HAV adds John H. Gibson II to its advisory board
Image courtesy HAV
Jay (above) brings an extraordinary wealth of experience to Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd (HAV). He has held a number of senior roles across various aerospace and government organisations, including as the United States Department of Defense’s first Chief Management Officer and also the Assistant Secretary of the US Air Force.
He has also held several other senior roles across diverse aerospace organisations. Jay’s time as Senior Vice President, Special Mission Aircraft for Beechcraft, with its well-known multimission King Air aircraft, is of particular relevance to Airlander’s multiple use cases in the global national security and commercial markets.
“It is an exciting time to join HAV’s advisory board,” commented Mr Gibson. “Commercialising a new aircraft type is an incredible and rare opportunity. Airlander’s multi-mission capability, its vastly larger combination of payload space and airborne endurance and other unique performance capabilities make it a compelling product in civil aviation and national security roles. I look forward to supporting Hybrid Air Vehicles fast scale up of its production and market presence during this important phase of the business.”
Tom Grundy, HAV’s CEO, said: “I’m so pleased to welcome Jay to the Airlander team. He brings immense experience, having established and fostered a successful multi-mission aircraft business, and provided leadership at the highest levels of the United States Department of Defense. Jay will be a great asset as we launch the Airlander 10 production programme and scale our business worldwide.”
Jay will sit alongside other senior advisors to HAV on a newly-created Advisory Board. Selected advisors will bring knowledge and experience of key market segments and other specialisms complementary to the in-house capabilities of the Airlander delivery team. The insights provided by the Advisory Board will help ensure that Airlander is delivered on-time and enters service in a safe and profitable manner with its growing customer base. Further appointments will be announced in the coming months.
Hybrid Air Vehicles is the company behind Airlander technology. Their first production aircraft, Airlander 10, will deliver up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared to other aircraft in its various roles, before attaining zero emissions by 2030.
The company’s vision is to be the future of zero-carbon aviation. It expects Airlander to be the first large scale aircraft (capable of carrying up to 100 passengers or 10 tonnes) to achieve zero emissions flight. The production standard aircraft is expected to be in flight from 2023 and in service in 2025. The Airlander family of aircraft serve customers in mobility, logistics, experiential travel and communications & surveillance.
