Five things I wrote in 2023

I was exceptionally fortunate this year in getting to write a bunch of interesting and meaningful stories. I can’t recall any point during the year when I wasn’t excited about some project I had on the go, even if many of these took weeks or even months to come together.

I wanted to share some of the stories that really stood out to me, but “top” or “favorite” didn’t seem like an appropriate way to describe a list that slants heavily toward accident-related stories. So, my end-of-year list is just “things I wrote”. As always, sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to these and other stories, and to my excellent publishers at The Air Current气流 and Vertical Magazine for allowing me to write stuff that matters.

The number at the center of an eVTOL safety debate: https://theaircurrent.com/industry-strategy/special-report-evtol-safety-continuum-10-9/

This was a massive undertaking that entailed many, many interviews with leaders in the eVTOL industry, some on and others off the record. How cool that there’s actually an audience for a nearly 4,000-word treatise on numerical levels of safety.

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Whisper Aero takes the wraps off its Whisper Jet: https://theaircurrent.com/aircraft-development/whisper-aero-takes-the-wraps-off-its-whisper-jet/

I paid a visit to Whisper Aero 's headquarters in Crossville, Tennessee in June 2022, and finally got to write about what I saw there a year later, when Whisper publicly unveiled its electric ducted fan technology and vision aircraft at AIAA Aviation.

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Dropped iPad implicated in fatal Rotak Chinook helicopter crash: https://verticalmag.com/news/dropped-ipad-implicated-in-fatal-chinook-helicopter-crash/

All fatal accidents are tragic, but some are just an absolute gut punch. That’s how I felt after being tipped off to the NTSB docket for this 2022 crash in Idaho. This worst-case scenario was a wake-up call for many of us, I think.

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Vertical Aerospace details failure sequence that preceded VX4 crash: https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/vertical-aerospace-details-failure-sequence-that-preceded-vx4-crash/

Aviation accidents are more fun to write about when no one dies. Huge props (no pun intended) to Vertical Aerospace for opening up about their eVTOL flight testing accident in a way that has benefited the entire industry.

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How Robinson Helicopter arrived at its new tail design: https://verticalmag.com/news/how-robinson-helicopter-arrived-at-its-new-tail-design/

Continuing this encouraging new trend of radical OEM transparency, Robinson Helicopter Company went deep into their history of mast bumping accidents and how they used advances in simulation technology to redesign the empennages of their helicopters.