
[1858.22] Frank: In terms of the ADS-B and how that's being integrated into everything at the moment
[1863.22] Frank: And electronic conspicuity and all of those kinds of things
[1867.22] Frank: Which manned aviation has been trying to solve at least in the UK for over a decade
[1873.22] Frank: Electronic conspicuity and still kind of struggling
[1878.22] Frank: So they've been pushing it onto quads as a way of trying to kind of come to an answer that they can roll out
[1886.22] Frank: So this is kind of an interesting intersection between all of those things
[1891.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, and back to it as well. I think we are that
[1894.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're also that test bed platform as well
[1898.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So air speeder is the competition
[1901.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But that world of testing technology, testing these things
[1907.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Collision avoidance, battery, improving battery runaway, everything
[1914.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think we also want to be a test bed for this technology as well
[1919.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, hopefully we're used that way as well, which we are
[1925.22] Curry: For some reason, I'm visualising people learning in the pits
[1928.22] Curry: And when they take the battery and put the new one in, do you get that ESC noise coming on?
[1933.22] Curry: And then it counts up to about 24 cells or something for the batteries
[1938.22] Curry: I don't know why I had that in my head
[1940.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want that feedback next year
[1943.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we want to inject pop culture and that Blade Runner-esque sound
[1950.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That just blips whatever it is
[1953.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Inject it into it because that's how we want it to be engaging and fun
[1960.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, the answer regarding pits, I've been asking quite a few times
[1965.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Let's shape it
[1968.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What is it that people want to see with a new form of motorsport pit lane and access and everything else
[1978.22] Tony: I think changing drivers in the pits or flyers, what would they be?
[1985.22] Tony: FBV pilots, pilots, flying pilots
[1990.22] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, they would be drivers would they
[1994.22] NJ: Can we get it to do this one?
[2000.85] NJ: Name that tune anyone?
[2005.29] NJ: Africa, there you go, he got it
[2010.29] NJ: Africa by Tay Tay
[2013.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We load the play around it
[2016.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to inject these speeders back into movies and pop culture as well
[2023.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Used and utilise that way too
[2026.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So it's a big push here to make this a 21st century new sport, entertainment proposition as well
[2036.29] Frank: If you're getting the F1 teams involved, then they're all in the Oxford Cambridge arc
[2041.29] Frank: So close enough to Bedford I think
[2044.29] Frank: So then you've got the Air Lander as well, the big airship
[2049.29] Frank: That's what I was going to say
[2052.29] NJ: We've got the Cardington Hangars right here
[2055.29] NJ: They've filmed Batman in there
[2058.29] NJ: The Air Lander, you can fit two seven four sevens into it
[2061.29] NJ: Loads of room in there
[2064.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We've been thinking outside the box too
[2067.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): How about you have speeders inside an unreal engine world
[2074.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You create worlds and gates through that
[2077.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But you have live speeders in that area as well
[2082.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we have the technology to do this
[2086.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You see a lot of tweets and people saying flying cars haven't arrived, it's 2020
[2092.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We have the technology
[2095.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We have the technology to do that
[2098.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To create a new form of sport inside a gaming engine
[2101.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But it's real
[2104.29] Curry: I've sort of lost that a bit
[2107.29] Curry: So unreal engine, the gaming engine
[2109.29] Curry: What do you mean by the real speeders inside it?
[2112.29] Curry: Are we talking about physically modelling them?
[2115.29] Curry: It's a symbol
[2117.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You can take live data from the speeders
[2122.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And plot it directly into a gaming engine
[2125.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There's untold amounts of possibilities with how you...
