Every morning, we send you a free email packed with Austin news, business, and entertainment. Join 20,000+ readers who wake up to Austonia's newsletter.
Elon Musk is developing plans for a new private airport, multiple sources tell Austonia. While the timetable and exact location are unknown, the conceptual plans have been confirmed by sources who say the airport would be east of Austin, near Bastrop.
Besides being available for private jet travel for himself and his executives, the potential new airfield could service Musk's companies, many of which have a local presence: Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company in particular. Musk and his companies own thousands of acres in Central Texas, mostly along the Colorado River corridor.
The key piece of land for Musk is Giga Texas in southeast Travis County. Covering 2,500 acres, Tesla made the site its headquarters in December.
The Boring Company, which first came to Pflugerville in December 2020, also joined Tesla in an HQ move to the Austin area and this spring saw the region's largest ever venture investment. Its address on Impact Way sits three miles from Austin Executive Airport, a controlled airfield that serves as a general aviation alternative to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Last year, Gapped Bass LLC, an entity tied to top executives at Boring, purchased 73 acres in Northwest Bastrop. Then in February, representatives for the company sought approval from the Bastrop County Commissioners Court for a permit to build an 80,000-square-foot warehouse and manufacturing facility. Plans for the site are unclear, but job postings indicated it may be used for developing a tunneling technology known as "Prufrock."
It's unclear how much space Musk would use for a private airport. But for scale, Austin Executive Airport has a 6,025-foot runway and over 130,000 sq. ft. of community hangar space.
Currently, Musk's visits to Austin are made on a 2015 Gulfstream G650, though he has placed an order for a new top-of-the-line private jet that has an expected delivery in early 2023. Trips to Central Texas this year have been key for Musk as Tesla ramps up production on its Model Y at Giga Texas.
At the grand opening of the gigafactory, Musk boasted about the site’s proximity to the Austin- Bergstrom International airport, which is about five miles away.
Building a new airport requires federal EPA approval for environmental impacts and FAA approval for air traffic impacts. Local regulations may apply, too. The path to completion could be a long one, especially given Musk's ongoing feud with President Joe Biden.
Tesla is taking steps toward its plan to provide retail electricity.
A job has opened up for a product operations manager based in Austin. Tesla says this role will be central to the success of its emerging electricity retail business.
The manager will initially focus on the Texas market, growing the business and the team. Texas leaders have previously welcomed Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his businesses like when Gov. Greg Abbott boasted this past spring about the opening of Tesla’s gigafactory in southeast Travis County.
But Tesla’s ambitions could go beyond Texas eventually. The job description mentions that the manager will also contribute to innovation in electricity retail offerings and expansion into future markets.
Qualified candidates will have operations experience in residential electricity retail, preferably with a retail electricity provider in ERCOT. Tesla also notes candidates should have the flexibility to integrate innovative approaches with distributed energy resources such as solar, storage, electric vehicles and future Tesla products.
Tesla is aiming to recruit someone with a bachelor’s degree in a technical or engineering field, at least three years of related experience and a high degree of comfort working in a fast-paced results-oriented environment.
Quinn Ewers is the Texas Longhorns’ newest starting quarterback.
Coach Steve Sarkisian announced the decision on Friday after saying he had a “pretty good idea” of who it would be earlier this week.
Sarkisian picked Ewers, who was up against sophomore Hudson Card for the starting position, after evaluating both players during spring practice and for two weeks of preseason practice.
Ewers transferred to UT during the offseason after spending his freshman season at Ohio State University.
The new quarterback was the class of 2022’s highest-ranked recruit in Southlake Carroll, DFW area. He later reclassified to the class of 2021 and graduated early.