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More Than 24,000 People Dead In Turkey And Syria; Cold Sets In To Devastated Region; U.S. Shoots Down Object Flying Over Alaska Airspace Today; One-On-One With Brazil's Lula Da Silva; Hyperloop Is Looking To Up End The Way People Will Travel; The Seaglider Takes Advantage Of Water And Air Efficiencies To Operate; Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 11, 2023 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:35]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: And a warm welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton.

Ahead for us here on CNN NEWSROOM, the race to find survivors in Turkey and Syria. Experts warn, time is running out as cold weather heightens the danger.

Another object shot down off the coast of the United States. Details still murky, but U.S. President Biden is calling the operation a success.

And Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, meets with the U.S. president. We will have part two of Christiane Amanpour's exclusive interview with Brazil's leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Paula Newton.

More than 24,000 people are now confirmed dead in Turkey and Syria five days after a powerful earthquake absolutely devastated those countries. In Turkey, emergency crews continue digging through the rubble with their bare hands, if they have to -- have to, hoping to find yet another survivor.

On Friday, they rescued a mother and daughter who had been trapped for 107 hours. You hear the applause there. But with each passing minute, hopes of finding more people alive are unfortunately fading.

Earlier, a woman who lost dozens of her family members tried to describe what she's going through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Pain, pain, pain. We lost 60 people from our family, 60. What can I say? It's God's decision. It's been six days. We haven't changed our socks. We can't see the light of day. We light fires and wait outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now from Istanbul. I mean, Nada, the survivors, their expressions on their face is to just say that they seem so incredibly lost and yet wracked with grief. And now we have the staggering scale of everything that has been left behind.

You know, can you bring us right up to date on what's being done now to make sure that this humanitarian crisis doesn't deepen further?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, Paula, the devastation across Turkey and northwest Syria is immense to say the least. And there has been a real outpouring of grief but also of support here in Turkey. We've seen volunteers filling hangars with distribution, with support.

On that front as well as, of course, the support coming from the international community. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken a firm stance on this. He's visited some of the disaster zones, but he's been clear that the government is dedicating all its ministries to focus on that response effort.

There has been some conversation, some questions around whether the Turkish Government did enough to prepare for such a situation, whether that they've been quick enough to deal with the aftermath. When it comes to providing that humanitarian support.

The President says he is aimed to rebuild the collapsed buildings within one year and is offering to support people when it comes to paying rent or putting them up in hotels as part of the temporary accommodation scheme for those affected by the earthquake.

We've seen people here in Istanbul, locals really taking this independently to support those most in need. In fact, just in the next hour, we are expecting to see two ships organized by the mayor of Istanbul filled with aid, as well as accommodation for those affected and even a healthcare medical facility on board heading towards that disaster zone.

But, of course, there is consent still for those who have been impacted by this earthquake. And, of course, in particular for those in northwest Syria where it has been so difficult and proved so challenging to get aid across the border.

Now, we have heard from the U.N. confirming that a second U.N. aid mission has been able to cross that one single border crossing between Turkey and northwest Syria sponsored by the United Nations are approved by the United Nations [inaudible]. That is, of course, providing crucial aid.

But the message that we're hearing from aid groups to the World Food Programme from the White Helmets is that there still is so much more to be done in Syria. Thousands of people now homeless, many of them displaced not for the first time but now multiple times, following years of war in Syria.

[03:05:00]

Real concern that the Syrian state government says, it is allowing access from government controlled areas into rebel held territory for those aid deployments, but the aid group said, they aren't seeing this yet and they need more. Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, and have already for days done without the very basics. Nada Bashir for us in Istanbul. Thanks so much.

Now we want to get more on the weather that people in Turkey and Syria are facing with CNN meteorologist, Derek Van Dam.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Challenging weather conditions continue for the earthquake recovery site in southern Turkey and northern Syria. This is the latest satellite loop. And I want you to notice that there's no real cloud cover across the region. So with clear skies, allows what we call radiational cooling to take place overnight. And any heat that's trapped up during the course of the day just radiates right back into the atmosphere and temperatures are cold. And that is going to be particularly challenging for people living outdoors or anyone too afraid to stay indoors for the fear of further aftershocks.