[2132.29] NJ: The VR, for VR, that's going to be amazing
[2135.29] NJ: I'm already excited, it's not a thing yet
[2138.29] NJ: But I'm already excited
[2141.29] Frank: I'm excited to see how it develops
[2146.29] Frank: I'm just thinking back
[2149.29] Frank: At least for us, the early days of the quad racing
[2153.29] Tony: You make it around once and you get a clap
[2156.29] Curry: Yeah, hopefully it's more successful than that
[2159.29] Curry: Also just be carnage all over the place
[2162.29] Frank: But yeah, on the really early days
[2164.29] Frank: It was literally a little course through a forest
[2168.29] Frank: It was trying trials
[2172.29] Frank: At the point where it wasn't so easy to have so many pilots up at the same time
[2176.29] Frank: One at a time, doing the time trials
[2178.29] Frank: And yeah, if someone completed, of course, a lap untouched
[2182.29] Frank: Then it was just applause all around
[2185.29] Frank: Well done, the next one
[2188.29] Frank: And then the other side of it is then it's got so quick
[2194.29] Frank: So quickly
[2195.29] Frank: And now you watch the feeds at a drone race
[2199.29] Frank: And at least personally, my brain doesn't keep up with what I'm doing
[2205.29] Frank: And it's actually almost hard to spectate
[2209.29] Frank: So to have something that's a lot bigger
[2212.29] Frank: So you can watch it line of sight a bit more easily
[2215.29] Frank: A bit like the X-Class
[2216.29] Frank: But the other side of it is to have the bit of meat inside
[2220.29] Frank: So that it's always going at a meaty sort of speed
[2223.29] Frank: Instead of digital sort of speed
[2225.29] Frank: I think that will also make it a lot easier to watch maybe
[2231.29] Frank: I'm going to be biased
[2233.29] Frank: But I like the format that we've been running at the Mini Air Show
[2237.29] Frank: With the team system
[2240.29] Frank: Because one of the problems that we always have is that
[2243.29] Frank: You get two minutes out of a Mini Quad pack
[2247.29] Frank: And then that's it
[2249.29] Frank: And then you're waiting for the next race to start
[2252.29] Frank: With a completely different set of people
[2253.29] Frank: And so kind of trying to keep track of who's doing what
[2256.29] Frank: Was always a bit tricky
[2257.29] Frank: So with the Mini Air Show format, the team format
[2260.29] Frank: We've got 10, 15 minute races
[2263.29] Frank: By having them having a pit lane
[2265.29] Frank: And getting them to swap out the batteries
[2267.29] Frank: And fly a few packs at a time
[2269.29] Frank: And I like it, but I'm biased
[2272.29] Frank: So I like it
[2274.29] Tony: It's all good
[2277.29] Curry: I think that's interesting from there as well, Frank
[2279.29] Curry: About how quickly the development of sort of flight controllers came on
[2285.29] Curry: That they went from ripping out a Wii remote
[2290.29] Curry: To very sort of deliberate parts and code for them
[2293.29] Curry: And I can just imagine right now
[2295.29] Curry: There's probably not that many massive motors
[2298.29] Curry: You can get that a spinner 32-inch prop
[2300.29] Curry: And the ESCs might be a bit thin on the ground
[2303.29] Curry: But as it develops, all sorts of new tech will come out
[2307.29] Curry: And of course, everything in the hobby world
[2310.29] Curry: Has pretty much gone towards building pretty small stuff
[2313.29] Curry: And when you're, like Tony already had it
[2316.29] Curry: Tuning an X-Class is a very different proposition than a fight
[2320.29] Curry: Not that you'd know Tony, you didn't do any
[2322.29] Curry: Than tuning something small
[2324.29] Curry: And when you're expanding this out to a three-seater sofa
[2327.29] Curry: This is a whole different ballgame again
[2329.29] Curry: So it's like a completely different sort of branch
[2332.29] Curry: That's going to go off on its own little journey
[2335.29] Curry: And reap some interesting results, no doubt
[2337.29] NJ: I do hope that becomes a class system
[2340.29] NJ: So it's all related to different couch sizes
[2343.29] NJ: So you can have like your snuggle couch size
[2347.29] NJ: A snuggle couch class, single-seater
[2350.29] Curry: Lazy boy, of course
[2352.29] Curry: I want to fly a lazy boy, that sounds good
[2355.29] NJ: Lazy boy class, love it
[2361.29] Frank: Another thing we were talking about
[2363.29] Frank: We were talking a couple of weeks ago
[2365.29] Frank: You're saying you've actually got an honest to God
[2369.29] Frank: Test pilot of like fighter jets involved
[2374.29] Frank: Wow
[2376.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah
[2378.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah
[2380.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, he's our, yeah
[2382.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We've got him under
[2384.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Got him in a cage
[2387.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): He's under the stairs
[2389.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In a darkened room
[2391.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We sort of bring him out
[2393.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I've got a lot of them
[2397.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, we've got a pilot program
[2401.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That we've begun
[2403.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There always needs to be the first
[2405.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to scale that up massively next year
[2410.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We've recently started to work with Agility Prime
[2415.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which are a US group that has quite a lot of pilots
[2421.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): From the, as you say, US Air Force
[2424.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And commercial pilots
[2428.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): There's quite a lot in there from pilot academies, et cetera
[2433.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we want to sort of get the best of the best
[2436.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, I think right now where we are is a lot of sim testing
[2444.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And so forth, we haven't made that jump yet
[2449.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we plan to next year and that's where we get to really test it
[2455.29] NJ: Qoddy Gaz asks, do you fly FPV?
