Head of Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobility Division appointed to FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee

Dr Jai­won Shin, Vice Pres­i­dent and Head of Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Divi­sion, has been appoint­ed to the FAA’s Drone Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee — which will help cre­ate a strat­e­gy for the safe inte­gra­tion of Unmanned Air­craft Sys­tems (UAS) into the USA’s nation­al air­space.

The announce­ment of 11 new mem­bers was made by U.S. Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Elaine Chao on Tues­day, all of whom are exec­u­tives rep­re­sent­ing a vari­ety of UAS inter­ests, includ­ing acad­e­mia, indus­try, retail, research, tech­nol­o­gy and state and local gov­ern­ment.

Hyundai is pro­gress­ing well with its own urban air mobil­i­ty plans, and has already estab­lished part­ner­ships to help accel­er­ate test flights in Korea, by work­ing with Incheon Inter­na­tion­al Air­port Corp. (IIAC), Hyundai Engi­neer­ing & Con­struc­tion and KT Corp.

Hyundai unveiled its inno­v­a­tive vision for urban mobil­i­ty – the SA‑1 air taxi con­cept – at CES 2020, which can car­ry up to four pas­sen­gers and fly on trips up to 60 miles (100km).

The Drone Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee (DAC) is a broad-based, long-term fed­er­al advi­so­ry com­mit­tee that pro­vides the FAA advice on key UAS inte­gra­tion issues, by help­ing to iden­ti­fy chal­lenges and pri­ori­tise improve­ments.

It is char­tered to have up to 35 mem­bers, with the lat­est mem­bers serv­ing a two-year term and join­ing DAC Chair­man Michael Chasen, Chair­man of the Advi­so­ry Board for Pre­ci­sion­Hawk USA.

“The Drone Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee is key to help­ing the FAA keep pace with inno­va­tion while pro­tect­ing safe­ty”, Chao said.

As well as Dr. Shin, new mem­bers also include Sele­ta Reynolds, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er in the Los Ange­les Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion. The city has pushed for­ward with its own urban air mobil­i­ty plans, by con­duct­ing a year-long part­ner­ship which will engage and edu­cate res­i­dents on the space. Los Ange­les is also a launch city for Uber’s ride-shar­ing aer­i­al plat­form, which is set to launch in 2023.

FAA Admin­is­tra­tor Steve Dick­son, said: “As the UAS indus­try con­tin­ues to evolve, it is impor­tant to have DAC mem­bers who mir­ror the many facets of this fast-grow­ing indus­try. We know the mem­bers will help the FAA ensure the high­est lev­el of safe­ty while keep­ing pace with the new and inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy for UAS.”

The full list of new mem­bers are:

Sele­ta Reynolds, Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, Los Ange­les Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion

Dr. Paul Hsu, Founder and Chair, HSU Foun­da­tion

Matt Park­er, Pres­i­dent, Pre­ci­sion Inte­grat­ed Pro­grams

Mol­ly Wilkin­son, Vice Pres­i­dent, Reg­u­la­to­ry Affairs, Amer­i­can Air­lines

Brad Hay­den, Founder and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Robot­ic Skies

David Car­bon, Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, Ama­zon Prime Air

Adam Bry, Co-founder and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Sky­dio

Ken­ji Sug­a­hara, Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Drone Ser­vice Providers Alliance

Bran­don Tor­res Declet, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Co-Founder, MEASURE

Dr. Jai­won Shin, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent, Head of UAM Divi­sion and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Gen­e­sis Air Mobil­i­ty

Dr. Cather­ine Cahill, Direc­tor, Alas­ka Cen­ter for Unmanned Air­craft Sys­tems Inte­gra­tion

Vic Moss, Own­er, Moss Pho­tog­ra­phy

For more infor­ma­tion on the Drone Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee, click here.