Virtual Event: eVTOL, Promise or Pipedream?

This fireside chat recap is from FLYING’s “What’s Next in General Aviation” Virtual Event on Wednesday.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Advanced air mobility (AAM) and eVTOL are creating significant new market opportunities in avionics and sensors. Aspen Avionics sees this as a chance to reignite innovation and push the market forward.

DETAILS: FLYING CEO Craig Fuller sits down with Aspen Avionics CEO John Uczekaj as he shares his view of the timeline to market and what that future looks like.

SPEAKER: Uczekaj is president and CEO of Aspen Avionics.

BIO: Uczekaj has more than 35 years of experience in the avionics industry, starting out as an engineer at Boeing and moving into key management positions at Sperry and Honeywell. While at Honeywell, he was made executive vice president and general manager of the Aerospace Electronics Systems division. Immediately prior to joining Aspen, he was president and COO of The NORDAM Group. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). He’s also a pilot, and he enjoys the ability to fly with the innovations that Aspen produces.

KEY QUOTES FROM UCZEKAJ:

“I really believe this is a growth period within aerospace that we probably haven’t seen in a long time.”

“The advanced air mobility and drone space created a unique opportunity to be able to bring companies together. That particular event, that we’re right in the early stages of, [is] providing opportunities for companies like Aspen, and others, to come together to build a mid-tier aerospace company.”

“This eVTOL AEM space creates a lot of new opportunities for application of technologies that many of the companies that, AIRO and Aspen included, have been trying to develop but have not found the big growth space for them and now that’s being presented to us.”

“Being able to see the integration of airframe, propulsion, fuel, and electronics into this world that’s being panned out in a very high entrepreneurial world, makes me excited about what’s going to come next to my airplane. Aviation is about dreams. I mean, you dream about flying. It’s just an exciting thing to do.”