[2459.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): No, I don't. I'll be totally honest with you, I don't
[2463.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I work a lot around commercial drone operators through media
[2468.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But I've never flown, no
[2470.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And I don't plan to fly these either
[2473.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think if you were in 25, I would have said, get me in there
[2478.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But when you get a house and a dog and get a...
[2484.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Over feeling, brother
[2486.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Get a bit softer around the middle
[2488.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, yeah
[2491.29] Curry: Is there anything you can real at the moment, Stephen, about the control scheme of the manned drone?
[2496.29] Curry: Because obviously we're thinking, you know, we're pretty handy with the thumbs
[2500.29] Curry: And can do what's happening
[2501.29] Curry: And if I was in a full-size one, would it be the case of a yoke stick, a throttle
[2505.29] Curry: And perhaps rudder controls on the feet like a helicopter
[2508.29] Curry: I'd sort of thought about it and I thought, well, I don't know what's best
[2511.29] Curry: I guess you guys are still going through the iterations of that one as well, are you?
[2515.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We are. I can't go into much detail into that
[2517.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But, you know, we want it to be, let's say, futuristic
[2520.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But again, it's working with partners and to develop
[2524.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think that's, again, just to be sort of diplomatic here
[2528.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think, you know, we see ourselves as that test bed for those types of engineers
[2535.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And partners to come on board and give us that secret source
[2540.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To produce something that is easy as well
[2545.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Again, it's a new form of transportation here, so we want to make it
[2549.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I bet they sound awesome
[2552.29] Tony: Especially when they're turning in
[2555.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, they do. We've got a few older videos on the channel
[2559.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I've just joined the company, so there's going to be sort of a whole fresh batch of content
[2564.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's going to come through
[2567.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to be producing up to 200 pieces a month video content
[2571.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we're going to really ramp
[2573.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We don't want to rest on our laurels here
[2576.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to produce content from, you know, educate people
[2579.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Show exciting things, get under the bonnet
[2583.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Start showing a bit of the tech off as well
[2586.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Show us failing as well, show us learning
[2590.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Again, keep coming back to it
[2592.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're designing a new form of transportation here, not just a racist thing
[2599.29] NJ: I would make a prediction about that control system
[2603.29] NJ: Because it's such a mishmash of different aircraft, really, a drone
[2608.29] NJ: But it's most closely related to a helicopter
[2612.29] NJ: I would say rudder pedals would be a must
[2615.29] NJ: I was going to say a stick in the middle, like a helicopter would be
[2621.29] NJ: But then, futuristic craft, probably going to have a lot of glass cockpit stuff going on
[2626.29] NJ: I reckon it's going to be more the Airbus route, side stick
[2629.29] NJ: So I reckon side stick and rudder pedals
[2632.29] NJ: That's my guess
[2634.29] NJ: That's what I'm thinking
[2637.29] Tony: Maybe just sitting there with a tarantula
[2642.29] NJ: But once I've seen a lot of people have been doing that, haven't they?