Now you can see, just in general, no precipitation in store. So I guess that's the bit of good news. We don't have to contend with rain or snow going forward with the recovery process, but it is the overarching theme here, cold weather continues for the days ahead.

Here's a look at the forecast temperatures in some of the hardest hit areas. You can see the aftershocks that occurred throughout this region, kind of making almost a T-shaped pattern. We have forecast temperatures for Saturday afternoon to stay below freezing for most locations in central and southern portions of Turkey.

And as we head a little further south, may be bumping up just above freezing, but it's the overnight lows that I'm particularly concerned about. You can see the forecast here staying well below zero for southern sections of Turkey. We're talking about anywhere from negative single digits to negative teens.

Again, that is for forecast minimum temperatures through the course of the weekend and into early next week with temperatures rebounding through the course of the day. Of course, no significant weather changes in store for the next seven days, but also no major weather systems moving through. That's the good news. Back to you.

NEWTON: And thank you, Derek.

Now, if you are looking for more information on how to help earthquake survivors, go to cnn.com/impact. There, you'll find a list of organizations working on rescue and relief efforts.

Now for the second time in less than a week, U.S. fighter jets have taken down an object flying over American airspace. Now, official said the latest one was shot down Friday over frozen water near Alaska's northern coasts on President Joe Biden's order.

Now, it happened to be unmanned this time, and didn't appear, in fact, to have surveillance equipment or even the ability to actually steer itself. Another difference here the object was at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a risk to civilian aircraft. Officials say they're not exactly sure yet what it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESMAN: We're calling this an object, because that's the best description we have right now. We do not know who owns it, whether it's a -- whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned. We just don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, Mr. Biden was asked about the mission to shoot it down Friday afternoon. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have anything to say about the object shot down over Alaska, Mr. President?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: So authorities say they have now mapped the debris field and hope to get answers once they retrieve that wreckage.

Air raid sirens went off right across Ukraine again Friday night and officials reported explosions in the central city of Dnipro. Now, this after a barrage of Russian strikes on the energy grid across Ukraine earlier in the day. Russia launched more than 100 missiles, rockets, and drones, knocking offline a significant part of Ukraine's generating capacity.

But the vast majority of Ukrainians at this hour still have power, water, and heat. And that's according to the country's prime minister.

Meantime, Ukraine's air defenses are about to get more weapons to help them fight back. Lithuania is sending dozens of anti-aircraft guns, which officials say can shoot down both drones and war planes.

And further West, some U.S. military hardware arrived in Germany also on its way to Ukraine it was the shipment that includes those Bradleys, those armored vehicles and air defenses, which were promised to keep last month.

Now, a car rammed into people at a bus stop in Jerusalem on Friday and what Israeli police are calling a terror attack. A 6-year-old boy and 20-year-old man hit by the vehicle were killed and five others wounded. The driver was shot and killed by an off duty police officer. He's been identified as a Palestinian who lived in East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that the house where the suspect -- suspected attacker lived, be demolished.

Now Brazil's new president gives us an exclusive interview. He sits down with our Christiane Amanpour. What Lula de Silva says about divisions in his country and why he won't be sending weapons to Ukraine. You want to hear this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:10:21]

NEWTON: Brazil's new president met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House Friday. And ahead of that meeting, Lula da Silva sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. And here's what he had to say about divisions within his own country, and why he will not be sending weapons to Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: People who are looking at Brazil's democracy are looking, as I said, at the divided nation. You saw probably a recent article that was written about you saying that, you know, half the population loves you, half the population despises you.

I wonder what you think about that. But also, more importantly, the fact that unifying Brazil is apparently going to be the key to shoring up democracy and making sure that Bolsonarism does not come back after you're off your term in office. How do you do that when half the population, as I said, despises you?

[03:15:17]

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, PRESIDENT OF THE BRAZIL (through translator): Well, we're going to have elections in Brazil after the U.S. elections. And let's see what's going to happen in the U.S. because here, there's also a split much more -- or as serious as Brazil. The Democrats and Republicans are very split up.

Love it or leave it, that's more or less what's going on. So in Brazil, we are a country that have more peace. The Brazilian in his way of life, he likes to enjoy music and soccer and carnival. We're not a warrior. We're not a people that has that culture to hate. We don't have the hatred culture.

