Archer brings in additional expertise with hiring of Chief Flight Test Pilot and VP of Engineering

Archer has made two key appoint­ments as it con­tin­ues to increase its work­force and push on with the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion roadmap of its eVTOL air­craft, which is set to be oper­a­tional by 2024.

The com­pa­ny hired 20 engi­neers from Aeri­on Super­son­ic last month and has now recruit­ed vet­er­an pilot Jeff Green­wood as its Chief Flight Test Pilot. He will be tasked with devel­op­ing the com­mand cen­tre of the air­craft, set­ting the test flight time­line and lead­ing test flights — ahead of Archer’s plan to start this process by Q4 2021.

While Dave Den­ni­son has joined Archer as its Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing. As an expe­ri­enced engi­neer and air­craft pro­duc­tion line man­ag­er, he brings near­ly two decades of engi­neer­ing new prod­uct devel­op­ment pro­grams, with expe­ri­ence span­ning rotor­craft and fixed wing air­craft, pro­to­type air­craft, air­craft struc­tures research and devel­op­ment, and man­ag­ing air­craft pro­duc­tion lines.

“At Archer, we’re con­stant­ly look­ing for the best and bright­est indus­try tal­ent to advance our design and take us through the prop­er chan­nels for reg­u­la­tion and flight test­ing,” said Brett Adcock, Archer co-founder and co-CEO. “With the addi­tion of indus­try vet­er­ans like Jeff and Dave, we’re con­tin­u­ing our work to meet the high­est safe­ty and pro­duc­tion stan­dards to realise this goal.”

“It’s crit­i­cal that our lead­er­ship team pos­sess­es a dynam­ic mix of expe­ri­ence, skill, and vision to nav­i­gate the eVTOL cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process,” added Adam Gold­stein, Archer co-founder and co-CEO. “Jeff and Dave epit­o­mise Archer’s unique approach of bring­ing pilots and engi­neers togeth­er to devel­op our eVTOL air­craft, and the col­lec­tive val­ue of their expe­ri­ences will be key to unlock­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of safe, acces­si­ble trans­porta­tion.”

As Archer pre­pares for flight test­ing, Green­wood will focus on cock­pit design, includ­ing ven­dor selec­tion for the dis­play and oth­er cock­pit equip­ment. While test pilots are tra­di­tion­al­ly intro­duced after the cock­pit has been devel­oped, Archer felt Greenwood’s involve­ment in this process was the most log­i­cal and effi­cient way to devel­op a high-qual­i­ty air­craft giv­en his exten­sive flight expe­ri­ence.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, he served as a test pilot for Bell, where he helped devel­op, test, and cer­ti­fy lead­ing indus­try rotor­craft. Green­wood also served as a pilot in the Unit­ed States Marine Corps. Dur­ing his tenure, he devel­oped his pas­sion for test pilot­ing and was a grad­u­ate of the Unit­ed States Naval Test Pilot School.

Com­ment­ing on his new role, Green­wood said: “eVTOL is redefin­ing trans­porta­tion and reshap­ing how peo­ple move in and around the world’s biggest cities. I’m thrilled to be a part of the future of sus­tain­able trav­el and the most inno­v­a­tive work the avi­a­tion indus­try has seen in decades. Archer is lead­ing the fourth trans­porta­tion rev­o­lu­tion and I can’t wait to con­tribute to the next phase of design and test flights.”

Den­ni­son pre­vi­ous­ly served as the Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing at Tri­umph Aero­space Struc­tures, where he helped cre­ate inno­v­a­tive new ther­mo­plas­tic struc­tures tech­nolo­gies and led cer­ti­fi­ca­tion activ­i­ties for the Bom­bardier Glob­al 7500 and Embraer E2 pro­grams.

Pri­or to his time at Tri­umph Aero­space, he man­aged the 525-pro­duc­tion line at Bell Heli­copter Tex­tron Inc., hold­ing var­i­ous engi­neer­ing and design lead­er­ship posi­tions for the devel­op­ment of com­mer­cial and mil­i­tary rotor­craft pro­grams.

In his role at Archer, Den­ni­son will apply his robust engi­neer­ing exper­tise to its pro­duc­tion air­craft, which will ush­er in a new gen­er­a­tion of safe and sus­tain­able trav­el. Upon join­ing the com­pa­ny ear­li­er this year, Den­ni­son over­saw the exe­cu­tion of the tech­ni­cal activ­i­ties in the devel­op­ment of its Mak­er air­craft.

The two-seat demon­stra­tor air­craft made its debut in Los Ange­les last month and offered audi­ence mem­bers and livestream view­ers the chance to expe­ri­ence an XR pro­jec­tion tech­nol­o­gy-enhanced ride.

Den­ni­son said: “Trans­lat­ing a bold vision into a real, effec­tive prod­uct that fol­lows through on that vision’s promise requires a team with a diver­si­ty of expe­ri­ences, a will­ing­ness to lis­ten, and a col­lec­tive dri­ve to progress toward its goals.

“Archer is poised to trans­form the future of trans­porta­tion, and I’m excit­ed to be a part of a team that’s pio­neer­ing a new gen­er­a­tion of effi­cient and envi­ron­men­tal­ly-respon­si­ble elec­tric air­craft.”

Green­wood and Den­ni­son join Archer’s lead­er­ship team dur­ing a year of sus­tained momen­tum for the com­pa­ny. This year has already seen two city part­ner­ships in Los Ange­les and Mia­mi and a defin­i­tive agree­ment with Unit­ed Air­lines for $1 bil­lion of Archer’s air­craft, with an option for an addi­tion­al $500 mil­lion of air­craft.

Archer remains on track to com­plete a merg­er with Atlas Crest Invest­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (NYSE: ACIC) that will unlock $1.1 bil­lion to fund Archer’s grow­ing team and plans for flight test­ing and an R&D facil­i­ty.