[2645.29] NJ: They've been sat in the cockpit with controls they're familiar with
[2648.29] NJ: To do, obviously, incredibly crazy and dangerous things
[2652.29] NJ: But, yeah, that's been done already, as mental as it is
[2657.29] Frank: As someone who's flown all kinds of quads, drones, helicopters, manned, unmanned
[2667.29] Frank: I think NJ is probably the best person to take a judgement on this one there
[2672.29] Frank: It's just a guess
[2675.29] NJ: Having flown a fair few light aircraft, helicopters and then all the different models
[2682.29] NJ: That's my best guess for now
[2685.29] NJ: So we'll remember this episode and we'll find out how close I was at some point
[2689.29] NJ: Because Steven's poker face is absolutely amazing
[2693.29] NJ: I'm getting nothing
[2697.29] Curry: They might go with something completely different
[2699.29] Curry: What about a single stick which you can twist for your yaw or something like that
[2702.29] NJ: Oh, God, no, it's the worst thing ever
[2704.29] NJ: I hate that
[2705.29] Curry: And then a thumb stick on top of the stick as your throttle
[2708.29] Curry: Just to go completely out there and go, let's go future
[2711.29] Curry: Let's go something no one's seen before
[2715.29] NJ: And maybe it's all brain controlled, a couple of receptors on the temples
[2721.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, in Oblivion with Tom Cruise's sort of
[2725.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That's the one, yeah
[2727.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Sort of that one stick in the centre, isn't it?
[2729.29] NJ: I quite like that movie
[2731.29] NJ: I think it must just be a movie
[2732.29] NJ: I thought Oblivion was quite good
[2734.29] NJ: I know it's a bit controversial, that one
[2736.29] NJ: It did, didn't it? But I thought it was alright
[2739.29] NJ: Maybe it was just the flying stuff in it that I liked probably
[2743.29] NJ: And the fast electric bike, that's probably what did it
[2748.29] Tony: So, what size ESCs and motors are you guys using? You've got any ideas?
[2756.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): ESCs and motors? No, I don't have the ideas there
[2759.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But I know we're iterating all the time
[2764.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Just to be completely honest with you
[2766.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I'm media and marketing
[2768.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I have a finite amount of knowledge here
[2771.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, we're always iterating
[2773.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to, I think we talked about it before
[2776.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we want to get up to that 200 kph speed next year
[2780.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And year after that as well
[2782.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's pretty damn rapid
[2785.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And they do weigh around 120kgs
[2788.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They will weigh 120kgs
[2792.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, the battery module and that will iterate as well
[2798.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): As technology advances too
[2800.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So, I expect the specs to constantly change
[2805.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): As the graphics do on our website as well
[2808.29] Tony: I'll make sure I keep my weight down for the testing and flying
[2814.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It is a must, yeah, it's cabbage for four months first
[2820.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I can do that, I'm there
[2824.29] NJ: Just a hazard, absolute rough, rough guess
[2828.29] NJ: The voltage will be in the 100s, Tony
[2831.29] NJ: It's going to be a vast difference to what we used to do with the little ones
[2837.29] NJ: Could you imagine the last one?
[2842.29] NJ: Yes, you'd be able to weld things pretty quickly with that kind of voltage
[2847.29] Frank: There's a lot of stuff already on your YouTube isn't there
[2852.29] Frank: Showing some of the initial ground work laid with the Mark 1 and 2 stuff
[2859.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Mark 2 early thing, yeah, a year or two ago
[2863.29] Frank: It would be interesting to see the updates on that
[2867.29] Frank: And also with the simulators
[2874.29] Frank: So with the Alpha League, so that's the Unmanned one
[2879.29] Frank: Do you know how far away that might be?
[2884.29] Frank: Is that going to be next year?