What happened is that we had a fake news manufacturing industry that were not managed to fight under equal conditions. And I am convinced that not everybody that voted for Bolsonaro, it follows Bolsonarism.

I am convinced that all the people that voted for him maybe they don't like the Workers Party, they don't like Lula, maybe.

But when we win an election, we have to rule for everybody. I don't want to know if the mayor of one city or the governor of certain state is in favor of Bolsonaro. I want to know if his interest or her interest resolve the problems of the Brazilian people.

If it's interesting, that he could come and join me. And election will always be split when you have two candidates running. It's always split. In Germany, it's split. In France, you saw Macron's election in France. There was a split in the nation here in the U.S. The only strange thing that happened was happened here at the Capitol, because we never could we imagine that in a country that was the symbol of democracy in the world, someone could try to invade the Capitol or that someone could be so inhuman as Trump was.

And Bolsonaro is a copycat, a fatal copycat of Trump, as if when you would put it in a machine and take a photograph, it would be the same thing, Bolsonaro and Trump. They don't enjoy trade unions. They don't like business sector. They don't like workers. They don't like women, they don't like black people. They don't like to talk with the business sector debt. It's him and his lies. It's just him. And he doesn't enjoy to talk to the press. And so we changed all that. We changed all that.

My dear, Christiane, and Brazil, slowly, will come to -- over the counter of itself and democracy will prevail. That's my commitment. And I hope that from four years from now, you can come back and make another interview with me. And so you'll see how Brazil has still began continued democratic.

And let me tell you one more thing, also that there's no chance for him to come back to the Presidency of the Republic. Now, it's going to depend on our capability to build a narrative, the correct narratives about what he represented to Brazil in the past, because the extreme right [ph] around the world, and it wasn't the U.S., it's in Brazil, it's in Spain, it's in France, and they're in Hungary, they're Germany open.

So that is we have an organized extreme right to the world. And if we're not careful, this will be a nasty attitude. This is a denial attitude that was never seen before. And so since I enjoy democracy, and its democracy is the best way for you to exercise power to live with democracy and with the others with diversity, we'll talk to President Biden to political relation, our cultural relations, our commercial relations between the two countries.

The U.S. is very important for us. And I believe that Brazil has also certain importance for the U.S. So what we want is those two big nations that are truly democratic, they could help each other to strengthen democracy around the hemisphere, the Latin American continent and around the planet Earth.

AMANPOUR: You talk a lot about democracy, Mr. President, and it looks like you're going to come up against President Biden on a key defense of the United States of democracy around the world, and that is Ukraine. You do not believe, I don't think, in the western support for Ukraine's defense. And you have said it many times. Why not? I mean, some people have asked, in fact, an article. Why is Lula so committed to democracy at home and not abroad?

DA SILVA (through translator): Well, I am highly committed with democracy in any part of the planet Earth. What I believe is that in the case of Ukraine and Russia, it is necessary to have someone talking about peace. It's necessary that we should build up interlocutors to talk with the different process that are no confrontation. That's my thesis. We need to find interlocutors that could sit with President Putin and show to him the mistake that he made to invade the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian territory. And we have to show to Ukraine that they have to talk more so that we can avoid this war. We have to stop the war.

[03:20:02]

And so why I'm going to tie in with President Biden. I don't know what he's going to say to me, but what I want to say to him is the following, it is necessary to build a set of countries to negotiate peace.

AMANPOUR: But you have those countries, the BRICS, you're one of them, Russia, China, India, none of them seems to want to talk about these. They're just -- they're just basically talking about Russia, helping Russia.

DA SILVA (through translator): Well, I want to talk about peace. I want to talk about peace with Putin. I want to talk about peace with President Biden. I want to talk about peace with Xi Jinping. I want to talk about peace with India, with Indonesia. I want to talk to peace with everybody. Because for me, the world will only develop itself if we're going to have peace.

AMANPOUR: OK. That's nice. But do you believe that a country, which is a sovereign, independent democratic country, like your own, like Ukraine, has the right to self-defense and to defend itself against an illegal invasion?

