Customer Spotlight: The Future Takes Shape with JetZero and Nile

Let me give you a little context about, uh, who we are, because it explains a lot about our requirements around networking and security and why it's so unique and demanding. Um, with Jet Zero, what we're doing is we're building the next generation of aircraft. So we're not just tinkering with an airplane, we're here working on a project that's called a blended wing body.

And this has the potential to transform aviation. So our product, um, is going to be 30% more fuel efficient. And that's a huge improvement for airlines who are dealing with a target to be net zero by 2050.

5% increment that they don't achieve net zero, they're gonna be purchasing carbon credits. So rather than just relying on sustainable aviation fuels, which there may not be enough to produce, just to give you an example, to get e enough saf, sustainable aviation fuel food that comes from biofuels, you would need a pond the size of Colorado, West Virginia, and Maryland that could produce a hundred percent without any error algae. Imagine harvesting that.

I mean, we've all been in an airplane and flown over the state of Colorado, that's not big enough. And then you need them in multiple hemispheres so that you can do this year round. If you had that.

And if there was no floods, famines, droughts, no issues with weather, no issues with terrorist attacks, you'd have enough sustainable aviation fuel to to hit the target. So the industry knows that there's, that, there's an issue. And changing the shape of the plane, making it more like a Frisbee, uh, than a Coke bottle, is going to simply change the leftover drag, uh, of the shape.

Like you can take a, a, a piece of paper, you can wa it up in a ball and toss it, or you can turn it into an airplane and you know which one flies faster. So the shape is, is determining the lift over drag ratio, and then it's weight and thrust after that. So if you have enough lift to take care of the weight and you have enough thrust to cut through the drag, you fly.

And that's the, that's the formula. So by changing the shape, it unlocks so much, uh, potential, uh, and that's what we're doing. Um, but because we're pushing the limits of engineering and because it's just, it's a, it's a new shape.

We have to, uh, be using, you know, compliance and FAA regulations. The innovation is happening all at once, and it's happening everywhere. Um, so it can't just happen in certain places.

That includes our infrastructure, right? So we need an infrastructure that can keep up with the pace that we're working in the real world. The stakes around networking and security are very, very real.

Give you an example. Um, right now, if we leave Guam and we go into the Deep Pacific with our current tanker, we have enough fuel to deliver one, maybe two aircraft, and then that tanker has to fly back with our, with our tanker, we're going to Be able to do multiples and multiples of that as a payload. And that changes a lot, right?

You know, how important supply chains are to our defense system. So that technology is something that our adversaries and competitors would definitely like to get their hands on. Uh, and we're actually seeing, we're seeing that, um, in our network.

And thankfully, um, before we went, uh, too far into the public domain, uh, we came out of stealth and we had some issues with our current network. Uh, and I'll, I'll tell you in a minute how we, we found Nile, but it's been a, a tremendous uplift into our security. Um, so on the security side, you know, we're accountable to FAA, we're accountable to our investors, uh, which includes, uh, you know, United and Alaska.

We're partnering with Delta. We have, uh, around the $44 billion backlog, um, in orders. Um, we have the tanker project with the Air Force, and we're building the largest factory on earth in the state of North Carolina.

7 billion, which is the largest deal in history for a non-public company, since largest deal of all time for, for any company. So we have the, the factory coming where we're gonna be creating the planes. We're breaking ground in February of next year.

Um, we're gonna be, uh, doing our first flight of our demonstrator airplane in 2027. And that's being built right now with our partner Northrop Grumman, in the Mojave Desert. And then in 2028, we'll have, um, our first plane built, 2029, we'll be testing and, and flying that plane, certifying it by 2030, the 2031, we'll be delivering, uh, eight planes.

Um, and then we'll be scaling up to a plane a day by 2036 from this factory. Uh, in 2033, we announced our European or agent factory. And then in 2030, uh, eight, we announced that either the agent or European factory, depending on which one we went with.

Um, so the target is to have three factories, um, by 20, uh, 41, and then be, um, producing almost a trillion dollars in revenue, um, by 2045. So the stakes are very, very high for us and for the industry. So on the performance side, you know, our engineers, they're constantly collaborating.

