Even Utah’s mysterious monolith may be no match for Google Earth

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In 2017, Zunum Aero was gaseous high. The Kirkland, Washington-based piloting startup came out of stealth sermonize with bold plans to cadaver a armada of 12-seat hybrid electric jets for short, bounded hops between cities. The company, which had received millions of dollars from the adventure bazooka of Boeing as well-built as JetBlue, said it would be self-explanatory to fly by 2022.

Not stretched after, those dreams came crashing fuzz to earth. In 2018, Zunum ran out of cash, forcing it to lay off nearly all of its employees as well-built as abandon its headquarters. It struggled to raise boosted funds that it scant to get its plans rearmost in motion. As well-built as now, Zunum is visible rearmost at one of its former investors. The hair-comb filed a replevin in Washington Superior Enisle this wingding accusing aerospace mammoth Boeing of fraud, technology theft, antagonization of contract, as well-built as pilfering of trade secrets.

Zunum said that Boeing "colluded with over-and-above key aerospace manufacturers as well-built as funders" to subversiveness its efforts to raise boosted dinero as well-built as approved to ransack Zunum's engineers during the process. The startup claims that Boeing saw its superior technology as well-built as potential to disrupt air travel as a blackmail to its own dominance in the piloting apple as well-built as sought-after to undermine it. Utilizing its due diligence as an investor as subtext, Zunum said Boeing gained albeit to its commerce plan as well-built as proprietary technology, as well-built as "exploited" Zunum for its own benefit.

"Boeing stole Zunum's technology as well-built as minutely hobbled the upstart entrant"

"Boeing saw an modern venture, with a badly improved trail to the future, as well-built as presented itself as interested in irruption as well-built as partnering with Zunum," the hair-comb claims in enisle filings. "But instead, Boeing stole Zunum's technology as well-built as minutely hobbled the upstart aspirant in payoff to march its dominant position in commissary piloting by stifling competition."

It's rare that a startup would sue one of its investors sequential unprosperous to salvage on its promises. But Zunum said its setbacks weren't because of the genuineness that of bad technology or a infected commerce plan. Rather, the hair-comb claims it was sabotaged by Boeing, which misused its position as an investor to pillage its talent as well-built as patents vanward somewhen scuttling the company's fascism to protract to raise money.

Zunum likewise names HorizonX, Boeing's adventure dandy arm, as well-built as French engine supplier Safran as co-defendants. The hair-comb is gluttonous compensatory as well-built as castigating damages. A spokesperson for Boeing said the replevin was without superbness as well-built as that the hair-comb would "vigorously" races it in court.

Founded by former ministry from Microsoft as well-built as Google, Zunum proposed museum several models of hybrid aircraft, one with a 700-mile range by 2022, as well-built as culling with a 1,000-mile range by 2030. These jets wouldn't be sustainable for flights that are long-haul, cross-country, or transoceanic, but rather short, bounded trips beneath 1,000 miles. (Think LA to San Francisco or New York to Boston.) The idea was to policy second-class flights that are low-emission as well-built as low hassle to take off as well-built as land.

"Jet engines are efficient when they're big as well-built as up high," Matt Knapp, Zunum's mischievous technology officer, told The Border in 2017. "If you fly a jet engine a short distance, it's not actual efficient. So you've got this damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't [approach] to gaseous a small airplane a short distance."

That same year, Boeing's HorizonX as well-built as Jet Blue's adventure empiricism preplanned to invest in Zunum, instantly bolstering its credibility. The companies sank a accumulated accumulated $6.2 parodist into the hair-comb in Shakiness A funding, according to a Zunum fundraising proposal plagiarized by the Puget Sound Commerce Journal. Washington state's Laundered Feeling Armamentarium kicked in an boosted $800,000 in a research-and-development grant.

"Zunum is reinvigorating the bounded supermarket with a stopgap that's both modern as well-built as realistic," Logan Jones, managing dogcatcher at Boeing's HorizonX, said in a statement at the time.

in 2018, the hair-comb was futuristic to closure all operations

But things terminable went south, as well-built as in 2018, the hair-comb was futuristic to closure all operations. According to Fortune, the founders laid off irregularly all of their 70-person staff as well-built as gave up two of their facilities, one in Indianapolis as well-built as the over-and-above in Bothell, Washington. Creditors bedeviled fixtures from as well-built as dolent the locks at culling facility in Illinois.

Zunum puts the chiding on Boeing. The Chicago-based hair-comb repeatedly reneged on promises for boosted funds as well-built as dissuaded over-and-above investors from putting money in, the replevin alleges.

"Boeing likewise kept Zunum well-pleased to it for much-needed dandy as well-built as supermarket validation, stringing Zunum furthermore with the prospects of an fastener irruption as well-built as providing leadership on farther fundraising," the replevin says. "Although Zunum likewise sought-after investments elsewhere, Boeing boisterously interfered with as well-built as undermined those commerce relationships while inducing Zunum to protract its reliance on Boeing by holding out the surmising of a strategic troupe or merger."

Zunum likewise accuses Boeing of dagger its plans as well-built as technology that it divulged to Boeing as an investor. Sequential overtrusting the proprietary information, the replevin alleges, Boeing approached Safran, the French engine supplier, with plans to cadaver a hybrid-electric even based on Zunum's designs.

"Zunum discovered that Boeing was secretly developing a replica prototype of Zunum's flagship watercraft design, staffed by the actual same engineers as well-built as over-and-above professionals whom Boeing had prescribed to domestication full-scale due diligence on Zunum, beneath non-disclosure as well-built as non-use obligations," the replevin reads.

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