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John S. Langford, Electra Aero Founder and CEO, Elected by AIAA as an Honorary Fellow

Elec­tra Aero proud­ly announced this week that its Founder and CEO, John S. Lang­ford, has been award­ed the high­est dis­tinc­tion from the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics (AIAA), to be an Hon­orary Fel­low, reports a press release. 

The AIAA is the world’s largest aero­space soci­ety. “This recog­ni­tion,” says the release, “acknowl­edges Langford’s excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions span­ning the cre­ation of three aero­space com­pa­nies.” The Award cites: “For the cre­ation of three pio­neer­ing and suc­cess­ful aero­space com­pa­nies and lead­er­ship in robot­ic air­craft, sus­tain­able avi­a­tion, STEM edu­ca­tion and nation­al R&D pol­i­cy.” 

The release explains, “First bestowed on Orville Wright in 1933, the AIAA Hon­orary Fel­low Award recog­nis­es pre-emi­nent indi­vid­u­als who have had long and high­ly con­trib­u­to­ry careers in aero­space and who embody the high­est pos­si­ble stan­dards in aero­nau­tics and astro­nau­tics. To date, only 242 peo­ple have been recog­nised.”

Langford’s aero­nau­ti­cal pedi­gree is impres­sive, par­tic­u­lar­ly as a suc­cess­ful and ser­i­al entre­pre­neur.

Present­ly, Lang­ford leads Elec­tra Aero which he found­ed in 2020. It is dif­fer­ent to the com­pe­ti­tion as the com­pa­ny is devel­op­ing a sus­tain­able elec­tric short take­off and land­ing (eSTOL) air­craft mak­ing urban and region­al trans­porta­tion more rapid, safe and afford­able. The twist being an eSTOL craft can take­off and land on a run­way short­er than a soc­cer field along­side its abil­i­ty to recharge the air­craft’s bat­tery dur­ing flight.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, Lang­ford found­ed Auro­ra Flight Sci­ences, a leader in advanced robot­ic air­craft, where he served as CEO from 1989 to 2018. Auro­ra was acquired by Boe­ing in 2017. He also co-found­ed Athena Tech­nolo­gies in 1998 when it was spun out of Auro­ra. Athena spe­cialised in advanced flight con­trol solu­tions and was acquired by Rock­well Collins in 2008.

Lang­ford joined the AIAA in 1977 as a stu­dent at the Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy (MIT), and served as its Pres­i­dent from 2018 to 2020. He was elect­ed as an Asso­ciate Fel­low in 2002 and a Fel­low in 2012, and has pre­vi­ous­ly been hon­oured with the AIAA Young Engi­neer of the Year Award, the Gold­wa­ter and Reed Aero­nau­tics Awards. 

Lang­ford is a also Mem­ber of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Engi­neer­ing and holds a doc­tor­al degree from the MIT Depart­ment of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics.  

The hon­our will be pre­sent­ed at the AIAA’s Awards Gala to be held on Wednes­day, May 15th, 2024 at the John F. Kennedy Cen­ter for Per­form­ing Arts, in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

Back­ground

The AIAA is the largest aero­space pro­fes­sion­al soci­ety in the world, serv­ing a diverse range of more than 35,000 indi­vid­ual mem­bers from 80 coun­tries and 100 cor­po­rate mem­bers. Mem­bers help make the world “safer, more con­nect­ed, more acces­si­ble and more pros­per­ous.”

Under the cre­do, “In Search of the Next Impos­si­ble Thing,” the organ­i­sa­tion exists “to ignite and cel­e­brate aero­space inge­nu­ity and col­lab­o­ra­tion… and a promise to be a life­long link for aero­space pro­fes­sion­als and a cham­pi­on for their achieve­ments.”

AIAA is hold­ing a major Avi­a­tion Forum and Expo­si­tion at Las Vegas this year between July 29th and August 2nd.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.electra.aero/

https://www.aiaa.org

(Top image: John S. Lang­ford — Cred­it: Elec­tra Aero)

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