PODCAST: Flight Kinetics’ Lester Erlston on Unlocking Range and Payload in eVTOL Aircraft

Our lat­est pod­cast episode is live! This week, we were delight­ed to be joined by Lester Erl­ston, Founder of Flight Kinet­ics, to explore how advanced aero­dy­nam­ics could unlock the next phase of elec­tric and hybrid-elec­tric flight.

Lester explains how the company’s pro­pri­etary tech­nol­o­gy, Prop­Wings, is designed to dra­mat­i­cal­ly improve lift, range, and pay­load capac­i­ty for eVTOL aircraft—without requir­ing advances in bat­tery chem­istry.

Instead, the solu­tion focus­es on smarter aero­dy­nam­ics, har­vest­ing pre­vi­ous­ly wast­ed pro­peller slip­stream ener­gy to enhance per­for­mance dur­ing crit­i­cal flight phas­es such as tran­si­tion and cruise.

Dur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion, Lester out­lines Flight Kinet­ics’ jour­ney from ini­tial inven­tion through patent pro­tec­tion and toward a scal­able licens­ing busi­ness mod­el. The com­pa­ny posi­tions itself as a future Tier 1 tech­nol­o­gy licen­sor, offer­ing an air­frame-neu­tral solu­tion that can be inte­grat­ed across mul­ti­ple eVTOL plat­forms.

The dis­cus­sion dives deep into the tech­ni­cal chal­lenges of design­ing a high-lift sys­tem that is robust, adapt­able, and cer­ti­fi­able across diverse air­craft archi­tec­tures. Lester shares how a phased val­i­da­tion roadmap—progressing from advanced CFD analy­sis to wind tun­nel test­ing and ulti­mate­ly flight testing—is being used to reduce risk and deliv­er the real-world data OEMs require.

Look­ing ahead, the episode explores how improved aero­dy­nam­ic effi­cien­cy can trans­late direct­ly into safer oper­a­tions, greater ener­gy mar­gins, longer routes, and stronger eco­nom­ics for oper­a­tors.

Click on the Play but­ton below to lis­ten to the pod­cast episode, which is avail­able on whichev­er plat­form you use.