Data pressed: Saturday, October 24, 2026

Happy Monday, folks!

I’m adding structure to the Marble Institute of Technology. I’ve enjoyed playing loose, writing candidly, but a firm foundation will fly us further.

The website is forever a work in progress. Finished, never final.

Our data pipes continue to expand. We’ve grown beyond the single FAA registry. We’re making sense of next-gen transportation - planes, trains, flying cars, horses, rocket ships to Mars. You name it. If it moves atoms at scale, we want to watch it.

Here’s how I’m thinking,

Monday - The Manifest - the week's data and news, and one thesis that ties them together. If a week has no real thesis, we’ll keep it 100. (See today’s issue below.)

Wednesday - The Research Report - Claude + Riley dive into the data, uncover an insight that makes us scratch our head(s).

Friday - The Company Profile - one company, read like a VC.

Grab a bevy - kick up your feet + enjoy.

An electric aircraft just flew from New York to Vermont in 20 minutes. Customers are next.

  • BETA Technologies received the first authorization of its kind for an electric VTOL: a special airworthiness certificate for market surveys of its Alia 250. It allows flights with operators and key stakeholders, within FAA limits.

  • The first flight under it took place Oct 20. The Alia 250 took off vertically from Plattsburgh, New York, flew on its wings, and landed vertically in Burlington, Vermont: 34 nautical miles in 20 minutes.

  • More steps are ahead. BETA says it is working toward full type certification and commercial operations. Electric vertical flight just moved a step closer to the people who will use it.

New breakthroughs are arriving, and the next approvals are lining up.

  • Amazon added 100 delivery drones to the U.S. registry in one week, to 765 (our registry data, Oct 24).

  • Tallahassee is next, by mid-November, with its storage building moving through permit review.

  • In Massachusetts, the path for Westborough runs through a state approval that Amazon has not yet applied for.

  • The federal rule for flights beyond line of sight is at day 108 of White House review (Federal Register checked Oct 26).

The number to quote: 3,916 registered delivery drones, up 250% in a year. Two companies hold 97%.

Registered is not flying

Two companies hold 97% of the nation's registered delivery drones.

That is 3,052 for Zipline and 765 for Amazon, out of 3,916. A year ago the total was 1,118. Amazon added 100 in a week. Why it matters: when either company moves, the national total moves.

Zipline and Amazon took 58% of the 610 new large drones registered in four weeks.

The Department of Homeland Security registered 17 UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters this week, and 28 since May 1. The registry gives no reason.

Reliable Robotics raised $115 million at a valuation above $1 billion. It builds autonomous flight systems for existing aircraft, and its FAA certification for that system is still ahead.

— (@)

Skyfly raised $10 million for its two-seat electric Axe, with first deliveries planned for 2027.

Massachusetts has set out the steps for Amazon's Westborough drone pad: a public hearing first, then a landing-area application at least 90 days before first use. Amazon has not yet applied. Separately, Westborough voted 510 to 13 on Oct 19 to ban drone launch and delivery pads.

Amazon says Prime Air starts in Tallahassee by mid-November, with up to 21 drones. The storage building is moving through permit review.

Part 108, the rule for flights beyond line of sight, is at day 108 of White House review. The Federal Register shows no final rule as of Oct 26.

The FCC votes Oct 29 on opening the 800 MHz band to drones. That is about 50 MHz of spectrum that carries farther, which matters for beyond-line-of-sight flying. Carriers support it. It is tentative until the vote.

Spray-drone sales fell 59%, from 8,950 in 2024 to about 3,700 in 2025, and makers want an FCC carve-out.

China will require export licenses from Nov 18 for heavy-lift drone motors, speed controllers and large propellers. It covers exports to any country.

Wing and Walmart now fly from seven Charlotte-area stores, with two more due within a week.

The FAA released draft design standards for vertiports. Comments are due Jan 11, and an industry day is Nov 10.

Archer unveiled planned air taxi routes for Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. They are plans, not services.

Waymo started rides at Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas, for current Las Vegas riders first, with more added gradually. A week earlier, it opened San Antonio's airport. Each airport has to agree to it.

— (@)

Tesla says it will start selling Cybercabs by year end. Separately, NHTSA opened an audit query on Sept 3 into how Tesla certified the steering-wheel-free Cybercab to federal safety standards, according to press reports. We have not yet read the NHTSA notice.

Now you're up to speed.

Godspeed.