Aero-TV’s Rex Alexander spoke with Jim Viola at Oshkosh 2024. Jim is the President of Vertical Aviation International, formerly known as the Helicopter Association International.
Jim described the re-branding of the organization, which was announced on the first night of Heli-Expo at Anaheim, coincidentally the last Heli-Expo there. The event saw 15,000 attendees from 87 countries over the 4-day Expo. Why was it held at Anaheim? Heli-Expo started 75 years ago at Anaheim.
Why the re-branding? Jim explained that the group wants to be inclusive of all vertical aircraft now being developed in the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) segment with eVTOLs, VTOLs, STOLs and the others. Jim says to the Jobys, the Archers, and all the other folks in that space that hey, “We are your association” and that the name reflects the inclusion of all vertical aircraft and the organization truly wants to represent all the vertical lift aircraft out there.
Jim is also excited and glad that they had the opportunity to change the name and rebrand with the new colors, and that it’s really good to be there and excited about what’s happening.
They’ve restructured the Industry Advisory Council and now they are figuring out what segments need to be represented, and how they will work together. This resulted in some changes in the organization’s infrastructure, more people are coming in and leadership is trying to figure out how to make it all work.
The leadership has been meeting with the AAM folks for the past 2 or 3 years and one big thing is they’ve published two roadmaps on AAM to help the regulators pave the road ahead for the entire segment.
Jim’s final thoughts are to encourage anyone who is interested in helicopters, or any area of vertical flight at all, to check into VAI and get involved!
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