Lost your password?

The Twit­ter­sphere was in hyper­drive overnight about the start yes­ter­day of the US Cham­ber of Commerce’s 2023 Glob­al Aero­space Sum­mit, held at the Ronald Rea­gan Build­ing and Inter­na­tion­al Trade Cen­tre in Wash­ing­ton DC.

The Sum­mit brings togeth­er gov­ern­ment lead­ers and indus­try experts from around the world for dis­cus­sions on the lat­est devel­op­ments, trends, chal­lenges, and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Air­bus and RTX joined as pre­sent­ing spon­sors.

The theme is ‘Inno­vat­ing the Skies, Con­nect­ing the World’, with atten­dees hear­ing dis­cus­sions on the state of the aero­space indus­try post-pan­dem­ic, the impact of geopo­lit­i­cal events, com­pe­ti­tion in the glob­al mar­ket, and the industry’s charge towards a more sus­tain­able future.

The two-day sum­mit pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for atten­dees to col­lab­o­rate with experts in rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing the future of flight. US Cham­ber of Commerce’s pres­i­dent and CEO Suzanne Clark high­light­ed the vital role the gov­ern­ment plays in clear­ing the run­way and set­ting the con­di­tions for suc­cess “so the pri­vate sec­tor can lift our com­mu­ni­ties and coun­try to new heights.”

Includ­ed was the first US pub­lic dis­play of Archer’s Mid­night air­craft. The com­pa­ny gave thanks to FAA News nom­i­nee Mike Whitak­er for drop­ping by to check out Mid­night.

The sum­mit kicked off with an Archer-host­ed VIP din­ner to dis­cuss the future of avi­a­tion, how eVTOL air­craft will change the way peo­ple trav­el and the impor­tance of the US main­tain­ing its glob­al lead­er­ship posi­tion in aero­space.

Archer founder and CEO Adam Gold­stein deliv­ered a strong mes­sage about the need for a whole of gov­ern­ment approach in order to unlock the oppor­tu­ni­ty the eVTOL indus­try holds for the coun­try on the glob­al stage, say­ing: “We need to choose if we want the US to main­tain a lead­er­ship posi­tion in avi­a­tion.”

Wisk’s Asia Pacif­ic region­al direc­tor Cather­ine Mac­Gowan shared insights into Wisk’s Gen­er­a­tion 6 air­craft and work­ing along­side NZ reg­u­la­to­ry author­i­ties. She also addressed the poten­tial for New Zealand as a test­ing ground and invest­ment hub for these tech­nolo­gies.

Com­ment­ing on the 16% increase in seats and routes to the US from their hubs, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr added: “The North Atlantic is the back­bone of glob­al avi­a­tion. The US has set the stan­dards of avi­a­tion and Europe is a part­ner of the US in doing that.”

Con­ver­sa­tions and knowl­edge shar­ing dom­i­nat­ed the first day, with impor­tant dis­cus­sions on the FAA Reau­tho­ri­sa­tion, reg­u­la­to­ry issues in an evolv­ing indus­try, work­force chal­lenges and the many oppor­tu­ni­ties ahead.

Vir­ginia Gov­er­nor Glenn Youngkin said: “I am so con­fi­dent that the future of air trav­el, the future of the aero­space indus­try, the future of our explo­ration in space, the future of mate­r­i­al sci­ence, the future of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and the future of the capa­bil­i­ties that are rep­re­sent­ed in this room and across uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es and in R&D labs and man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties all across our nation.”

“I want to chal­lenge you in the work that you are going to do over the course of this con­fer­ence. Chart aggres­sive paths, chal­lenge your­self to do more than you think. Col­lab­o­rate, be best in class. And most impor­tant, most impor­tant­ly, let’s bring the future.”