Executive Profile: Mark Robert Henning, Managing Director, AutoFlight Europe

The next instal­ment of our Exec­u­tive Pro­files is now live! This time, we put the ques­tions to Mark Robert Hen­ning, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at Aut­oFlight Europe.

We start­ed these inter­views as an infor­mal way to get to know the industry’s thought lead­ers, inno­va­tors and influ­encers. Every­thing from their favourite bit of advice, book and hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion, to their top three chal­lenges for the mar­ket and the biggest devel­op­ment to hap­pen this year.

If you’re work­ing in the indus­try and would like to be fea­tured in these inter­views, we’d love to hear from you! Please email editorial@evtolinsights.com and one of the team will get back in touch.

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Favourite hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion?

The Alps (Aus­tria and north­ern Italy) offer breath­tak­ing scenery and end­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for out­door activ­i­ties, from ski­ing and snow­board­ing to hik­ing and moun­tain bik­ing. I love being sur­round­ed by nature and the fresh moun­tain air.

Favourite book or film?

That is a tough one. For films, the Lord of the Rings Tril­o­gy has always been a favorite of mine for its epic sto­ry, stun­ning visu­als, and unfor­get­table char­ac­ters. As for books, I have too many favourites to choose from, but Robert Har­ris’ Imperi­um stands out for its grip­ping plot and vivid depic­tion of ancient Rome.

Best bit of advice you’ve been giv­en?

Sei gelassen und rück­sichtsvoll, stark und entschlossen! (that was in Ger­man: be calm and con­sid­er­ate, strong and deter­mined!) This advice has helped me nav­i­gate dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions with a clear mind and a firm sense of pur­pose.

If you could invite three guests to din­ner, alive or dead, who would they be and why?

I would invite Hen­ry Kissinger for his insights into inter­na­tion­al diplo­ma­cy and his­to­ry, Chris­tine Lagarde for her lead­er­ship and exper­tise in finance and eco­nom­ics, and Peter Slo­ter­dijk for his philo­soph­i­cal per­spec­tive on the chal­lenges fac­ing soci­ety today.

Favourite car?

As a clas­sic car enthu­si­ast, I have a soft spot for the Ford Mus­tang con­vert­ible, par­tic­u­lar­ly the late 60s mod­el. It’s a time­less sym­bol of Amer­i­can mus­cle and style.

Describe Aut­oFlight in five words?

Agile, inno­va­tion-dri­ven, design-lead­ing, deter­mined, safe. These val­ues under­pin every­thing we do at Aut­oFlight and guide our pur­suit of excel­lence in the eVTOL indus­try.

What is Aut­oFlight’s vision for the eVTOL and UAM mar­ket?

Aut­oFlight aims to be one of the top three eVTOL OEMs, rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing urban air mobil­i­ty with safe, effi­cient, and sus­tain­able solu­tions that trans­form the way peo­ple trav­el and live.

How are devel­op­ments com­ing along?

Good! We are mak­ing progress on all fronts and are on track with our plan. The next excit­ing phase will be build­ing and fly­ing our con­form­ing pro­to­types. I am con­fi­dent that with our strong team and inno­v­a­tive con­cept, we will con­tin­ue to excel in this excit­ing field.

Proud­est moment at Aut­oFlight so far?

My proud­est moment at Aut­oFlight was when I was invit­ed to join the team. It’s an hon­our to work with such tal­ent­ed and ded­i­cat­ed indi­vid­u­als who are dri­ving the future of urban air mobil­i­ty. How­ev­er, more recent­ly, we achieved an incred­i­ble mile­stone that made me and the entire com­pa­ny incred­i­bly proud. Our full-scale demon­stra­tor air­craft set a new world record by fly­ing 250.3 km on a sin­gle charge, which has nev­er been achieved by any oth­er eVTOL com­pa­ny.

What does a typ­i­cal day look like for you?

My typ­i­cal day starts ear­ly, with calls in the morn­ing with col­leagues in Shang­hai to align our glob­al team. Through­out the day, I check off tasks, col­lab­o­rate with experts, and focus on key top­ics that require my atten­tion. I make time for a team lunch and fin­ish the day with calls to my US col­leagues. After din­ner with my fam­i­ly, I often head to the gym for a work­out.

Most inter­est­ing sto­ry about the indus­try that you’ve read?

One of the most inter­est­ing sto­ries I read recent­ly was about the use of blockchain tech­nol­o­gy in the avi­a­tion indus­try to improve safe­ty and effi­cien­cy in air traf­fic man­age­ment. By cre­at­ing a secure and decen­tralised sys­tem for stor­ing and shar­ing data, blockchain has the poten­tial to trans­form the way air­craft com­mu­ni­cate with ground con­trol and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Top three chal­lenges for the indus­try?

The top three chal­lenges for the indus­try are set­ting up the ground infra­struc­ture for advanced air mobil­i­ty, scal­ing the ATM solu­tion in urban areas, and enabling 24/7 oper­a­tions in all weath­er con­di­tions. These chal­lenges require sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in tech­nol­o­gy, infra­struc­ture, and train­ing.

How­ev­er, the poten­tial ben­e­fits of eVTOLs are enor­mous, includ­ing reduced traf­fic con­ges­tion, improved air qual­i­ty, and enhanced mobil­i­ty for peo­ple and goods. At Aut­oFlight, we are com­mit­ted to work­ing with our part­ners and stake­hold­ers to over­come these chal­lenges and help real­ize the vision of a safe, sus­tain­able, and effi­cient urban air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem.

Where do you think the indus­try will be in the next five years?

Over the next five years, we can expect sig­nif­i­cant growth and progress in the eVTOL indus­try. The first good eVTOL com­pa­nies will achieve cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with rel­e­vant avi­a­tion author­i­ties such as FAA and EASA. This will pave the way for the deploy­ment of com­mer­cial oper­a­tions, which will bring eVTOLs to life and trans­form the way peo­ple trav­el and live.

We will see the first oper­a­tions in inno­v­a­tive cities and coun­tries that have devel­oped the ground infra­struc­ture to sup­port advanced air mobil­i­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, eVTOL OEMs will start to con­sol­i­date, with only the strongest and most inno­v­a­tive play­ers remain­ing com­mer­cial­ly viable. By 2028, I expect to see ten or more eVTOL OEMs oper­at­ing com­mer­cial­ly with thou­sands of eVTOLs in ser­vice around the world. Over­all, it’s an excit­ing time to be part of the eVTOL indus­try, and we look for­ward to dri­ving progress and inno­va­tion in the years to come.

How can peo­ple get in con­tact with Aut­oFlight?

At Aut­oFlight, we wel­come all inquiries and feed­back. You can reach out to us through any media, whether it be email, phone, social media, or our web­site. How­ev­er, we believe that the best way to con­nect with us is through a good old-fash­ioned phone call.

Biggest indus­try devel­op­ment you think will hap­pen this year?

It’s hard to pre­dict the biggest indus­try devel­op­ment of the year, but there are sev­er­al excit­ing areas to watch. In renew­able ener­gy, we may see sig­nif­i­cant advances in stor­age sys­tems that allow for more effi­cient and sus­tain­able ener­gy use.

In AI and robot­ics, there may be break­throughs in autonomous nav­i­ga­tion and safe­ty sys­tems that could ben­e­fit the eVTOL indus­try. And in med­i­cine, we may see the indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion of gene edit­ing tech­nolo­gies that have the poten­tial to trans­form health­care. Regard­less of the specifics, we are excit­ed to be part of an indus­try that is con­stant­ly push­ing the bound­aries of what is pos­si­ble.