Archer and United Airlines Form Joint eVTOL Advisory Committee
Archer Aviation Inc. and United Airlines have created a joint eVTOL advisory committee. The committee is focused on advising on maintenance and operational concepts to recommend to Archer for its all-electric aircraft aimed at driving towards best-in-class operational standards in the emerging eVTOL industry.
The committee is chaired by Archer Vice President of Engineering Dave Dennison and Mauricio Angel, United’s managing director, United Express TechOps Strategy and Operations. The following members of Archer and United round out the initial makeup of the committee:
- Jason Onorati, United's Director of Maintenance Programs
- Robert Bernard, United’s Sr. Manager Maintenance Programs
- Brian Johnson, United’s Director of Materials
- Monal Merchant, United’s Sr. Manager UAX Engines and Engineering
- Edward Espiritu, United’s Sr. Manager United Airlines Ventures
- Adam Goldstein, Archer’s CEO
- Tom Muniz, Archer’s COO
- Armando Chieffi, Archer’s Maintainability Lead
Each of the committee chairs bring proven experience in aviation operations to the group. The other committee members bring complementary skills in the areas of maintenance, customer satisfaction and fleet management.
“The formation of this advisory committee further demonstrates Archer’s commitment to building advanced infrastructure to support UAM at scale,” said Adam Goldstein, CEO of Archer. “The committee is set up to leverage United’s experience with industry-leading operating strategies in commercial aviation, a key tenet of our business strategy. We understand that the adoption of UAM is about more than just the certification of our aircraft. United’s operational experience here will be invaluable as we work towards delivering aerial ridesharing at scale.”
Over the long-term, Archer's goal is to work with United to create UAM fleet support leveraging logistics concepts and networks already in use thereby creating operational efficiencies.
“At United, we’re proud to be expanding our collaboration with Archer with an advisory committee designed to focus on key operational strategies and electric aircraft performance needed to achieve our shared goal of sustainable urban air mobility, while addressing the scale and sophistication needed to operate successfully, and most importantly, delivering the high-quality user experience our customers require,” said Michael Leskinen, President of United Airlines Ventures. “Assembling this group of industry-leading talent, and harnessing the valuable insights it yields, will be a vital step in enabling consumer adoption of eVTOL.”
