“Bob Tanner to Lead ODOT AAM Division”

The Ohio Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (ODOT) recent­ly announced that Bob Tan­ner will lead its new­ly cre­at­ed Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) divi­sion to inte­grate pro­gres­sive avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies with advanced trans­porta­tion on the ground, reports a press release.

Select­ed by ODOT Direc­tor, Pam Boratyn, Tan­ner brings over 30 years of exper­tise in trans­porta­tion law and pol­i­cy at fed­er­al, state and local lev­els. 

The release explains, “In his most recent role at a tech­nol­o­gy research firm, Tan­ner led inno­va­tion engage­ment strate­gies with­in the aero­space and avi­a­tion sec­tors, work­ing to help state and local gov­ern­ments align with fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions to plan for the safe inte­gra­tion of AAM into Nation­al Air Space.”

He is also a licensed attor­ney in Ohio and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the avi­a­tion sec­tor, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it relates to pub­lic pol­i­cy.

Boratyn com­ment­ed, ”Our state boasts a robust advanced air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem of com­mer­cial indus­try, acad­e­mia, research, and mil­i­tary assets, which is com­ple­ment­ed by a strong lead­er­ship struc­ture to dri­ve long-term inno­va­tion. This addi­tion sig­nals Ohio’s com­mit­ment to remain­ing on the lead­ing edge of avi­a­tion.”

“AAMI Choose NAAMCE and Spring­field-Beck­ley Air­port as Host for Pulitzer Elec­tric Air­craft Race”

ODOT’s AAM Divi­sion will be co-locat­ed at the Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Cen­tre of Excel­lence (NAAMCE) in Spring­field with ODOT’s Uncrewed Air­craft Sys­tems (UAS) Cen­tre. While UAS oper­a­tions include drones and oth­er autonomous sys­tems deployed for data col­lec­tion, the pri­ma­ry pur­pose of AAM is the trans­port of peo­ple and car­go, whether crewed or uncrewed.

Ohio Gov­er­nor, Mike DeWine, has pro­posed the cre­ation and adop­tion of a statewide AAM Strat­e­gy that will cement such tech­nolo­gies as a state pri­or­i­ty and pro­vide a vision for advanced air mobil­i­ty and uncrewed air­craft sys­tem tech­nolo­gies. In his new role, Tan­ner will spear­head imple­men­ta­tion of the state’s strat­e­gy, guide pol­i­cy, over­see infra­struc­ture invest­ment and con­tin­ue sup­port of advanced air­craft oper­a­tions.

ODOT is to col­lab­o­rate with the NAAMCE and Job­sO­hio, the state’s pri­vate-sec­tor eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment part­ner. Work­ing to lever­age the recent announce­ments of Joby and Anduril Indus­tries to locate avi­a­tion man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ties in Ohio, the state aims “to cre­ate a rip­ple effect” that max­imis­es pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic impact and job cre­ation. 

Togeth­er, Ohio’s AAM lead­er­ship team is posi­tioned to part­ner with pub­lic and pri­vate enti­ties; lever­age state and fed­er­al invest­ment; accel­er­ate research and devel­op­ment activ­i­ties; and max­imise pub­lic ben­e­fits.

“NAAMCE Hires Exec­u­tive Direc­tor to Lead Organ­i­sa­tion in Fast-Grow­ing Indus­try”

Ted Angel, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of NAAMCE, com­ment­ed “What we’ve cre­at­ed in Ohio is a one-of-a-kind envi­ron­ment for next-gen­er­a­tion research, design, val­i­da­tion, test­ing, and train­ing relat­ed to air­craft devel­op­ment that you can’t find any­where else in the nation.”

He con­tin­ued, “Emerg­ing avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy presents an enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve how peo­ple live their lives now and in the future, and Ohio is primed to lead the way.”

ODOT recent­ly high­light­ed Ohio’s capa­bil­i­ties in its response to the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion’s (FAA) request for infor­ma­tion on loca­tions to estab­lish the Cen­tre of Advanced Avi­a­tion Tech­nolo­gies (CAAT). This ini­tia­tive, man­dat­ed by the FAA Reau­tho­ri­sa­tion Act of 2024, awards USD140 mil­lion to devel­op a nation­al hub and demon­stra­tion zones for test­ing AAM and oth­er emerg­ing avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies.

Tan­ner remarked, “Co-locat­ing the FAA’s Cen­tre for Advanced Avi­a­tion Tech­nol­o­gy at the new­ly built NAAMCE facil­i­ty in Spring­field will con­tin­ue the momen­tum already under­way in Ohio. ODOT, along with the Air Force Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry, has devel­oped tech­nol­o­gy that uses active radars to enable safe oper­a­tion of uncrewed air­craft, so it makes sense to keep build­ing on the exper­tise and ini­tia­tives cur­rent­ly tak­ing place around the state.”

Ohio’s use cas­es range from small pack­age deliv­ery, includ­ing med­ical pack­ages, to larg­er car­go and pas­sen­ger trans­port, imple­ment­ed in phas­es. 

Piv­otal’s ‘Black­fly’ eVTOL Air­craft fly­ing dur­ing the Day­ton Devel­op­ment Coali­tion’s 2024 Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Indus­try Forum in Spring­field, Ohio (Cred­it: Piv­otal)

Four study zones across the state offer the oppor­tu­ni­ty to gath­er data from mul­ti­ple uses in var­i­ous set­tings and weath­er con­di­tions, set­ting Ohio apart from oth­er states.

As the nation’s largest aero­space sup­pli­er, Ohio has the third largest man­u­fac­tur­ing work­force in the U.S; world-class research insti­tu­tions; and dozens of high­er edu­ca­tion pro­grams lead­ing to aero­space careers, mak­ing it well-suit­ed to host the Cen­tre.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.transportation.ohio.gov

https://springfieldohio.gov/city_services/naamce/

(Top image: Bob Tan­ner)

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