The Vertical Space
The Vertical Space
Jim Barry, Peter Shannon & Luka Tomljenovic
#108 Alex List, FlyShirley: 'Shirley' there's an opportunity for AI in the flight deck
1 hour 8 minutes Posted Mar 17, 2026 at 11:00 am.
Contrarian Vision
State Of Cockpit AI
Training And Low Hanging Fruit
Reliable Tasks Today
Building a Stronger Pilot vs. Pilot Atrophy
The Hard Tasks
 Guardrails And Liability
ATC Transcripts In Practice
Top GA Pain Points
What Problems Would GA Pilots Want Solved With AI
From Language To Autonomy
SkyGrid sponsor segment
The Role of AI and Connectivity
Business Model And Wrap Up
0:00
1:08:51
Download MP3
Show notes
In this episode we sit down with Alex List, CEO and founder of FlyShirley, a startup building an AI copilot for the cockpit. Alex walks through what AI in aviation actually looks like today: the practical reality of a ground-based language model accessed via iPad helping pilots handle strategic, non-time-critical tasks like looking up service bulletins mid-flight, transcribing ATC clearances, finding alternates, and synthesizing information that would otherwise require a pilot to dig through ...