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Whisper Aero opens its doors and showcases its tech at company’s first Supplier Summit

More than 50 com­pa­nies joined Whis­per Aero for its first Sup­pli­er Sum­mit today (Thurs­day).

Tak­ing place at its HQ in Crossville, Ten­nessee, the one-day event was designed to give those attend­ing an exclu­sive oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet the Whis­per team, con­nect with engi­neers work­ing to achieve ultra-qui­et, ultra-effi­cient propul­sion, and receive its new Sup­pli­er Hand­book.

Com­pa­nies spe­cial­is­ing in bat­ter­ies, motors, pow­er elec­tron­ics, metallics, com­pos­ites and engi­neer­ing poly­mers were present.

Patrick Brew, who is part of the Whis­per Aero team organ­is­ing the Sup­pli­er Sum­mit, said: “This event is about find­ing bet­ter ways to con­nect with our sup­ply base, both exist­ing and new sup­pli­ers.”

“Our main moti­va­tions are that we want to get to know them bet­ter, explain where the com­pa­ny is head­ing, what we’re work­ing on and what part­ners we need to enable those things, and then com­mu­ni­cate how these com­pa­nies can best work with Whis­per.”

He added: “Over the course of 2023 and first half of 2024, we prob­a­bly had more than 100 sup­pli­er reach outs. We fig­ured that instead of spend­ing just 30 min­utes with them, let’s invite every­one to come to our facil­i­ty, see the tech in per­son and have a day ded­i­cat­ed to meet­ing us. And because we have the con­trol of being in at our own site, we can share more infor­ma­tion than we’d oth­er­wise be able to share via Zoom or over a phone call.

“We’re sourc­ing these sup­pli­ers to address all the mar­kets that we’re in. We have those which are aim­ing towards DOD, some which are aero­space and then we have some which are part of our con­sumer path­way prod­ucts. We have spread the gamut from real­ly expe­ri­enced aero­space qual­i­ty sup­pli­ers, all the way to folks who are opti­mized around the afford­abil­i­ty pipeline. We’re excit­ed about all of the efforts that we have going on.”

For those com­pa­nies which were unable to sub­mit an appli­ca­tion in time, Whis­per plans to make the Sup­pli­er Sum­mit an annu­al event. Ian Vil­la, Co-founder and Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer at Whis­per Aero, added that com­pa­nies can still reach out for a sup­pli­er hand­book once the event is over.

He said: “The details may shift over time, but we’ll learn a lot from the first event and it will also open the door to a lot of sup­pli­ers we haven’t talked to in the past. The next event might be more pri­vate, but we’re going to play it by ear and make sure to do what’s best to build the best prod­ucts out there.

“What makes it real­ly excit­ing is that amongst the folks that we’re bring­ing in house, it’s a mix of both big play­ers and small play­ers. And it just comes back down to how strate­gic we can be, and how we can ensure that we build the best pos­si­ble prod­uct.

“And some­times that means you’ve got to be a big play­er, and you car­ry a big stick and you have a lot of resources to bear. Oth­er times, though, it’s a small team like our­selves and they just get it. They’re able to work at the same pace, with the same sort of mind­set that we have. It’s going to be amaz­ing to see the vari­ety of folks in the room and it will hope­ful­ly be empow­er­ing.”

You can keep up to date about Whis­per Aero’s progress by vis­it­ing its web­site https://www.whisper.aero/. For more updates about its Sup­pli­er Sum­mit on the day, you can fol­low its pro­file on X and LinkedIn.

All pic­tures are cour­tesy of Whis­per Aero.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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