DA SILVA (through translator): Of course, it has the right to defend itself. Of course. Of course it has that right, because the invasion was a mistake on the part of Russia. If Russia couldn't have done that, and after a while, it was part of the U.N. Security Council. And so this was not discussed at the U.N. Security Council.

So what I want to say is the following, what have been mistake -- it's already done. The mistake was already done. Now we have to find people to fix the mistake, to fix the error that was made. I know that Brazil doesn't have that international political clout to promote that in this perverse rationale of conflicts in the world.

But I can say to you that I will dedicate a lot of my time to find a way, a road for someone start talking about peace. I was with a German Chancellor a week ago --

AMANPOUR: And he asked you to send you Leopards to Ukraine and you said, no.

DA SILVA (through translator): No, it's not the tanks. It was ammunition.

AMANPOUR: OK. Oh, ammunition.

DA SILVA (through translator): It was -- I didn't want to send it. Because if I send the ammunition, I would join the war. If I send the ammunition from Brazil, the ammunition that you're asking for --

AMANPOUR: But you disagree that it was defense.

DA SILVA (through translator): This will take us to war. I don't want to go -- join the war. I want to end with the war. I don't want to join the war. I want to end with the war. This is the dilemma. And this is my commitment.

And so now I'm visiting China next March. And I'll talk a lot with President Xi Jinping about the role that China has to play on the peace issues. And this is my work. This is the work that I had to do. I started with a German Chancellor. I talked with Macron on the phone. I'll talk with President Biden. Now, I'll talk to Xi Jinping with the Indians, with all the countries. We have to have a group of people and countries that talk about peace, not war, peace, and show that peace is the only way that can we establish the dignity of human life. The right for them to work, to live with dignity and decency.

This is what where Putin has to understand and Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people and the Russian people has to understand. But we have to build a narrative for peace, because Russia is not a tiny country that you can treat it as a small -- no, you have to build a narrative. A narrative that give the Russians minimum of conditions to stop the war.

The U.S. stopped the war in Vietnam. It wasn't easy for the U.S. to stop the Vietnam War. And it did stop one day. It had to stop the war.

And so if they started wrong, do it wrongly, now, we have to fix it. Let's stop the war. And then let's discuss the negotiation table -- around the negotiation table what we want truly.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you a final question, personal question? You've had a dramatic life story, a dramatic comeback to power after having been in prison. You also have survived this January 6 challenge, this insurrection.

You're also the oldest Brazilian President ever to be inaugurated. President Biden is one of the oldest American presidents. What drives you on? What drives people like you at your age to keep doing this?

DA SILVA (through translator): Amanpour, what I say -- I always say is that aging was -- like, only exists for those that doesn't have to fight for a cause. If you have a cause to fight for, and you dedicate to that cause, aging doesn't exist. It doesn't exist, it disappears.

That's why I say every day, I have 77 years of age. And I see that I have the energy of -- a power of someone that's 30 years of age. I have a willingness to work 24 hours a day. I don't sleep because I have a home. My home is the Brazilian people. I have to improve the lives of my people that they can eat three meals a day.

We had ended with hunger in Brazil and now we have 33 million people that are in hunger in a country that is the third largest food producer in the world, the country that has the largest animal protein production of the world. How can you explain the people are hungry in Brazil? And so once again, I'll end hunger in my country. Once again, we're going to do that to make the economy goes back to growth. And once again, we'll create jobs. This is why what I want for Brazil.

[03:25:01]

I saw Biden's speech yesterday -- the State of the Union. I read his speech. I think it's a speech that I could be making in Brazil very easily. If I did his speech today in Brazil, that Biden did some days ago said to the American Congress, I will be called communist in Brazil if I made that same speech.

The marking forces will call me --

AMANPOUR: You know, they do call you communist, your detractors.

Anyway, on that note, thank you very much for being with us.

DA SILVA (through translator): I want to thank you, Amanpour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Spirited as ever. President Lula there, and he knows the challenges ahead of him, as Christiane pointed out several times, he really is leading a very divided country right now. And we want to thank Christiane for that interview.

I'm Paula Newton for our international viewers. The Next Frontier is just ahead.

For viewers in the U.S. and Canada, we'll have more CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:39]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Whether through the air, along the truck, or on the road. Modern-day transportation has transformed the way we travel on a global scale, allowing mobility like never before.

