EP 121 — Tidal Flight's Jude Augustine On Building The First Clean Sheet Seaplane In Decades

<p>Seaplane design hasn&#39;t changed since the 1950s. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jude-augustine/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Jude Augustine</a>, Co-Founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.tidalflight.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Tidal Flight</a>, is building Polaris, a hybrid electric amphibious aircraft designed to turn a four-hour coastal trip into two hours door to door while giving the military runway independence in the Pacific. Polaris is the launchpad for Tidal to grow into a next-generation aircraft manufacturer with a vision for aircraft across categories.</p><p>Before even raising a seed round, Jude and his Georgia Tech co-founders secured 10 letters of intent from seaplane and commuter airlines worldwide. Their dual use approach pairs commercial coastal mobility with contested logistics capability, backed by a supplier model that keeps capital needs low and risk focused on the novel systems that matter most.</p><p><strong>Topics discussed:</strong></p><p>- Why seaplane operating costs stayed high for decades and what changes now</p><p>- Choosing a supplier model over vertical integration after seeing Beta Technologies</p><p>- Securing 10 airline letters of intent before raising a seed round</p><p>- Building a series hybrid powertrain using the DeltaHawk compression ignition engine</p><p>- Flying three 1:6 scale prototypes to prove hull hydrodynamics</p><p>- Dual use strategy pairing commercial coastal mobility with Pacific defense missions</p><p>- Saying no to defense funding that pulls away from the core aircraft program</p><p>- Designing for autonomy readiness without building an autonomy suite</p><p><strong>Listen to more episodes: </strong></p><p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dib-innovators/id1720062726" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Apple </a></p><p><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Z3PpCHsglA3uk2S6dCRBP" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Spotify </a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX2eBOnzz1SX0Psj6BmbdCw" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">YouTube</a></p><p><a href="https://radicl.com/dib-innovators-podcast" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Website</a></p>