September 18, 2022
In February 2022, the CEO Omer Bar-Yochai and the chairman Roi Gantsarski retired. The incoming CEO, Gregory Davis, served as director of aircraft manufacturing plants at Viking Air and Canadair. Received a letter of intent to purchase 75 electric passenger planes
Aviation Company (Eviation Aircraft(which is owned by the New Zealand investment company Claremont Group)Clermont Group), appointed the company’s president, Gregory Davis, also to the position of permanent CEO. Since February 2022, Davis has served as the company’s interim CEO, following the departure of CEO and co-founder Omer Bar-Yohai, who spearheaded the idea to develop an electric regional airliner. At the same time as Davis took office, last week the company received permission from the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to conduct test flights in the company’s first model, the Alice plane, which is powered by three electric motors.
The plane is designed for the regional and short-haul market, especially for transporting employees (commuters). It can carry up to 9 passengers for a distance of up to 1,000 km at a speed of about 450 km/h. The approval opens the possibility for the company to move to full production at the production facility it established in Arizona. To date, the company has received letters of intent from customers to purchase more than 100 aircraft, mainly in the USA. In April 2022, Cape Air from Massachusetts announced its desire to purchase 75 aircraft, and last week the company reported receiving another letter of intent from the airline GlobalX of Miami, which is interested in purchasing 50 electric airplanes of the Alice model.
The aviation company was established in 2015 by Omer Bar Yochai and the chairman and the first central investor Aviv Zidon, former founder of BVR Systems, which was sold to Elbit in 2009 for approximately $34 million. They were joined as a major investor by Michael Ilan, the former owner of Israel Lift Elevator Company. The company raised about 200 million dollars, but in September 2019 it lost its independence and became a subsidiary owned by the Claremont Group, following the realization of a 76 million dollar convertible loan for shares, which it received from it in early 2019. Today it operates from offices at Arlington Airport near Seattle and in Moshav Kadima Next to Netanya.
The model: Elon Musk and Henry Ford
It is worth noting that the chairman and founder of the Clermont Group, Richard Chandler, regards the investment in aviation as part of a vision in which the group leads business revolutions in the world through a far-reaching technological vision. In a letter he sent to investors in February 2022, he compares the investment in the company to the revolutionary vision of Elon Musk and Henry Ford. As part of the revolutionary move that the group is leading to produce an electric aviation market, it also owns the Seattle-based magniX company, which manufactures electric aviation engines, and serves as the aviation engine supplier. In the past it was managed by the Israeli Roy Ganzersky, who until recently also served as Aviation Chairman.
In February 2022, when Bar Yochai retired from Aviation, Ganzersky simultaneously retired from both Aviation and Magnix, and moved to the position of CEO of Washington-based Alitheon, which develops technology to prevent counterfeiting of products and components. The new CEO, Gregory Davis, came to the company in May 2021 for the position of president. The company’s goal is to start full-scale commercial production in 2024, and his background is suitable for a company that is transitioning from the development stages to production: he is an amateur pilot and has a master’s degree in aircraft engineering and held senior positions in the production lines. Among other things, he served as the director of production engineering and aircraft manufacturing plants at the Canadian company Viking Air, which manufactures very robust aircraft for transportation and cargo in remote areas (formerly De Havilland Canada). In addition, he led the support team in the production of heavy aircraft manufactured by Canadair, which are also used as firefighting and transport aircraft.
Posted in categories: people, news, appointments, aviation and security
Posted in tags: Eviation, Aviation