But as growing populations and densely packed cities stress these systems, innovators around the world are imagining faster, more sustainable ways to get from A to B. From supersonic planes to Hyperloop pods, what may seem like a pipe dream today, that'd be the future of transit as early as three decades from now.

In the next half hour, we are going to see some of the novel concepts that may just change travel as we know it. I'm Rahel Solomon, and this is THE NEXT FRONTIER.

To envision the future of travel, you should first look to the past, to a city that heralded modern-day transportation Innovation.

ALISYN MALEK, MANAGING DIRECTOR, NEWLAB DETROIT: Detroit is the Motor City it's known the world over. We put the world on wheels. It was here that Henry Ford pioneered the production lines that allowed us to more quickly produce vehicles in a way that improved quality and allowed more people to be able to afford cars.

I'm Alisyn Malek, and I'm the Managing Director of Newlab Detroit. I'm working to help bring a better, more prosperous vision of mobility for everyone around the world.

When I think about urban mobility, some of the key pillars that are really critical for that to be successful are accessibility. How easy are the mobility solutions to get to? How frequent are the services running? What areas are covered?

As we look towards 2050, we're going to be getting up close to nine billion people. From a transportation perspective, it's really about options and making sure that everybody has at least two, if not more of how they can get around.

A lot of the systems that we're using were great. They are still great, but we actually need to think about what other solutions can we put out that are useful, and also create a great user experience.

SOLOMON: One solution that's certainly gotten a lot of hype, over the last decade, is the Hyperloop. The proposed train in a tube is looking to upend the way we travel. With speeds up to a thousand kilometers per hour, it could zoom across an entire continent in just a few hours.

Netherlands based Hardt Hyperloop is aiming to bring this high-speed technology to life.

MARS GEUZE, CO-FOUNDER, HARDT HYPERLOOP: Our vision is to create a world where distance doesn't matter, where it's possible for you to be much more free in where you live, work, and how you travel, to really shrink the world for people to live in.

To me, the next frontier is to realize sustainable high-speeds and convenient transport of passengers and goods.

SOLOMON: This future forward concept is actually built on the backbone of a 19th century idea where compressed air propelled railcar to a network of pipes.

Today, Hyperloop technology is based on two key mechanisms, removing aerodynamic drag through vacuum like tubes and removing friction through magnetic levitation, or maglev, which makes the pods float and move forward. Together, these systems allow Hyperloop to achieve ultra-fast speeds.

GEUZE: Now, we're in the first integrated test track that we've built. We have tested a 4,000 kilo or 8,000 pounds vehicle to really show the normal loads that you would have on a tube and that you can still have your levitation system that carry that weight.

MALEK: Hyperloop, as a technology, is very interesting, it does work. You're cutting down on things like drag and friction. High-level from a basic physics perspective, that's really interesting.

[03:35:11] SOLOMON: And according to Geuze, those properties of physics are what make Hyperloop better for the environment.

GEUZE: In the Hyperloop, because you remove the aerodynamic resistance, you reduce the energy consumption, and therefore you become a much more sustainable solution.

SOLOMON: Companies across the globe are racing to make their own Hyperloop, but Geuze says it's more collaborative than competitive with a collective goal to make the world more connected.

GEUZE: There's already a lot of work being done on setting up a regulatory framework to ensure that we finally converge to a single interoperable Hyperloop network.

SOLOMON: Seven pioneering Hyperloop companies have announced they are joining forces to launch the first global Hyperloop Association. It includes companies like Transpod, Hyperloop One, and Zeleros.

This newly formed pack aims to help grow this emerging transportation market, as well as work with government and regulatory agencies on policymaking.

As we look to the future for Hyperloop, Malek says the technology is there. It'll come down to how it performs against current options.

MALEK: How does the capability of Hyperloop match up against competitive technologies? And does it have a reason to win? We're still seeing really great performance out of technologies like maglev trains, which are being used in Asia quite a bit already.

GEUZE: I think it's realistic that in 2050, you could have global Hyperloop network up running. What motivates me the most is that if we can get this done, it will have a massive impact in bringing sustainability to our mobility patterns.

