—Systemic change begins with personal change—
When Terik Weekes was a baby on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, his parents would drive him to the nearby airport where he would fall asleep as he watched the planes take off and land. Weekes, 29, has loved aircraft ever since.
He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and now works for Elroy Air, a cargo drone startup in San Francisco. He leads design and construction of Chaparral, a hybrid-electric autonomous aircraft that will ferry express packages, spare parts, disaster relief and military supplies nearly 500 kilometers, or roughly the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In Terik's words:
I am an Aeronautical Engineer who specializes in designing and testing Unmanned Aerial Systems. I have significant experience in flight testing aircraft as well as the aeronautical and mechanical design of aircraft and their support equipment. My greatest strength is the ability to take the initiative on issues by accounting for not only mechanical and aeronautical considerations but also incorporating electrical, hardware, and software considerations.
I started at Elroy Air in February 2017. The first months were spent trying to find a power system and configuration for the aircraft. We iterated on the design, tested propulsion concepts, developed a subscale model, and prototyped a payload system until we had a concept that made sense from both business and performance perspectives. In August 2018, we finalized the outer mold line of the prototype aircraft, and on Aug. 14, 2019, we flew the first Chaparral prototype.
Chaparral is significant because it is designed as a fully autonomous system from loading to delivery. It is a cost-effective and fuel-efficient aerial logistics system that requires little infrastructure. There are plenty of situations where this is desperately needed, such as the many natural disasters we see more commonly today.
Should you prepare for a future of clean air travel, curb your flying, or other? I saw Terik speak on a panel on electric flight. As Chief Engineer at a company winning awards for battery-powered planes, he knew what he was talking about. He has to know about the cutting edge of various fields, including batteries, aeronautics, and materials. When the Wright Brothers first flew a heavier-than-air craft in 1903, nobody could have predicted a 747. Are electric planes today at the Wright Brothers stage of development, with electric 747s around the corner, are they at the closing end of that line of development with few advances left, or something else? The news covers the drone market taking off, advances in batteries, and small planes going short distances. I'm curious about the prospect of planes flying people across oceans. Can it happen? If so, when? If not, why not and what does that mean for a culture that values air travel, or may be addicted to it. What does someone at the frontier of the field anticipate, professionally for electric flying and personally for spending time with his distant family? Terik and I cover all these questions and more.