The Allplane Podcast

François Chopard is the founder of Starburst, a startup accelerator and venture fund that specialized in aerospace innovation. From commercial aviation, sustainability, space tech and defence, François’ team reviews thousands of startups every year and backs the most promising ones. Listen to this episode for a conversation on the dynamics of aerospace entrepreneurship and the technology trends th...

Lukas Kaestner is the co-founder of Sustainable Aero Lab, a Hamburg-based startup accelerator that aims to nurture the new generation of sustainable aviation startups. He’s been in the podcast to share how they are going to do this and how Sustainable Aero Lab fits into the broader Hamburg aviation ecosystem.

Carmen Murer is the head of corporate communications at Synhelion, a Swiss startup that aims to produce sustainable aviation fuels from sunlight and water. This is a fascinating new technology that has drawn the attention of major aviation firms such as Lufthansa Group and Zurich airport. What are the pros and cons of this technology? What are the prospects of it becoming mainstream within this de...

Olav Mosvol Larsen, head of the carbon reduciton programme at Avinor, the firm that operates all of Norway’s airports, explains how airports can drive sustainability in the aviation industry. In this episode of the podcast, Olav explains how Avinor became a leader in aviation sustainability and how it is engaging with many other players in the Norwegian and international aviation ecosystem to push...

The Air Race E is going to be the first all-electric air race. With the support of aviation giants such as Airbus, Jeff Zaltman, a veteran of the air racing world, is designing the ultimate air race with the technologies that are expected to define the future of aviation. How does Air Race E work? Where and when is the race going to take place? Who’s going to take part in it? Listen to today’s epi...

Tomas Brødreskift is the founder and CEO of Equator Aircraft, a Norwegian startup that is developing an electric seaplane that promises to open the country’s many fjords and lakes to a carbon-free form fo transportation…and we shall add, “recreation” too, because the light seaplane model Equator Aircraft will have space for bikes, skis and even kayaks! Despite their versatility, seaplanes have an...

Faradair is a British startup that intends to transform regional air mobility, for both passengers and cargo, with its BEHA (bio Electric Hybrid Aircraft), an eye-catching 18-seat hybrid-electric STOL aircraft with a triple staggered box wing. Its founder, Neil Cloughley comes on the pod to share the details about this project as well as its ambitious plans to build hundreds of this aircraft and o...

Sydney Seaplanes is the largest seaplane operator in Australia. Its founder and CEO, Aaron Shaw, has come on the podcast to share his plans to transition to a carbon-free fleet as soon as possible. In this episode we talk about seaplanes, entrepreneurship and, last but not least, about Aaron’s plans to make of Sydney Seaplanes a green aviation trailblazer.

Alexandre Feray, a former Air France executive, founded Open Airlines when he saw the opportunity to develop software that helped airlines save fuel and lower carbon emissions. Open Airlines algorithms ingest lots of airline flight data to come up with actionable recommendations that pilots can use to fly smarter and more efficiently. In this episode of the podcast we talk with Alexandre about his...

Ivo Boscarol is the founder and driving force behind Pipistrel, a leading player in the field of electric aircraft manufacturing. In this episode of the podcast we review Ivo’s story, from making gliders in Slovenia more than three decades ago, its push into electric aviation way before it was fashionable, the many records, awards and milestones achieved along the way as well as the ambitious grow...

French aerospace entrepreneur David Gazellot is paying homage to one of the pioneers of French aviation with its new green aviation project: Avions Mauboussin. David joins us on the podcast to explain this fascinating project to create a family of brand new hybrid STOL aircraft for regional air travel. And we also review, of course, the story of the historical Mauboussin, its time and its acomplis...

Jason Chua is the COO of Universal Hydrogen. A veteran of Google, Airbus and United Technologies Jason has come on the podcast to explain Universal Hydrogen’s audacious plan to facilitate the adoption of hydrogen thanks to a truly innovative approach. Universal Hydrogen’s founders have taken their inspiration from the consumables business model - which has proven to be a big success for firms such...

Things we talk about in this episode: André Borschberg’s career as an aviation pioneer and entrepreneur The Solar Impulse Project What is H55 and what is it trying to do? How does learning to fly on an electric plane differs from doing so on a conventional one The future of electric aviation

What is the story of hydrogen flight startup ZeroAvia? How is it funded? How does its technology work? And what are the next milestones for ZeroAvia after testing its first hybrid-electric demonstrator last summer? Katya Akulinicheva, ZeroAvia’s CFO, answers all these questions and talks about how ZeroAvia aims to disrupt the aviation industry for better with its hydrogen powertrain.

Things we talk about in this episode: General overview of the Russian aviation sector: size of the market and trends How the Covid crisis has affected Russian air traffic How Russian commercial aviation has been totally transformed since the messy transition of the post-Soviet years Review of major airlines in Russia, who are the movers and shakers? Low cost airlines in Russia, a story of growth R...

An old industry joke says that an aircraft is “a set of parts flying in formation”. Parts and spares are, indeed, essential for any complex machine to work properly and this is precisely the area of expertise of this episode’s guest. Alex Duran is the co-founder, together with Jasin Colar, of Nexspares, a consultancy firm based in Zürich, Switzerland, that helps airlines the world over source thei...

Things we talk about in this episode: How this record-breaking flight was planned The practicalities and challenges of flying across Europe in an electric aircraft How green mobility enthusiasts from across Germany rallied behind he project The future of green flying and prospects for electric aircraft development

Things we talk about in this episode How does the aviation fuel market work Why arranging aircraft re-fuelling can be a messy business What does the IATA Fuel Data Standards Group (FDSG) do? What are IATA’s XML fuel standards and why they matter What is Gazpromneft-aero and why it is an early adopter of IATA’s XML fuel standards? Has Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of digital standards in the av...

Back in 2009 Maria came across a former Aeroflot Tu-104 that had been left on the ground at a local airfield in Siberia since the late 1970s. This sight inspired her to find out more about that aircraft and was the start of a journey to which she has devoted plenty of time and efforts since. Together with a group of volunteers, Maria has been painstakingly researching and restoring this aircraft,...

Jordi Candela is the director of Airports of Catalonia, a government-owned company that manages two regional airports near Barcelona. What makes this small airport operator interesting for the rest of the industry? Passenger volumes at both these airports are admittedly low, yet, each of them presents an interesting cases of specialization in a very particular niche…

Over the last quarter of a century and mainly through donations and volunteer work, the Qantas Founders Museum, which is a nonprofit that is independent from the airline, has assembled an amazing collection of historical aircraft that, at one point in time or another, have been in Qantas service: these include a Boeing 747, a Boeing 707 and a Super Constellation, miraculously salvaged from an airc...

What perspectives are there in Africa for low cost airlines? How has the growing Chinese presence in the African economy affected route networks? Which are the favourite distribution channels for airlines in Africa? We are going to answer to these and other questions on this episode of the podcast with Tendi Mutandagayi , a consultant based in Johannesburg with many years of experience working in...

In this episode we travel to the sunny shores of California to speak with experienced aircraft cabin experts and founders of boutique design firm ACLA Studio Victor Carlioz and Matt Cleary. We speak about innovation in aircraft cabin design, the tasks and challenges of aircraft cabin designers and whether the Covid-19 epidemic is going to have lasting effects in the way we understand the airline c...

Things we talk about in this episode: What is the New Distribution Capability (NDC) pushed by IATA Why NDC matters for airlines and their distribution channels How airlines currently distribute through Global Distribution Systems (GDS) Why adoption of the NDC standard has wide regional variances What Airgateway does in the field of NDC Why full service carriers are the primary users of NDC and it...