Vertical Aerospace Appoints Clyde Woltman to Board of Directors

Ver­ti­cal Aero­space has appoint­ed Clyde Wolt­man, for­mer CEO of Leonar­do Heli­copters US and a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, to its Board of Direc­tors as the com­pa­ny advances devel­op­ment and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its Valo eVTOL air­craft.

Wolt­man joins the board with expe­ri­ence across com­mer­cial aero­space, defence and gov­ern­ment pro­grammes. At Leonar­do Heli­copters US, he led a busi­ness val­ued at around $1 bil­lion, with respon­si­bil­i­ty span­ning sales, engi­neer­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, pro­duc­tion, cus­tomer sup­port and research and devel­op­ment across the Amer­i­c­as.

Before join­ing Leonar­do, Wolt­man held senior posi­tions at Aero­jet Rock­et­dyne, now part of L3Harris Tech­nolo­gies, and Pratt & Whit­ney. His work includ­ed advanced defence and aero­space pro­grammes, includ­ing the F135 propul­sion sys­tem for the F‑35 Joint Strike Fight­er.

Wolt­man also served as a U.S. Marine Corps offi­cer, retir­ing as a colonel. His mil­i­tary career includ­ed lead­er­ship roles in avi­a­tion, oper­a­tions and pro­gramme deliv­ery, includ­ing com­mand posi­tions dur­ing com­bat oper­a­tions.

Ver­ti­cal said the appoint­ment is intend­ed to add fur­ther U.S. defence, gov­ern­ment and aero­space expe­ri­ence to its board as it devel­ops its com­mer­cial and gov­ern­ment appli­ca­tions. The com­pa­ny is pur­su­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of its Valo air­craft while also explor­ing hybrid-elec­tric, autonomous and defence appli­ca­tions for its tech­nol­o­gy.

The appoint­ment fol­lows the recent selec­tion of Fab­rice Brégi­er, for­mer CEO of Air­bus Com­mer­cial Air­craft, as Chair of Vertical’s Board.

At the same time, Ver­ti­cal announced that Carsten Sten­de­vad and James Kei­th Brown will step down as direc­tors, with both res­ig­na­tions tak­ing effect on Octo­ber 5. The com­pa­ny thanked both direc­tors for their ser­vice.

Ver­ti­cal is cur­rent­ly work­ing towards cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Valo, with the pro­gramme mov­ing through air­craft devel­op­ment, test­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing prepa­ra­tions. The com­pa­ny has pre­vi­ous­ly said it is tar­get­ing UK Civ­il Avi­a­tion Author­i­ty Type Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2029, with the first cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-con­form­ing air­craft expect­ed to be assem­bled in 2027.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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