AMSL Aero, the Australian developer of the Vertiia hydrogen-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has appointed Dr Adriano Di Pietro as Chief Executive Officer.
“Dr Di Pietro will lead the Australian company into its next phase of growth and bring its revolutionary aircraft to certification and international market launch,” said the company in a press release. “ Dr Di Pietro joins AMSL Aero from the Aerospace Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) at Swinburne University where he served as Director and CEO (Interim) of the Australian Air Mobility Cooperative Research Centre (AAMCRC).
“Dr Di Pietro joins AMSL Aero as the company prepares to build its second full-scale prototype of Vertiia and undertake its first hydrogen-powered flight test program. Dr Di Pietro will lead AMSL Aero’s campaign for certification of Vertiia by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), scale up manufacturing capability, and drive global commercial expansion, fuelled by strong forward orders.”
Dr Di Pietro recently served as CEO (Interim) of the Australian Air Mobility Cooperative Research Centre (AAM CRC), where he brought together Australia’s advanced air mobility industry as a key driver of Australia’s future aviation system. Concurrently, as Director of the Aerospace Innovation Research (AIR) Hub at Swinburne University
of Technology, he led an expert team supporting the growth of Australia’s uncrewed air systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility development and manufacturing industry with significant development in zero-emission hydrogen-powered flight.
Previously, Dr Di Pietro held key roles at XTEK (now HighCom Group) as Chief Technology Officer, where he led the commercialisation of aerospace and defence technologies. He was also one of the
first employees at Zoox, the Silicon Valley-based autonomous vehicle company acquired by Amazon, and held leadership roles at Quickstep Technologies, a leading aerospace composites manufacturer in Australia and Germany.
For more information
https://www.amslaero.com/news/ceo-announcement-dr-adriano
(Image: L-R: AMSL Aero CEO Adriano Di Petrio with Chairman Chris Smallhorn)