They're sharing very large files, they're running simulations. The last time, um, a competitor entered the market, you know, a major competitor was Airbus, and they did it in the late seventies, and they did 24 wind tunnel tests, right? And so they're going back and they're, and they're physically testing the airplane, physically changing the airplane.

We're able to run, um, a thousand simulations on a weekend. And we've done actually completed a wind tunnel test with Northrop Grumman. Um, these tests cost into the millions of dollars to do per test.

And our, our net learnings were around, um, you know, what we can do with a, with a hundred simulations when we're doing a thousand over the weekend. What we could do with a hundred simulations was kind of the net learning of what We had from the, the single wind tunnel test. So, you know, if Airbus can do it in a, in a room full of paper with half of the team smoking cigarettes, not even having a fax machine, imagine what we can do today with digital twins, simulations an order backlog funding and support from the smartest people in the industry.

Um, but if we don't have a, a, a good network, and we don't have good security, um, that's one of the things that can absolutely stop us. So here's where we ran into problems, and here's where Nile came in to, uh, to help. Um, we were doing traditional solutions, right?

We were working with, with the, the top brands, you know, the, the number one and number two brand in the industry. And we were working with, you know, the best teams in the industry to deliver those brands. Um, but the complexity was, was overwhelming, right?

We are a startup. Um, right now we're 250 people. We're scaling to be 14,556 people.

Um, by the time we're, we're printing a plane a day out of our factory in 2036. So we're growing very, very fast. And the focus is on engineering.

Um, and we had a, a lesser focus on the IT team. So it was a lot of work on it to make sure that we were keeping up with the pace we were laying on, VLANs, acls, NAS appliances, firewalls, we were doing boltons, all the things that you're very familiar with. Um, but the result was a, a solution that was not cohesive, right?

A lot of these things you're having to, um, you know, it's like you're putting an entire car together, right? You, you, you get the, the product and it, and it comes and it, and it comes with all these boxes, and you literally have to assemble it, configure it, and then you have to do the overwhelming job of maintaining it. Um, and when you're a small team, it's, it's very, very difficult and it's very fragile, and it's very hard to manage.

You know, I was previously head of architecture governance, um, at, uh, at Gulfstream before I came to Jet Zero. And we were always having, you know, network issues. Network issues was just the name of the game, hundreds of tickets a month with network issues.

And we had one of the best networking teams in the world using the best networking technology in the world. And, um, it was just part of what you're used to, because when you're in a hangar like this one, um, you have, uh, a lot of issues. You have a lot of interference from the nearby airport, um, and the, the doors are always opening and closing, and it's, it's a lot of electromagnetic interference that comes in at, at different points in time.

Um, we have large groups of people coming through here to do tours. Um, and so they're bringing in their devices, and then we're obviously, we're on webinars and we're meeting with investors. And when you're doing it in an environment where the internet is, is constantly cutting out on you, um, it doesn't build confidence, um, with, with who you're speaking with.

So all of that was to say that we needed something where instead of spending all this time, you know, fighting with the network, we needed something that was going to be Like electricity, where it was just going to be on and something that we could rely on and enable our mission. But that was, that was what we were looking for. But that was a dream, because that didn't exist in the, in the real world, at least as far as I knew.

Um, but it turns out it does. So, you know, uh, at first I'll admit, I was skeptical when I met, uh, SSH and the Nile team because it just stood out as something that, uh, seemed like a magic fix. Um, but their philosophy was completely different.

And that was, um, that resonated with us because our philosophy on what we're doing at Jet Zero is also very different. Um, but it wasn't like, here's another tool that you could put in your stack. What it was, was like, what if the fabric itself was secure by default?

So, you know, I was, I was definitely skeptical, but I listened because it seemed like their approach with, you know, micro-segmentation and identity, identity based access. Like, that's where it became clear that this is not the old model with Bolton and just endless tuning, configuring, re rebuilding, troubleshooting tickets, like that endless cycle. What they were talking about was about building a security, like into the fabric, into the, into the actual, like DNA, the way the network worked.

And they were able to quickly, you know, show us a twin of our network, um, which was like, okay, this is the first time that, you know, I've actually seen a working twin of our network. No one else did that for us. I'm sure they could, but, but they didn't.

