Billy Nolen, Former FAA Administrator, Moves to Archer As Chief Safety Officer

The rumours were true. The reuters.com sources were gen­uine. Bil­ly Nolen, the for­mer FAA Admin­is­tra­tor is mov­ing to Archer Avi­a­tion and as its Chief Safe­ty Offi­cer, reports a press release.

This is quite a coup for the eVTOL com­pa­ny. Hav­ing such an expe­ri­enced, respect­ed expert with 30 years of avi­a­tion safe­ty and flight oper­a­tions, will great­ly assist Archer in gain­ing full air reg­u­la­to­ry cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by 2025, allow­ing it to begin com­mer­cial oper­a­tions over New York and Chica­go.

Adam Gold­stein, co-Founder and CEO of Archer com­ment­ed, “Bil­ly is an incred­i­ble leader and has long been a staunch sup­port­er of the eVTOL air­craft indus­try, spear­head­ing our country’s and the FAA’s glob­al lead­er­ship role in this impor­tant area. Togeth­er, we will shape the future of trans­porta­tion and make sus­tain­able, effi­cient air trav­el a real­i­ty.”

While at the FAA, “Nolen led the agency’s efforts to enable the safe entry of eVTOL air­craft into the nation­al air­space.,” says the release. “He has been a strong advo­cate for the eVTOL air­craft indus­try and its role in chang­ing the way the world moves.” In Archer’s new posi­tion, Nolen will play a lead­er­ship role to help Archer more effec­tive­ly col­lab­o­rate with indus­try stake­hold­ers and help ensure its safe entry into ser­vice.

The biggest hur­dle to com­mer­cial­iz­ing eVTOLs has always been reg­u­la­tion. Today, FAA Admin­is­tra­tor @FAA_Billy Nolen left the @FAANews to join @adamgoldstein13 and team @ArcherAviation.

Hard to find a bet­ter vote of con­fi­dence in fly­ing cars than that. cc/ @CNBC @Lebeaucarnews pic.twitter.com/zMNO5qT71O

— Nikhil Goel (@ngoel) June 13, 2023

Nolen remarked, “The com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of eVTOL air­craft is no longer a ques­tion of ‘if,’ but rather ‘when’. I joined Archer because I believe its approach to design­ing for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, while only devel­op­ing the key enabling tech­nolo­gies nec­es­sary for eVTOL air­craft is the right recipe for suc­cess.  The company’s ded­i­ca­tion to safe­ty, inno­va­tion, and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion aligns per­fect­ly with my own val­ues and aspi­ra­tions.”

The release con­tin­ues, “While serv­ing as the act­ing admin­is­tra­tor at the FAA from April 2022 to June 2023, Nolen led cer­ti­fi­ca­tion reform and new safe­ty man­age­ment sys­tems for air­ports. Pri­or to that, he was the asso­ciate admin­is­tra­tor of avi­a­tion safe­ty for the FAA, which cov­ers more than one mil­lion reg­is­tered air­craft, more than one mil­lion active pilots, thou­sands of approved man­u­fac­tur­ers, and over 50,000 flights every day.”

It con­tin­ues, “He has more than 33 years of expe­ri­ence in cor­po­rate safe­ty, reg­u­la­to­ry affairs and flight oper­a­tions. Nolen start­ed his career as a pilot for Amer­i­can Air­lines, fol­lowed by numer­ous safe­ty lead­er­ship posi­tions at West­Jet Air­lines, Qan­tas Air­ways, Air­lines for Amer­i­ca and Amer­i­can Air­lines. 

Mid­night Coup

“He served tours of duty in the U.S Army as an air­plane and heli­copter pilot as well as a safe­ty offi­cer.  He holds a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Pro­fes­sion­al Aero­nau­tics from Embry-Rid­dle Aero­nau­ti­cal Uni­ver­si­ty, as well as spe­cialised avi­a­tion safe­ty man­age­ment cer­tifi­cates from the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, Unit­ed States Army Safe­ty Cen­ter, and the Unit­ed States Navy Post­grad­u­ate School. He is a Fel­low of the Roy­al Aero­nau­ti­cal Soci­ety.”

Archer has cer­tain­ly attract­ed the right man.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.archer.com/

(Top image: Cred­it — Archer Avi­a­tion)