Connecting Appalachia: Laurie McKnight of Ohio University on How Electric Aviation Could Unlock Rural Opportunity

In this episode of the eVTOL Insights Pod­cast, Jason Pritchard speaks with Lau­rie McK­night, Senior Research Man­ag­er at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Lead­er­ship and Pub­lic Ser­vice, about bring­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty to rur­al com­mu­ni­ties.

Draw­ing on research cov­er­ing 37 air­ports across 36 coun­ties in Ohio, Ken­tucky and North Car­oli­na, McK­night explores how elec­tric avi­a­tion could improve con­nec­tiv­i­ty, sup­port local busi­ness­es and strength­en emer­gency response across Appalachia.

She explains why com­mu­ni­ty pri­or­i­ties must shape devel­op­ment, high­light­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties rang­ing from med­ical deliv­er­ies and dis­as­ter relief to tourism and pilot train­ing.

The con­ver­sa­tion also exam­ines the infra­struc­ture gaps hold­ing small­er air­ports back, par­tic­u­lar­ly inad­e­quate elec­tri­cal capac­i­ty, along­side the need for invest­ment in work­force devel­op­ment and pub­lic aware­ness.

McK­night out­lines ambi­tions for fur­ther research into elec­tric air­craft train­ing and its poten­tial cost sav­ings, shar­ing how the project’s find­ings could help rur­al com­mu­ni­ties world­wide pre­pare for aviation’s next chap­ter and cap­ture its eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits.

Click on the Play but­ton below to lis­ten to the episode, which is also avail­able on whichev­er pod­cast plat­form you use.