When the first electric-powered airplane took flight earlier this week for seven minutes, magniX CEO Roei Ganzarski said the excitement of the moment felt like the birth of another child.
"It is, indeed, exciting," Ganzarski told Cheddar on Thursday. "Now the real work begins. We have to teach them what they can do, and we have to release them into the wild later on to be the leader of the industry."
MagniX and Harbour Air hope that the launch of the first all-electric commercial flight will set off the future of sustainable air, which could provide the potential for cheaper, easier, and cleaner air travel.
To enable this week's historic flight, Harbour Air retrofitted a 62-year-old, six-passenger seaplane to run off of batteries. Next, it plans to convert its fleet in order to offer all-electric passenger flights starting in 2021.
MagniX developed the magni500 electric propulsion systems used in the aircraft. Ganzarski said the company had to create a system light enough and powerful enough to get a plane into the air and did so by using a combination of magnets and copper coils that create torque by turning around each other.
Ultimately, the aircraft is expected to complete flights of 30 minutes with reserve "fuel" remaining.
Ganzarski said the clean engine will allow Harbor Air to fly on an engine that "costs 50 percent to 80 percent less per hour" and "fly more places at lower ticket prices and all completely clean."
"It's not less emission, it's zero emissions," he added.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
