Contrails & Cocktails – Michael Duke, the DBT Aircraft, and the Cocktail – “Ops Check Good”

In this episode – We discuss innovations in aviation, the Double Box Tail aircraft platform, and the “Ops Check Good,” which is Mark’s improvement on the Old Fashioned. Transcript – Paula Williams: Hi. I’m Paula Williams and you are watching or listening to Contrails & Cocktails. Whenever you get 2 or more smart aviation people together in a room, the stories are going to start to fly and when you start mixing cocktails, things are going to start getting really fun. So for this episode, we have serial entrepreneur and corporate innovator, Michael Duke, as our guest. When a relative was badly burned in a fire, requiring immediate Interstate Transport to a regional Burn Center, Michael realized that having fast, affordable, point-to-point air transport is a necessity, not just a luxury. Michael founded DBT Aero to commercialize ultra efficient sustainable aircraft that can scale from aerial inspection drones or personal air taxis to business cargo and regional aircraft. The patented Double Box Tail, DBT, configuration is stronger, lighter, and more aerodynamically efficient while providing increased stability in turbulence and spin resistance for a safer, more comfortable flight, and better aerial data acquisition. The DBT Aero Technology adapts easily to multiple sustainable propulsion systems including battery electric, self-heal electric, hydrogen, SAF, providing multiple multiple pathways from today’s fuels to tomorrow’s fuels. Michael is a serial entrepreneur and corporate innovator. He bought a Southern California FBO with a Part 145 Repair Station, turned it around financially, and leverage the FBO to import and distribute the newly approved light-sport aircraft, bringing more affordable aviation to many. Michael worked with a European factory to develop the first night, legal light-sport aircraft and the first light-sport aircraft for IFR training, significantly lowering the cost of flight training. So you probably already know that Contrails and Cocktails is sponsored by Global Aircraft Group. Global Aircraft Group offers desktop appraisals expert, witness, pre-buy inspections. The founder is located in New England and travels free of charge to any land in New England with a situation that needs this services. You may need an aircraft appraisal for an aircraft transaction and a state settlement, a divorce, a legal situation, whatever it is. If you’ve got a problem, involving aircraft values, Mark can solve it. Mark Parry is the president and founder of Global Aircraft Group. He has over 30 years of experience in corporate aviation and he has a diverse roster of clients and unparalleled access to professional resources, which helps the organization achieve positive returns in his clients investments and capital. Prior to establishing Global Aircraft Group, Mark worked for Bombardier in numerous capacities, involving sales, maintenance, completion, pre-purchase inspections. He was also employed by Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, ”The Skunk Works” under Kelly Johnson. So let’s jump into this conversation. So welcome to this episode of Contrails and cocktails. Today, we have Michael Duke of DBT Aero, and of course, Mark Parry of Global Aircraft Group. And whenever we get people in a room that are interesting aviation people, the stories are always fascinating, so that’s what we’re looking forward to. Michael Duke: Well, let me back up and tell you how I kind of got involved in aviation. I guess I was one of those people in the Disney Up movie like the dog, where every time I hear a plane is kind of like squirrel, airplane. Paula: Ha! Michael: Growing up and even into adulthood, I always would look for airplanes up in the sky and swore that one day, I was going to become a pilot. So I was working as a Management Consultant back in the late 80s, shows how old I am, and I was on a different assignment than I usually get where I actually had time in the city, where we were doing the consulting in the evenings that I wasn’t working. So I thought now, what am I going to do with my time? I’m not used to this, I’m so used to working, 15, 16 hours a da, and I thought, oh, I’m going to go get a pilot certificate. So I’ve looked up some pilot schools and I found somebody who was willing to meet me in the evenings and do flight lessons. So I just got started on that and that was the summer of 1988. Paula: Wow. Cool. Michael: Sadly, for about 4 hours into my flight training, I got a new assignment and I wanted to tell my consulting company and say, ”I’m sorry I can’t take that new assignment because I just started my flight lessons,” but I didn’t think that was going to work very well. So anyways, I ended up leaving my flight lessons for about 5 years. Started again, got 4 or 5 hours into my flight lessons and I got a new job again. So about 5 years later, I restarted my flight lessons, and guess what? I started a new job. So by this time,...