Former Opener CEO Ben Diachun joins Hyundai Motor Group’s UAM Division

Hyundai Motor Group has appoint­ed Ben Diachun as Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer of its Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) Divi­sion, who will help devel­op its strat­e­gy with the vision of bring­ing Hyundai’s eVTOL air­craft to mar­ket by 2028.

Diachun has two decades of engi­neer­ing and exec­u­tive lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence and most recent­ly served as CEO and Pres­i­dent of Open­er, the Cal­i­for­nia-based start­up which is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing its Black­fly VTOL air­craft. Addi­tion­al­ly, he was Pres­i­dent at Scaled Com­pos­ites, where he also held senior-lev­el tech­nol­o­gy roles.

Com­ment­ing on his new role, Diachun said: “I have been fas­ci­nat­ed by tech­nol­o­gy and air trav­el since I was a child and am thrilled to put my expe­ri­ence to work at the Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion.

“With an incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed team and the man­u­fac­tur­ing exper­tise of Hyundai Motor Group, we are well posi­tioned to trans­form the human trav­el expe­ri­ence. I am hon­oured to join this group and excit­ed for what we will accom­plish togeth­er.”

Diachun earned a mas­ter’s degree in aero­nau­tics and astro­nau­tics from Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty and a bach­e­lor’s degree in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing from Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty. He also serves on the Board of Direc­tors for the Exper­i­men­tal Air­craft Asso­ci­a­tion and is an indus­try advi­sor to Pur­due Uni­ver­si­ty’s School of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics.

Over the course of his career, Diachun helped devel­op 16 ground­break­ing aero­space vehi­cles, includ­ing Scaled Com­pos­ites’ Space­ShipOne. In his new role as Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer of the UAM Divi­sion, Diachun will lead its grow­ing R&D and engi­neer­ing oper­a­tion, as well as its tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions.

Hyundai worked with Uber Ele­vate on its SA‑1 air taxi con­cept and show­cased it at CES 2020. It will have a cruis­ing speed up to 180 miles per hour and trav­el dis­tances of 60 miles at alti­tudes of between 1,000–2,000ft.

The SA‑1 will be 100 per cent elec­tric, and dur­ing peak hours will require between five to sev­en min­utes for recharg­ing. Hyundai has said the air­craft will be pilot­ed ini­tial­ly, but plan over time to move it towards autonomous oper­a­tions. Once oper­a­tional, it will seat four pas­sen­gers on each trip.

Diachun will work close­ly with oth­er mem­bers of the Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion lead­er­ship team and report to Jai­won Shin, Pres­i­dent at Hyundai Motor Group and Head of the Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion.

Shin added: “We are excit­ed to wel­come Ben to Hyundai Motor Group as chief tech­nol­o­gy offi­cer of our Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion. His track record of build­ing ground­break­ing air­crafts as well as agile, col­lab­o­ra­tive and diverse teams is crit­i­cal to our mis­sion to devel­op the best and most inno­v­a­tive design for our UAM vehi­cle.”