[2887.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I would start to take a strong look at us in February onwards
[2893.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're going to do some good content in September, October
[2899.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we showcase what our vision is and what these races may look like
[2905.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we're closer to that and give you more of a visual explanation
[2909.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And a look under the bonnet between now and, say, Feb next year
[2913.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And then we kick on with a number of showcases and tests globally next year
[2921.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, I think from Feb, internally between us
[2927.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We'll call it next year or Alpha
[2930.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Where we do all that testing on what it's going to look like
[2934.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Testing the technology, testing what the formats look like
[2938.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, getting feedback
[2941.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's a huge market research operation
[2944.29] Frank: Yeah, and just like you say, sort of testing the format
[2948.29] Frank: Because I guess one of the things that FVV courses have gone in different ways as well
[2956.29] Frank: The big, more open ones that you see with a lot of the X-Class racing
[2961.29] Frank: Compared to, say, an indoor 3 or 5-inch quad race
[2966.29] Frank: Is going to have a lot more up-down, more 3D course
[2972.29] Frank: Yeah, technical course
[2975.29] Frank: So it'll be interesting to see how that works out
[2981.29] Frank: And look forward to seeing a manned one racing around a bit
[2986.29] Frank: That'll be fun to watch
[2987.29] Curry: If you're taking suggestions, how about a grudge-match race with those gravity guys that do the jet-packs style
[2994.29] Curry: And you can take one of those guys on
[2996.29] Curry: It's not common
[2999.29] Frank: Rich Browning, right?
[3001.29] Frank: That's him
[3003.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We love those guys
[3005.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're sort of all in the same air sports field
[3012.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): With drone racing and rebel air race and gravity
[3019.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're the scrappy newcomers to the field
[3025.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we have to work with everyone and work with audiences as well
[3032.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And start to build our own community
[3035.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we want to work with all those guys as well
[3044.29] Frank: The other thing we've always been wrestling with with FVV racing is how to get the spectators involved
[3052.29] Frank: Tony's got his X-Class T-shirt on
[3055.29] Frank: And that was one way of trying to have it a bit more of a spectator sport
[3060.29] Frank: Just to make them bigger so that you can see them
[3064.29] Frank: And then sort of on the other side of things
[3067.29] Frank: There's a lot of the bigger events
[3070.29] Frank: Then we've got the big screens where we show the FVV feeds
[3075.29] Frank: And then people actually see what the quality is like on an FVV feed
[3078.29] Frank: And go, oh, that's a bit...
[3080.29] Frank: I can't see anything
[3083.29] Frank: And then on the other end there's the kind of more curated broadcast races
[3093.29] Frank: Where you end up with kind of almost being shot for the camera
[3098.29] Frank: Rather than the actual people that are there at the time
[3101.29] Frank: So I'm kind of interested to see whether you've got any big ideas
[3106.29] Frank: I guess the Unreal Engine is one kind of side of things
[3110.29] Frank: But whether you've got any ideas of how you're going to get people involved in it
[3115.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's an avenue
[3117.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I mean, we're looking at all options
[3121.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, the sort of big crowded events
[3127.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Do we know if they're going to come out?
[3129.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, that's true
[3133.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So yeah, does it fit the Airspeed division?