SOLOMON: Part boat, part plane, a new mode of transit is looking to disrupt sea travel, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: From highways to railways, flight pads to bike lanes, we have plenty of mobility options on the ground and in the air. But could the next frontier in transit take place over water? One sea bearing startup is looking to turn coastlines into corridors.

BILLY THALHEIMER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, REGENT: Water transportation is super important because 40 percent of the world lives within coastal communities. I'm Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO at Regent.

MICHAEL KLINKER, CO-FOUNDER, REGENT: I'm Mike Klinker, one of the co- founders and CTO at Regent.

THALHEIMER: The next frontier is better transportation. And when I say better, I mean efficient and sustainable, it's faster, it's easy, and affordable, and accessible.

[03:40:59]

SOLOMON: Rhode Island based company, Regent, is aiming to enhance the way we travel between seaboard cities and islands with a new mode of transportation, the Seaglider

KLINKER: The Seaglider is really a mixed breed of boat and an airplane. Took the two, smash them together.

THALHEIMER: They combined the affordability and accessibility and convenience of a boat of ferry transportation with the high-speed and long ranges of an aircraft.

SOLOMON: The all-electric maritime vehicle is designed to float, foil, and fly along dock to dock routes.

KLINKER: The Seaglider has three modes of operation, it can be floating, so like a normal boat would, floating on the surface of the water, driving around in the inner harbor areas. And as a hydrofoil mode where you're up above the surface of water on these still, because the passengers and the vehicle is insulated with any waves. The last mode is to fly mode.

SOLOMON: The Seaglider takes advantage of a few water and air efficiencies to operate. Underwater wings called hydrofoils to help lift the sea glider, reduce drag, and allow for a smooth ride above the waves.

When it's time to take off, the hydrofoils were trapped, and the Seaglider will fly within a wingspan of the water surface, benefiting from an aerodynamic principle called ground effect to glide along a cushion of air.

THALHEIMER: The Seaglider is powered by 12 by 100 horsepower electric motors and propellers on the lenient [ph] of the wing. Those are all fueled by battery technologies. The same batteries that go into electric cars today.

SOLOMON: The first Seaglider called Viceroy will carry 12 passengers, two crew, and service shortfalls up to 290 kilometers at speeds, just under 300 kilometers per hour.

THALHEIMER: Regent was started when Mike and I were building electric aircraft at a Boeing subsidiary. And we were fascinated and excited by this technology. We realized we could couple this electric wing and ground-effect vehicle with a hydrofoil system, and thus, the Seaglider was born.

MALEK: Hydrofoil is a technology still pretty early days, but the advancements in hydrofoil technology are balanced by advancements in electrification, as well as digital sort of driving and aircraft management.

And when you pair those three advancements together, you create a really unique time for hydrofoil. In many places, it's along your coasts that you have a high population density. We're actually really struggling with how do we make sure that roads and bridges can continue to stand even if there's flooding. And I think hydrofoil offers a really interesting take on not needing to build out solid infrastructure between two communities.

SOLOMON: Regent is still in the prototype phase. But Thalheimer says, they've already proven the technology works.

THALHEIMER: Regent just hit our two-year anniversary. We built the first Seaglider prototype and actually proved that this mode of transportation is possible.

This time, we typically test our quarter scale prototype Seaglider, so we're really experimenting all operations, floating, foiling.

You get out of this tight area like this out into the open water, that's when we take off and we become that wing and ground-effect, that high-speed flying vehicle.

SOLOMON: And inside, they're developing the avionics, which will be operated by a captain.

KLINKER: There's really two ways that you control the Seaglider, you have a power lever and a side stick joystick. So think of it like you can turn left right with the joystick. And you can go tell the vehicle you're fast or go slow. It's very intuitive, much like driving a car, driving a boat.

SOLOMON: While Regent seems to be moving along rather quickly, the co- founders say it hasn't all been smooth sailing.

KLINKER: One of the biggest challenges for building the Seaglider is that we are really pushing physics to the max. So truly the combination of all these different really advanced technologies that allows us to this full mission, but it's really a physics challenge for us.

THALHEIMER: I think the other challenge we had was just the fact that this is so new. This has not existed before. So as we've gone out to customers, there's a lot of education we need to do. You know, what is it? How does it work? How is it crude? How is it certified?

