Our Mission

Aviation is entering its second century.
We make it affordable, ubiquitous and clean.

Aerolane was started with one big question: is it possible to enable the capabilites & speed of air at the cost of ground transportation? 

Leveraging an idea from World War II, we found ourselves far closer than we had imagined.
Aerolane is a speed-centric organization. We develop advanced technologies with an eye towards what can bring value to the aviation industry today.

The benefit: getting to see our products in the air in months, not decades.

Flight path

From concept to reality in just 3 years.

Flight path

From concept to reality in just 3 years.

Flight Tests

Aerolane’s founding team pulls from decades of experience building and certifying new aviation concepts. We understood that concepts are nice, but that flight hours are what matter.

Aerolane has been running flight tests since 2022 across a wide swath of the southern US.

0
h+
Generations of prototype Aerocarts
0
Current size of Aerolane test fleet
0
%
Current size of Aerolane test fleet
100
%
... of hours of flight tests under our FAA experimental certificate
2
US States over which Aerolane is authorized to conduct tests
3
Generations of converted Aerocart glider prototypes
7
Size of the Aerolane test flight fleet
Hundreds
... of hours of flight tests under FAA experimental license

our story

Inspired By History

Aerolane’s towed glider technologies use the same fundamental principles that enabled the Allies to dominate the skies over Europe nearly a century ago.

Aerolane Senior Leadership

Todd Graetz
Senior Leadership
Bio
Todd Graetz
Senior Leadership

Co-founder & CEO at Aerolane. Formerly: BNSF Railway field operations & innovation team, co-founder BNSF Railway UAS Program & Advanced Train Operations group, FAA Pathfinder 3 (BVLOS), FAA/BNSF CRDA Program, FAA Drone Advisory Committee/ AAAC member, multiple FAA Advisory and Rule-making committees, Board of Directors AUVSI, Active private pilot.

Gur Kimchi
Senior Leadership
Bio
Gur Kimchi
Senior Leadership

Co-founder & Chariman at Aerolane. Formerly VP and co-founder of Amazon Prime Air, former FAA Drone Advisory Committee member, multiple FAA, NASA, SESAR, ICAO, IETF, ITU-T, ETSI and RTCA standards committees, 5 start-ups, 3 exits, 1 IPO, 5 M&As, 600 Patents.

Doron Appelboim
Senior Leadership
Bio
Doron Appelboim
Senior Leadership

Co-founder & CTO at Aerolane. Formerly Chief UAS Test Pilot, Amazon Prime Air; specialist for Thin and Long Arc Logistics with Amazon Transportation; test pilot across multiple UAS platforms with Israel Aerospace Industries, co-authored NATO STANAG (NATO UAV standards); pilot with Israeli Air Force (Fighter, Cargo and UAS)

Prescott Watson
Senior Leadership
Bio
Prescott Watson
Senior Leadership

Co-founder and Commercial Affairs at Aerolane. Previously investor & founder in a variety of energy & transport related technology companies; executive director at EVage Motors (Indian EV commercial truck supplier to Amazon), DutchX (same & next day ecommerce fulfillment in US market); Port Power (fleet electrification software startup); Operating Partner at RedBlue Capital; ex-principal at Maniv Mobility and OurCrowd VC.

Sean Sweeney
Senior Leadership
Bio
Sean Sweeney
Senior Leadership

Chief Pilot at Aerolane. Wide array of pilot roles since 1979 including airline captain, check airman & chief pilot; ISR/CAS pilot for 12 years flying L-39 and C-310 for Coastal Defense JTAC training; lifelong glider pilot; test pilot for Gemini International and NAWEC; aircraft design for Global ResQ; warbird instructor; A&P mechanic, CFII, MEI, ATP with 5 type ratings.

George Kirov
Senior Leadership
Bio
George Kirov
Senior Leadership

VP Strategy & Finance at Aerolane. 20 years finance, strategy / M&A across automotive and aerospace; formerly VP Corporate Strategy at Harris (L3Harris); CIO at RailAmerica; Director of Corporate Development at Eaton; Executive Director M&A at Magna.

Catherine Self
Senior Leadership
Bio
Catherine Self
Senior Leadership

VP Program Management at Aerolane. Senior program management executive with aerospace and rail background. Extensive experience in commercial UAS technology integration. Ex-BNSF, Norfolk Southern, BAE Systems, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA Armstrong Research Center.

Kevin Yuen
Senior Leadership
Bio
Kevin Yuen
Senior Leadership

Chief Revenue Officer at Aerolane. Diverse business & technology career spanning from aerospace to real estate. Formerly with Boeing - Program Integration Manager, Flight Test Engineer, and Design & Analysis Engineer working across 737-10, 747-8, and 787-8 models. Formerly Amazon Prime Air - Flight Operations Engineer. Previous work with UTAS on CH-53K APU. Extensive real estate experience including personal career transactions north of half a billion USD. MS Aerospace Eng from UCLA; Dual MBAs from Cornell & Queen's University Kingston.

Aerolane Advisory Board

Dean Wise
Advisory Board
Bio
Dean Wise
Advisory Board

Dean provides strategic advisory services to the transportation, logistics and infrastructure sector, particularly transformational technologies. Previously, Mr. Wise was VP of Network Strategy at BNSF Railway.

Lt. Col Jennifer “JJ” Snow
Advisory Board
Bio
Lt. Col Jennifer “JJ” Snow
Advisory Board

Former AFWERX CTO and SOFWERX CIO working emerging technology solutions across 43 critical requirement areas for DoD, Allied and Interagency Partners. Distinguished Graduate of the NPS Defense Analysis (SOF) and the NSA JOCCP internship.

Myron Wright
Advisory Board
Bio
Myron Wright
Advisory Board

Leading expert in the aviation industry with a special interest in UAS and UAM. Founder and first president of UPS Flight Forward Inc., a UPS subsidiary focused

Frank Paskiewicz
Advisory Board
Bio
Frank Paskiewicz
Advisory Board

40 years in industry & FAA. Direct experience in regulatory process, aircraft certification, delegation systems, surveillance programs and policies, and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) certification and operations. Previously Deputy Director of the Aircraft Certification Service at the FAA. Before that he was Manager of the Production and Airworthiness division where he oversaw FAA manufacturing policies, designee and delegation systems, international supplier programs, aircraft import and export policies, and related technical training curriculum.

Arpit Mehta
Advisory Board
Bio
Arpit Mehta
Advisory Board

Testing Evaluation Director for Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence at Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). Autonomous & AI/ML technology within DoD and Commercial Sector. Ex-Amazon, Boeing, Northrop, USAF, General Atomics

Fred Lopez
Advisory Board
Bio
Fred Lopez
Advisory Board

President of AeroAgility Consulting Group Inc. and former President of UPS Flight Forward Inc. Specialization in Aviation, UAS, AAM, and Management.

Marty Schlenker
Advisory Board
Bio
Marty Schlenker
Advisory Board

Brings 25 years of railroad experience. Marty held AVP roles at BNSF from 2012 to 2021 in service planning and IT and led BNSF Service Design team. Marty now leads service design for Parallel Systems

Sara Jones
Advisory Board
Bio
Sara Jones
Advisory Board

Investor in advanced dual use technologies with In-Q-Tel. Formerly SVP at New Vista Capital focusing on Aerospace and Defense tech investments and partnerships, and previous Innovation Director of Digital and Emerging Aviation at Boeing HorizonX.

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