EP 116 — Carbonix's Dario Valenza On Building 10-Hour Flight Drones That Compete With Helicopters

How do you build a drone that flies 10 hours, takes off without a runway, and earns the first beyond visual line of sight certification for its class? Start with a decade of America's Cup yacht racing and a fixation on making structures lighter and faster.Dario Valenza, Founder of Carbonix, breaks down how his team applied carbon fiber composites and first principles design to build a long-range VTOL aircraft now scanning pipelines, power lines, and mine sites. With defense traction including Anduril and a fleet deployed to Ukraine, Dario explains the dual-use model driving Carbonix forward.Topics discussed:- Applying America's Cup composites and rapid iteration to drone design- Building a VTOL aircraft with 8-10 hour flight endurance- Transitioning from airframe OEM to full-service data provider- Earning a world-first SAIL III beyond visual line of sight certification- Designing redundant VTOL systems with separate vertical and horizontal propulsion- Scaling aircraft production from weekly to daily output- Balancing commercial survey revenue with defense ISR applications- Choosing build versus buy for avionics, batteries, and critical subsystemsListen to more episodes: Apple Spotify YouTubeWebsite