SOLOMON: Thalheimer says they have a $7 billion backlog in pre-orders across the airline and ferry industries. As for next steps, Regent is currently building a full scale prototype and has ambitions for passenger test flights by the end of 2024. And by 2050, they hope to have large capacity Seagliders in operation with ranges up to 800 kilometers.

THALHEIMER: As the battery technology advances or as we get other sustainable forms of energy storage and power, like, say hydrogen power, we can upgrade these systems. So this actually has the opportunity to serve as a huge fraction of the planet.

SOLOMON: Next, fasten your seat belts. Supersonic speeds may be coming back to the skies. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:45:10]

SOLOMON: Planes are a ubiquitous mode of transportation today. They've allowed us to link cities, countries, and continents like never before. But what if we could fly faster and experience more in a way that's also better for the planet?

BLAKE SCHOLL, FOUNDER, BOOM SUPERSONIC: I believe in a future where more people can go more places more often. I think that life happens in person that connecting across oceans is incredibly important to our future.

I'm Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO at Boom Supersonic.

The last frontier in air travel was more than half a century ago when we went from propeller aircraft into the jet age. And it's been a long time since we have stepped forward.

I think the next frontier is all about making the planet more accessible by having flights that are faster, more affordable, more convenient and dramatically more sustainable.

SOLOMON: Just under a decade old, Colorado-based startup, Boom, is working to bring supersonic travel back to the skies.

SCHOLL: I started my career as a software engineer, but I've been passionate about aviation since I was a kid. And I never understood, as a tech guy, why everything in our world was getting faster and better, but our flights weren't.

SOLOMON: Commercial supersonic air travel was first realized in the 1970s when Concorde took flight, but after just 27 years, the fleet was retired due to a number of issues including noise, expensive overhead, and cost prohibitive tickets.

SCHOLL: A supersonic airplane, fundamentally, is about being able to go very efficiently at very high speed.

SOLOMON: Supersonic means flying faster than the speed of sound. According to NASA, typical speeds for these aircraft range from about 1,200 kilometers per hour to about 2,400. These speeds are achievable through powerful engines and a long, lean fuselage design. The downside? Supersonic travel creates a shockwave or sonic boom that is loud and disruptive over land, which is why it's only intended for long hauls across oceans.

SCHOLL: We're building on a proven foundation and delivering a new capability to passengers. That doesn't require a massive regulatory change or any regulatory change at all. We have now built XB-1, which is history's first independently developed supersonic jet. And it's going to be in the air here in the next few months to prove that all of this technology actually works.

SOLOMON: XB-1 is Boom's prototype of what will be their first airliner overture. According to Scholl, it's expected to be capable of going twice as fast as regular aircraft, therefore, nearly having transit times.

Think San Francisco to Tokyo in six hours or New York to Frankfurt, in a little over four. With orders already placed from U.S. carriers, American and United, Boom has a sky-high goal to get overture into service by 2029.

SCHOLL: Onboard the airplane, expect a large spacious interior and beautiful large windows. As a supersonic airplane actually flies higher, you'll be able to see the skies and deeper blue, actually see the curvature of the earth. All of that adds up to a machine that can take you across oceans, but at roughly the same cost as flying business class today. Ultimately, our goal is to make supersonic flight available to anybody who flies.

MALEK: When I think about scalability around supersonic jets, and that becoming the mode of air transit, I think we will still see quite a variety. When we think about short-term flight, when you're crossing land, either moving people to rail or maybe it's an electric regional airplane, but really looking at a variety of options.

Where supersonic planes have struggled in the past is really matching sort of what are capable of with a business case. I do think there's interesting demand. What's changed from the 2000s when we saw this previously, is a push towards sustainability.

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SOLOMON: And Scholl says, that's something Boom has taken into account from day one.

SCHOLL: We're designing an overture to be the first airliner from the ground up intended for net zero carbon operation, thanks to building around 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.

There are many challenges we still have left to overcome. What we're doing is complex, it's safety critical, it requires a lot of money. But when I look back to the past, I also see a lot of challenges that we've already overcome. And that gives me encouragement that we will continue to do things that the world says we can't do.

Supersonic flight is about making the planet dramatically more accessible. When that happens, I think we will live in a very different, more peaceful, more harmonious, more collaborative future.

