🌌 Hi everyone, Robert here. I hope you enjoy The Deep End, a subsection of the Airframe newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed yet, join the hundreds of aerospace executives, investors, and deep tech operators who read Airframe and The Deep End weekly.
I come across a few dozen deep tech stories each week as I check Twitter and my email inbox. I save the most interesting bits of news to Notion, where they sit until Thursday, the day I send out the Deep End newsletter.
Reviewing these bookmarks is a remarkable experience. It makes me feel good. The world is a crazy place, and so many bad things can happen in a single week, but reading these stories reminds me that so many positive things can happen in a single week, too.
Thanks to the people who are building things that make our world a little better. Here’s our roundup for the week:
Successful test flight of 40-passenger regional airliner
Skydio raises $230 Million to expand drone manufacturing in Hayward, California
On Monday, the autonomous drone manufacturer plans to announce it has raised $230 million. The financing deal gives Skydio a $2.2 billion valuation and reflects growing interest among private investors in backing defense-related technology, a trend that intensified following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
$1B to turn food waste into renewable natural gas
The Massachusetts-based operator has secured a commitment from Enbridge, a major gas pipeline and energy company headquartered in Canada, to potentially invest $1 billion in new digester facilities that will create renewable natural gas, or RNG. With this investment, Divert intends to reach “every major geographic region” in the U.S., with a goal of being “within 100 miles of 80% of the U.S. population in the next eight years,” according to the press release announcing the deal.
A scientific breakthrough that could make batteries last longer
From the Wall Street Journal:
More efficient energy storage and transfer means less energy use overall, which reduces carbon emissions. Superconductors could also pave the way to cheaper, better machines that can conduct nuclear fusion—which has long been seen as a potential source of clean, virtually limitless energy, Dr. Salamat said.