[3141.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or yes, is it going to be broadcast
[3143.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And it's going to have that graphic overlay
[3147.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And it's going to be interactive
[3149.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or it could be through a Twitch
[3151.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or it could be any iteration
[3154.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or it could be through, say, Unreal Engine or whatever
[3158.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Again, we're back to that phase of testing what they're going to look like
[3164.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And how they'll be received
[3167.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But there's so many options
[3168.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What makes it cool, I think
[3170.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, we can test it at this stage and see what works
[3173.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I mean, if you guys have got it up there
[3176.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But if you go to Madison Square Garden
[3181.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They're building a sphere
[3186.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In Vegas
[3187.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And there's a sphere that's going to be potentially built in London as well
[3190.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which is a giant orb that's about the size of
[3193.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's about five stories tall
[3195.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Which is like a fully 360'd immersive ball
[3200.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That sits in the middle of the field
[3203.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And you watch it from all angles
[3205.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And you can, yeah, it's just a
[3208.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Have a look for Madison Square Garden sphere
[3211.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's that sort of interactive vision
[3214.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That we can kind of, yeah, that we're sort of mulling, really
[3218.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, I think audience or non-audience
[3222.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We just want to test it as well
[3224.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But we have to be safe
[3225.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So just to reiterate the party line
[3229.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): In the first few years, we need to be safe as possible
[3234.29] NJ: And of course, Unreal Engine does integrate perfectly with VR
[3238.29] NJ: Just saying
[3239.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It does, it absolutely does
[3241.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Make that happen
[3244.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, happy to hear ideas on how
[3246.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What it could look like
[3247.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, it's a lot of opportunities in that space
[3250.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, we still want to make it real
[3252.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We want to make it
[3253.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, we don't want to make it too creative
[3257.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So we want to make this a real sport
[3259.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That people do watch on a potentially a Saturday afternoon on TV
[3263.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or through their device
[3267.29] Tony: I like this comment here
[3270.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, that's a very true win
[3272.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Absolutely, we thought about that too
[3276.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, it's a huge opportunity
[3279.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): You know, where would the landing pads be?
[3282.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): How would we do the pits in that regard?
[3285.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And going back to the make-up of the circuit
[3289.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Let's call it the circuit
[3290.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What does it look like?
[3292.29] Tony: I've seen a rocket land on a boat
[3294.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I've seen a rocket land on a boat
[3300.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): What's this SpaceX boat called?
[3303.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I think I still love it
[3305.29] NJ: I think it's
[3306.29] NJ: Yeah, of course I still love it
[3308.29] NJ: Of course I still love it
[3310.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, it could be that
[3312.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, I think we're back to how the circuits will look
[3318.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Absolutely, when they look completely different
[3321.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): If they're in snow or if they're in the sea
[3324.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Or if they're in the forest or the desert or
[3328.29] Tony: Yeah, I like the sound of that
[3330.29] Tony: They change with the nature
[3333.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, that's cool
[3336.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): They have a virtual lag of the tour as well
[3340.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Where it is in VR
[3344.29] Curry: I like that
[3347.29] Curry: But the Alpha one, which we're hoping to see
[3350.29] Curry: February-ish, maybe, hopefully
[3352.29] Curry: Because it's unmanned, is that going to be traditional?
[3355.29] Curry: There's going to be guys stat somewhere with a radio
[3358.29] Curry: And they're going to have FPV goggles, traditional sense
[3361.29] Curry: Or something more, something like HD at least
[3364.29] Curry: I guess you might want to broadcast if you're looking at that
[3368.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Traditional line of sight
[3370.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're advancing all the time
[3372.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I can't reiterate that we're constant
[3375.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're constantly building and creating here
[3380.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): For them to do bigger and better things constantly
[3384.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): So what I say today, when we get to February