SOLOMON: A last mile solution in congested cities, hop on board the air taxi, next.

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SOLOMON: It's not a plane and it's not a helicopter, but it might just be your aerial ticket to the next frontier of urban transit. This is Volocity, an all-electric manned drone like aircraft. It may look like something out of a sci-fi film, but this high-tech flyer is aiming to take off in the very near future. DIRK HOKE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, VOLOCOPTER: The next frontier for me is that we will see air mobility coming to life and we would see vehicles flying, bringing us from A to B, making our lives easier and ensuring this moves end to end mobility.

My name is Dirk Hoke and I'm the CEO of Volocopter.

SOLOMON: German manufacturer, Volocopter, has been busy building the flying taxis of the future.

HOKE: I believe in 2050, we will be using air mobility as a frequent transportation system, as we do today with taxis.

SOLOMON: But Hoke is quick to tell us, they're not trying to disrupt the travel industry.

HOKE: So it will not be used where you have already an existing tram or you have metro. But in any area where you have a very high traffic congestion. The Volocity will add more alternatives and options to your daily journey.

SOLOMON: Volocity is designed for single passenger interested in transit with defined routes, like from the airport to a hub in the city center. The aircraft is classified as eVTOL or electric vertical takeoff and landing.

HOKE: EVTOL means that we use electric motors to lift the vehicle and then to move forward.

SOLOMON: They are pilot controlled, fly at low altitudes, and operate like drones.

HOKE: We chose a multicopter design. That means we have 18 motors and rotors which enables us to fly very stable and fast and safe.

SOLOMON: Volocity's current range is 35 kilometers and can reach speeds up to 110 kilometers per hour. And it's all powered by nine swappable battery packs.

HOKE: We want to be adding a new modality without adding to the congestion and to the emissions of this world. With that, we decided from the beginning to fly full electric.

SOLOMON: Beyond last kilometer transit, Volocopter has plans for a larger integrated portfolio from the booking platform to the landing platform.

HOKE: We also designed a VoloRegion, which will be a five-seater connecting regions and cities up to a distance of 200 kilometers.

We have also the VoloDrone which is intended to carry cargo up to 200 kilo. And this is all managed by our software platform which we call VoloIQ, which is enabling not only to operate these vehicles, but also to maintain the vehicles and, of course, do also the booking and the security check at - to go to port. The VoloPorts are designed to optimize the charging and the handling of the passenger. [03:55:27]

SOLOMON: Malek thinks eVTOLs present an opportunity for the right use cases.

MALEK: I think over the next 20 years, we'll be seeing more eVTOL use in the movement of goods. When we think about the movement of people, the technology is absolutely there. It works. How do we make sure that it's safe?

And then the other thing that we need to ask ourselves is, what problem do we want this to solve? From a business case perspective, it's definitely there. There's tons of people flying into a city and needing to get to a meeting. But I do think there needs to be a dialogue around how does that play a part in a broader transportation solution that meets everyone's needs.

SOLOMON: In Paris last November, Volocity successfully flew in standard air traffic conditions with a pilot and passenger onboard.

HOKE: We are now leaving the prototype status. We are really on a very solid track to go into commercial operation in summer 2024 in cities like Paris and Rome, because we believe if we can fly in Paris and Rome, we can fly almost anywhere, because it's a very complex, very dense urban environment.

SOLOMON: Volocopter's ultimate goal is autonomous flight. But for now, there are more steps just to get their fleet off the ground.

MALEK: There's still the management of airspace. What are the paths? How are they managed? Do we have the regulatory space to allow these things to be adopted? And I think that's where you're going to start to see, hopefully soon, some pretty interesting conversations taking place.

SOLOMON: And perhaps a bigger hurdle, Hoke says, public acceptance.

HOKE: I really hope that people will embrace it. I believe it's a very, very nice vision of the future to have quiet, sustainable air taxis. And with that, we believe we will have a big impact on the transportation of the future.

SOLOMON: With the travel revolution upon us right now, it'll be really interesting to see in the next 30 years or so how this space evolves. And please watch this space. Part three of The Next Frontier is coming your way in the very near future.

I'm Rahel Solomon, until next time.

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