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Brian Klinka joins Whisper Aero as Board and Strategic Advisor

Whis­per Aero has announced the appoint­ment of Bri­an Klin­ka as a Board and Strate­gic Advi­sor, who will be focused on the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its propul­sion prod­ucts.

Klin­ka brings 35 years of expe­ri­ence in design, devel­op­ment, sys­tems and air­craft inte­gra­tion, test, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and the man­age­ment of advanced tech­nol­o­gy pro­grams across both com­mer­cial avi­a­tion and mil­i­tary aero­space sec­tors.

Early career

In the ear­ly days of elec­tric flight, he led key ini­tia­tives in Urban Air Mobil­i­ty, All-Elec­tric Air­craft, and Unmanned Air­craft Sys­tems, devel­op­ing new poli­cies and guid­ance for nov­el vehi­cles fea­tur­ing com­plex propul­sion and ener­gy stor­age sys­tems.

At the FAA, he led the Cen­ter for Emerg­ing Con­cepts and Inno­va­tion devel­op­ing reg­u­la­tions for UAS, Elec­tric Propul­sion and eVTOL air­craft.

After­wards, as a mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Lead­er­ship team at BETA Tech­nolo­gies, Bri­an estab­lished the dis­ci­pline of sys­tems engi­neer­ing, led the Type Design and Pro­duc­tion Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, devel­oped the cul­ture of Safe­ty, and advised the com­pa­ny on a path to mar­ket through the strin­gent reg­u­la­to­ry land­scape.

Klin­ka said: “Mark, Ian, and the team have devel­oped break­through tech­nolo­gies that will enable game-chang­ing elec­tric propul­sion for the next gen­er­a­tion of region­al and trans­port air­craft appli­ca­tions, far exceed­ing the tech­nol­o­gy advances that oth­er air­craft OEMs are plan­ning to offer the mar­ket.

“The Whis­per approach to design and man­u­fac­tur­ing lever­ages sim­plic­i­ty, pro­vid­ing a more stream­lined path through FAA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and into pro­duc­tion. I’m look­ing for­ward to sup­port­ing the team as they take the busi­ness from the world of R&D to pro­duc­tion of elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems for com­mer­cial and mil­i­tary appli­ca­tions.”

First contributions

Whis­per Aero — based in Crossville, Ten­nessee — is prepar­ing to launch its first com­mer­cial appli­ca­tions next year, while advanc­ing avi­a­tion efforts through fed­er­al­ly fund­ed R&D projects and emerg­ing AAM mar­kets.

Klinka’s first con­tri­bu­tions to the team will be focused on Whisper’s eQ250, look­ing at how this 80 lbf propul­sor and its pro­duc­tion can meet mil­i­tary air­wor­thi­ness on a path towards future FAA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

His sup­port will also be instru­men­tal as the team builds toward inte­gra­tion of these propul­sion sys­tems on manned air­craft as the pre­mier provider of ultra-qui­et, ultra-effi­cient elec­tric propul­sion solu­tions. Ear­li­er this year, Whis­per unveiled details about its 100-seat jet­lin­er con­cept at the Ohio Air Mobil­i­ty Sym­po­sium.

Mark Moore, CEO of Whis­per Aero, added: “Bri­an has a unique com­bi­na­tion of strate­gic insight and deep tech­ni­cal knowl­edge when it comes to propul­sion cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and inte­gra­tion com­plex­i­ties.

“His insights and team build­ing nature have inspired me for the past 20 years while I was at NASA, and he was at the FAA. I can’t think of a more qual­i­fied indi­vid­ual to help Whis­per Aero move elec­tric avi­a­tion from its Mod­el T era into the main­stream.”

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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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