[3387.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We might have another iteration of how the first Alpha test event might look
[3393.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, really, Tim
[3396.29] NJ: So I guess the answer to what technologies are you working on right now is yes
[3403.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I did mention this to Frank
[3405.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): That can be completely grey around the edges
[3409.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And pretty grey in the middle
[3412.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Just all of them
[3414.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, but we're not vaporware
[3418.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): God, I hate that word
[3420.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We have people called Simon and Frank
[3425.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Who scratch themselves who are building these machines in Australia
[3431.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Actual physical people
[3434.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And yeah, we're really scaling at the moment
[3439.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're hiring quite a lot despite Covid
[3443.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're building quite a lot
[3446.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We're planning for these events
[3448.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Man, it's exciting
[3450.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, it's really moving
[3452.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And we're coming live
[3455.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And for me and my team, we're building as well
[3458.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): To speak to you guys and the community of FPV, drones, air sports in general
[3466.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): It's just really imperative that those things parallel into that season Alpha
[3470.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): We start to grow that audience, really
[3474.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah
[3475.29] Frank: Absolutely
[3476.29] Frank: Well, we definitely look forward to
[3478.29] Frank: We look forward to hearing about the new team signing up
[3481.29] Frank: And we look forward to seeing all the many, many videos of the tech as it evolves
[3487.29] Frank: Yeah
[3488.29] Frank: And hearing about how you get on developing the latest Mark 4
[3494.29] Frank: And get that all kind of certified ready for all the teams to start tweaking and flying around the place
[3501.29] Frank: Yeah
[3502.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And down the line, I'll put forward one of our more technical mavens forward
[3512.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): A little bit more under the bonnet here because I don't feel I've done it justice
[3517.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But yeah, any questions, honestly, reach out to us and we can do our best to answer them
[3523.29] Frank: Great, it sounds good
[3525.29] Tony: But yeah, so to remind everyone
[3527.29] Tony: Promise us you'll come back in six months
[3530.29] Tony: Yes
[3532.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Absolutely, yeah, I'd love to
[3535.29] Frank: I look forward to hearing more about that
[3537.29] Frank: But in the meantime, anyone who's listening, you can sign up to go on the sort of pilot sign up list at airspeeder.com
[3545.29] Frank: You can check out their YouTube with all their playlists over the past few years
[3552.29] Frank: And also on Instagram at Airspeeder
[3558.29] Frank: And so I think everyone should go keep an eye on and see what's going on over the next few weeks, few months and over the next few years
[3567.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, thank you. Honestly, just for having me guys and yeah
[3571.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Subscribe if you can and we're going to be updating quite a lot within the next few months
[3577.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And then the end of September, that's when you sort of really see the
[3582.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, really see what we've got capable of doing
[3586.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): And yeah, I'll come back in a few months time and give you another update and yeah, keep it going
[3591.29] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Thanks
[3592.29] Curry: Great, that's brilliant
[3594.29] Curry: Awesome, look forward to it, yeah
[3595.29] Frank: So for next week, we have the return of Dominic Clifton, Hydra
[3605.86] Frank: With the latest
[3608.86] Frank: Keep away from the stairs, Dom
[3611.86] Frank: Yeah, see, he had an unfortunate incident when he was last meant to be on a few weeks ago
[3616.86] Frank: But he's regained the use of his limbs and Jack will be on with him next week
[3623.86] Frank: Talking about the H7 and what that new kind of range of boards and particularly his board obviously
[3631.86] Frank: Is going to mean for the beta flight, clean flight range of flight controllers and what that kind of software will do with that new hardware
[3640.86] Frank: So that will be on next week
[3644.86] Frank: Does anyone else got anything they want to add?
[3648.86] NJ: Obviously, I've got a million questions, but I'm going to give Stephen the chance to escape at least for the next two months
[3657.86] NJ: Yeah, that was great, really good
[3659.86] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): Yeah, if there's anybody down the line, if there's anybody like in Australia that wants to sort of say hello
[3664.86] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): I'm more than welcome to come down to the factory, I have to speak to the boss first
[3669.86] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): But I'm sure we can get you having a look at the speeders
[3673.86] Frank: Any listeners in the chat, let us know, we'll get you involved
[3679.86] NJ: Are you booking my flight to Australian Health?
[3682.86] Stephen Sidlo (Airspeeder): These don't have any county lines at the moment because of lockdown
[3688.86] Curry: And Jay's jumping on the private jet now
[3691.86] Frank: Yeah
[3694.86] Frank: Alright, thanks everyone
[3696.86] Frank: So this week we have had Stephen, thank you very much for coming on and talking about the air speeder and what you're going to be doing
[3702.86] Frank: We have had N.J. talking about all his expertise in manned and unmanned aviation
[3709.86] Frank: We had Tony with his long history of large multi-roader racing
[3714.86] Frank: And we've had Curry talking about all the technical side of things and generally keeping everything going
[3720.86] Frank: I've been Frank who's just been kind of reading off the bits of paper that I've been putting together
[3725.86] Frank: So thank you all for listening and speak to you all next week
[3729.86] Frank: Thank you and bye
[3731.86] Frank: Bye