Vertical Flight Leader Believes Technology Will Transform Sector | Aviation International News

HAI Convention News 2023

Vertical Flight Leader Believes Technology Will Transform Sector

Vertical Flight Society executive director Mike Hirschberg has led the group's intent focus on new eVTOL aircraft and efforts to recruit new talent.

Vertical Flight Society executive director Mike Hirschberg. — Vertical Flight Society executive director Mike Hirschberg is preparing to take a new role with the group in mid-2023. (Image: Vertical Flight Society)

By Charles Alcock • Managing Editor

March 3, 2023

When you meet a true believer in the power of technology to transform an industry you care about, it’s hard not to get re-energized by their fervor and focus. Vertical Flight Society (VFS) executive director Mike Hirschberg is just such a believer, but his strong engineering background has helped him to soberly assess and support the transformation now underway in the sector as new eVTOL aircraft approach the market.

The VFS, which morphed from the American Helicopter Society in 2018, was one of the first professional bodies to see the potential for distributed electric propulsion and autonomous flight capability to support cleaner, quieter, and more cost-effective forms of vertical lift. “It was around 2013 that a number of our people started getting very excited about this and saw it as having a lot of potential, so we started a series of workshops around the theme of transformative vertical flight,” Hirschberg reflected.

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