Another top-floor FAA exec has joined an eVTOL company and hopes to help shape the way the new aircraft are certified. Mike Romanowski left his post as the FAA certification director of policy and innovation to join Archer Aviation as its head of government affairs. Romanowski spent 14 years at the FAA and in the Obama Office of Science and Technology Policy. Archer has secured a $10 million deposit from United Airlines on a potential order of 200 eVTOLs.
“Michael’s appointment is key to collaborating on the regulatory framework that will help make [commercialization] possible,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement. Earlier this year, Xwing hired Earl Lawrence, the FAA’s former Executive Director of Certification, as its Chief Compliance and Quality Officer.
Isn’t it telling that former heads of an agency famous for working at the speed of a sloth are now sucking down a salary from investors duped into funding coal-powered flying flivvers?
Careful! My A&P students helped restore the Henry Ford Museum Flivver! Ford had a very “forward-looking” idea that was almost as preposterous as the dream of battery-powered flight. He even sold Lindbergh on his idea.
eVTOL may happen, but we have all seen where the drone scourge or driverless automobiles is taking us. It’s ENERGY DENSITY, People, energy density.
So say you. They hired him at an agreed upon salary and you are predicting the future of which we know not. Your bias negates your assertion
Come again?
I don’t understand how a senior FAA employee can leave the FAA and go directly into a “governmental affairs” position at a company seeking FAA regulatory approval for their business. When I retired from my low level FAA management position, I was told that I must observe a “cooling off period” in accordance with federal law before joining an aviation related business where my previous FAA connections might be viewed as a conflict of interest.
There really should be a Garden Leave for these people. 6 months to a year would be appropriate. They wonder why there are few people in the FAA that can oversee firms like Boeing? This is a prime example of why and why it should be stopped.