“Odys Aviation Appoints Oliver Reinhardt as Head of Design”

Cal­i­forn­ian-based, Odys Avi­a­tion, a dual-use aero­space com­pa­ny build­ing hybrid VTOL) air­craft, recent­ly announced the appoint­ment of Oliv­er Rein­hardt as its new Head of Design Organ­i­sa­tion. 

The release states, “With over 30 years of expe­ri­ence across avi­a­tion and auto­mo­tive dis­ci­plines, Rein­hardt has built a career at the inter­sec­tion of air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, safe­ty and inno­v­a­tive design, most recent­ly serv­ing as the Chief Risk and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Offi­cer at Volo­copter.”

It con­tin­ues, “Reinhardt’s career spans nine air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion projects and exten­sive inter­na­tion­al val­i­da­tions, as well as the set­up of mul­ti­ple EASA-approved Design Organ­i­sa­tions. He has also led the imple­men­ta­tion of Safe­ty Man­age­ment Sys­tems (ICAO SMS) and Qual­i­ty Man­age­ment Sys­tems across mul­ti­ple sec­tors; expe­ri­ence that will be crit­i­cal as Odys moves towards pilot cus­tomer oper­a­tions in 2026.” 

Rein­hardt com­ment­ed, “I had sev­er­al oppor­tu­ni­ties to join oth­er com­pa­nies, but I chose Odys because of its clear roadmap, world-class team, and rapid go-to-mar­ket strat­e­gy. With its proven hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion tech­nol­o­gy, the com­pa­ny pro­vides a solu­tion that, in my view, the mar­ket is active­ly demand­ing.”

James Dor­ris, CEO of Odys Avi­a­tion, added, “Oliv­er brings a rare com­bi­na­tion of vision, tech­ni­cal exper­tise and reg­u­la­to­ry depth. His abil­i­ty to build cer­ti­fied design organ­i­sa­tions from the ground up, while main­tain­ing uncom­pro­mis­ing safe­ty and qual­i­ty stan­dards, is exact­ly what we need as we pre­pare for com­mer­cial oper­a­tions in 2026.”

Rein­hardt has also worked in the auto­mo­tive indus­try which adds anoth­er dimen­sion to his pro­file. He gained first-hand expe­ri­ence in scal­ing high-qual­i­ty pro­duc­tion, a cru­cial skill as Odys posi­tions its air­craft for wider deploy­ment and high­er man­u­fac­tur­ing rates.

Rein­hardt will be work­ing along­side Jonathan Stephens, the company’s Head of Air­wor­thi­ness and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. They will both be based in Odys Avi­a­tion’s Munich loca­tion, fur­ther strength­en­ing the company’s pres­ence in the EU.

Mean­while, Odys Avi­a­tion, launched in 2021, is near­ing com­ple­tion of its U.S‑based flight test­ing cam­paign ahead of mov­ing air­craft to Oman for deploy­ment in its ‘Oper­a­tional Launch Pro­gram’, with planned oper­a­tions begin­ning in Q1 2026. The com­pa­ny has over USD1.1 bil­lion in signed Let­ter of Intents (LOIs) to date.

For more infor­ma­tion

www.odysaviation.com

(Top image: Oliv­er Rein­hardt)

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