And it was very little effort and it was like quick. So that was cool. So for someone like me who didn't have a bunch of like, you know, a super deep bench, like I didn't have five, 10, you know, network specialists working to keep things running, a lot of times it was, you know, um, myself like getting in there and like trying to do access points.

'cause there was so many issues. It was all hands on deck. So what harm did we have if we let Nile, you know, test it?

Like, where's the harm, right? Like right now, it's a complete disaster. So if we bring in a second network and we test it, you know, what could go wrong?

Um, and what actually happened is, uh, it went viral is what happened. It was, um, people were standing by the Nile access points and they were like showing their computer, like with the speed test, you know, it was like 800 megabits, a thousand megabits. And, uh, it was like people were posting on like, the teams chats, and they were just like, the team was just so excited.

You could just feel like the sense of relief instead of being like on airplane mode where you walk in and it's like you have no wifi, it's like airplane mode. Um, it went from, you know, three megabits here, 20 megabits there to just being able to get like a 800 megabit connection. Like everywhere people were like getting into like the tunnels of, like rooms to see what the speed test was.

It was, it felt really good. So we decided that we were gonna move forward with Nile and to share what it was like after deployment, because the test was real. So first of all, it was, it was complete, it was complete sim uh, simplicity.

Um, the team just, it, it made it to where, you know, our guys didn't even have to log in to do anything at all. We just kind of had this dashboard where we could see what was working and, and what devices were on and, and who was on, you know, so you could see like the microsegmentation, uh, we didn't have to manually configure anything. You know, the team came in, they, they fixed some of the, some of the cabling and then, and then they bugged it in and then they left.

And I was kind of like, you know, like, is that it? Um, is there any, anything we need to do? And it was all handled in a way that was just like, pretty much invisible to my team, um, which is how you want.

And I did a, uh, a PLM migration. You know, we have a Siemens PLM environment, and we had a team, um, come through and they moved it from Microsoft to AWS GovCloud, and no one said a word, right? No one said like, we're having problems.

No one said thank you. And like, being in it, like, that's what we want. We wanna be able to be, um, invisible and, uh, reliable.

Like, we don't want to, we don't want people to like notice, like, this is amazing because it should just always be amazing, right? So we don't want to get the thank yous, we don't want to get the complaints, we just want to deliver amazing all the time to where that just becomes the standard, right? Like, nobody goes home and turns on their TV and they're like, I can't believe my, I can't believe I'm watching TV right now.

You know, it just is expected. So like, when they come to work and they turn on technology, you just want it to be expected. And that's when you actually have like a real peace of mind that you can focus on strategy and doing other things.

So secondly was like the performance. Like immediately right away our eng engineers noticed like, Hey, there's no more dead spots. There's no more bottlenecks.

The team, like you can tell right now, um, the, the coverage is, is fantastic. You know, audio, video, everything's great. Um, previously on the previous network, um, I would've had to have like, you know, found the ideal spot.

I would have asked people like, Hey, I'm gonna be in a meeting, please don't take my bandwidth. Um, but not the case. I could just go on a walk around the hangar and, and go from access point to access point, it's 90,000 square feet here, it's 300,000 square feet on campus, 16 acres.

I could just literally walk around the building with this, with this, uh, device and not get dropped and, and not have any glitches. So completely smooth. Um, it didn't feel like I was, I was buying something that I had to, you know, worry about.

It was like I was actually buying a product that delivered something. And, and I had a partner that was able to help us design that network. Um, I didn't have to really give requirements other than a floor plan.

And then they showed up and, and they, they measured everything twice, And then they cut once and they delivered perfection. So, you know, at Jet Zero, we're really focused on changing the, the future of aviation. And it feels in a lot of ways, like now with the sister company, because they're definitely changing the future of networking.

Um, we cannot be a, a, like, we cannot take chances with our network. We, we can't go, um, legacy, you know, we can't do things the way that our competitors are doing things and expect to deliver a better result. And, uh, thankfully, like that's not what we, and we went with network as a service.

It's given us a foundation where we don't have to choose between security and performance, and we can just focus on the real mission, which is building the future of aviation. So, very grateful to what Nile's done for us, and I'm a, I'm a huge advocate of, of Nile for the changes that I've felt that have been very real at, uh, jet Zero.