An aerospace engineer who fled the Soviet Union as a child in the middle of the night has created "robot" planes which he wants used to help his birthplace of Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Gene Avakyan was born in Kyiv but fled the country when he was just nine years old.
He now lives in Florida, US, and has created "robot" planes which he says will "change the world" and the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
Gene knows all too well what growing up in times of tension feels like as he recalls being made to walk a gauntlet of "soldiers with AK-47s" just to get on a train as he attempted to escape.
After that, his life changed dramatically as he fell in love with aviation and space travel as a teenager before going on to dedicate his time to developing new technologies in the field.
The 52-year-old founder of Edison Aerospace originally launched the company to create robotic aircraft for crop-dusting.
But now he's hoping his creations can help Ukraine's fight against Russia in the ongoing war.
Gene has been in talks with US defence officials and Ukrainian politicians about aircraft designs for military use - including aircraft for locating anti-aircraft missile batteries, delivering cargo and dropping munitions.
“When I left Ukraine I was nine years old and it was 1980 – we had to pass through an empty railway yard in the middle of the night, past Soviet soldiers with AK-47s,” Gene said.
"The experience of leaving the country was very memorable.
“It took us over four months to finally reach the US, after a harrowing experience actually crossing the border in Chop, Ukraine.
"I left with my parents and grandfather, and we were heading to San Francisco, California, where our relatives had established themselves after also fleeing two years prior.
“This kind of experience gives you the perspective that things can change in an instant, and you need to be ready to drop everything, sacrifice some comforts, and run.
“My mission as an entrepreneur is to really help Ukraine down the road, both with military and agricultural aviation, because it's a huge market for agriculture and will require modernization of its defence capabilities.
"Once you can lift a tonne of weight and fly it for 100 miles, you can make your fields grow better, plant seeds… or even drop bombs.
“It’s really a question of what is the right thing to do at any given time.”
Gene, who has 10,000 Instagram followers, studied aerospace engineering at UCLA in California.
He now lives in Florida, but still feels passionate about his home country of Ukraine and the injustice of the war being fought there.
"I felt disbelief when the invasion started," he said.
"I couldn't believe it was happening and was worried it would be over in a week, that Russia would just roll over Ukraine.
"I was very happy to see that didn't happen with the help of the US and Europe. But the events of the past year have shocked everyone the world over.
"I want to get involved and be on the right side of history. And I believe that the war in Ukraine is pretty clear cut."
Gene is currently working with the US Federal Government within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
His technology involves electric, optionally-manned aircraft that are piloted from a truck trailer on the ground, or can fly fully autonomously.
His robot aircraft can fly for about an hour, with a battery roughly the side of the one found in Elon Musk's Tesla Model Three.
The full-size plane's wingspan is 40 feet, and it carries 200 gallons of payload to spray.
Aside from the war efforts, Gene hopes this will help rebuild the country, as well as improve agriculture across the globe.
At present, crop spraying is done by pilots climbing into a small plane and spraying the field by flying low and fast - a very dangerous job.
Gene explained: "Around 10 pilots are killed in the US alone every year from colliding with trees, hills, power lines and other terrain. I hope that our aircraft will help prevent these deaths in future.
"We want the same guys who fly existing planes today to seitch to flying my planes, it's very important to my business ethos that we are not displacing anybody but making the existing workers and companies better off.
"At present, the companies who fly crop dusters spend too much money on buying and servicing the planes, so their profit margins are very low or they go into the red when there's an unplanned breakdown of a plane.
"My aeroplanes cut their operating costs in half."
Gene also believes electric passenger planes could soon become a reality - starting with air taxis. He's hoping to raise funding to build a series of prototypes.
Apart from Edison Aerospace, Gene and his wife, Victoria Unikel, an artist and businesswoman, have founded several other businesses.
These include VUGA Media Group, Gossip Stone TV and 24Fashion TV.
Gene says the couple "work great together".
He said: "My wife is my hero, working with her is a lot of fun and I couldn't have made it to where I am without her.
"We created everything we have together. I lead on the Edison Aerospace stuff, and she leads in the other businesses, because they're much more relationship-based - and she's got bucket loads of charm."
Reflecting on his childhood fleeing the USSR, Gene feels grateful for how much his life has changed, and the luxuries he can now afford.
"My parents decided to flee and take me away from the USSR to save me from living a life under communist despots," he said.
"They themselves faced a decline in quality of life to do this, a sacrifice, to see me grow up in the US and to see their grandchildren born in US as well. I feel gratful for the life I have now."
