The Allplane Podcast #134: electrifying aircraft taxiing, with David Valaer (Green Taxi)

What if the lowest-hanging fruit in aviation decarbonization was not in the air, but waiting right in front of us, on the ground?

This is what David Valaer, founder and CEO of Green Taxi Aerospace thinks.

A pilot since the age of 16, David has spent his whole life surrounded by aircraft, either spending summers a bush pilot in Alaska, flying F-16 fighter jets for the US Air Force or, later on, scaling up and selling a successful helicopter tech company.

A few years ago, David became intrigued by the possibilities that a new generation of electric motors offered to solve one of the issues of everyday commercial aircraft operations: the amount of fuel wasted while taxiing inefficiently through airports.

Did you know that between 5 and 20% of fuel is consumed by airliners while they are on the ground? This happens because most of the time aircraft use their engines to move while on the tarmac, an incredibly wasteful process which in addition to producing unnecessary carbon emissions, also strains aircraft brakes and exposes the engines to foreign object damage.

What if the taxiing could be done with electric motors instead? Green Taxi is working on a system that, David promises, will be able to cut down drastically the amount of fuel aircraft consumer while taxiing. Airlines could be saving in the region of $250-300k per aircraft per year if this technology is finally implemented, not to speak of the related drop in emissions and wear and tear of equipment.

I was also intrigued by this story, so after speaking with David a few times at industry conferences in the last few months, I thought it was best if he could come onto the podcast to share all the details about this promising new technology that his company is developing.

So, tune in for an interesting chat about what Green Taxi can do for the environment and for the bottom line of airlines! (and also for some fascinating details about David’s earlier adventures in aviation!)