Acting FAA Chief Expected to join Archer Aviation

Act­ing Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) Chief, Bil­ly Nolen, is expect­ed to take a posi­tion with eVTOL Com­pa­ny, Archer Avi­a­tion, after leav­ing the Agency, sources told reuters.com last week. While Archer declined to com­ment, the FAA stat­ed, ”Bil­ly Nolen is depart­ing the FAA in the com­ing weeks and is con­tin­u­ing to ensure a smooth tran­si­tion at the agency.”

If this rumour is true, then Cal­i­for­nia-based Archer has put itself in a strong posi­tion for a smooth path towards full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, giv­en the amount of expe­ri­ence Nolen has gained since being act­ing lead.

On April 21st, Nolen said he aimed to depart the agency this sum­mer after the White House nom­i­nates a new admin­is­tra­tor. In March, Den­ver Inter­na­tion­al Air­port CEO, Phil Wash­ing­ton, with­drew his nom­i­na­tion to serve as FAA Chief after Repub­li­can crit­i­cism.

Nolen’s depar­ture email said, “We will see eVTOLs cer­ti­fied in just a few years, instead of decades…. Not since the dawn of the jet age have we seen so many advances and changes in aero­space.”

Act­ing FAA Admin­is­tra­tor Bil­ly Nolen deliv­ers key updates in speech at last week’s AUVSI Xpo­nen­tial

It is not clear who will serve as act­ing FAA admin­is­tra­tor once Nolen leaves, but sources say the Biden admin­is­tra­tion is con­sid­er­ing Katie Thom­son, the agen­cy’s cur­rent Chief of Staff.

There are also hopes from some with­in the eVTOL indus­try that Mike Whitak­er, the COO of Super­nal, who served as FAA Deputy Admin­is­tra­tor and Chief Nextgen Offi­cer under the Barack Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, and helped mod­ernise the country’s air traf­fic con­trol sys­tem, is a poten­tial can­di­date. Whitak­er also brings close to two decades of expe­ri­ence as a lawyer and exec­u­tive in the air­line indus­try.

Archer com­ment­ed ear­li­er this month it had com­plet­ed final assem­bly of its first ‘Mid­night’ eVTOL air­craft. The Mid­night can car­ry four pas­sen­gers and a pilot and has a range of up to 100 miles. Back in Jan­u­ary, Archer said car­mak­er Stel­lan­tis is to assist build Archer’s elec­tric air­craft that will be man­u­fac­tured in Cov­ing­ton, Geor­gia, start­ing in 2024, with a pro­duc­tion tar­get of 2,300 air­craft annu­al­ly.

Archer is con­duct­ing a series of ground tests lead­ing up to its planned first flight this sum­mer with a goal of enter­ing into ser­vice dur­ing 2025.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.archer.com

(News Source: https://www.reuters.com)

(Image: Archer Avi­a­tion)