We recently interviewed with Les Echos, one of the major media outlets in France, to announce some exciting news about our new advisory board member Major General Michel Friedling.
Below are some paragraphs from the article, translated into English:
“…to advance the goal of hydrogen-powered hypersonic flight, the company has announced that Major General Michel Friedling, French Air Force General and Head of French Space Command, has joined the board of directors. Friedling was the first general of the French Air Force to take the head of the Space Command (CDE) created in 2018 by the former Minister of the Armies, Florence Parly.
Replaced on July 1 by General Philippe Adam, Michel Friedling, who left the army, said he wanted to serve the Swiss start-up out of admiration for Mikhail Kokorich and out of conviction. “France, which has missed many technological turns, cannot remain a spectator in the face of the challenge of low-carbon hypersonic aviation,” he declared to “Echos”.
The general thus joins the strategic committee of Destinus, where Pedro Duque, the former astronaut and Spanish Minister of Science, and Philipp Rösler, former German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of the Economy also sit. He will be the advocate in France for the goal “to travel at hypersonic speed to reach all points of the globe in less than two hours”…”
Friedling graduated from the French Air Force Academy in 1986, and as a fighter pilot he obtained a degree in aeronautics engineering. He has exercised different levels of command and responsibilities in past operational units, flying Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000. On September 2018, Brigadier General Friedling was appointed as the Commander of the French Joint Space Command. He was promoted Major General in september 2019.
“A race is on to create the next generation of high speed aircraft for multiple real-world applications,” said Major General Friedling. “I was impressed with the prototypes that Destinus is developing and the pedigree of the team.”
Our team is happy to welcome Mr. Friedling onboard this journey and to further establish ourselves in France. Not only is France one of the top countries in Europe for aeronautics, but it might also become the home for our future flight tests. The general’s appointment follows some recent milestones towards faster and cleaner passenger and cargo transportation.
We are already building our third prototype that will take to the skies already next year, cruising at supersonic velocities, and we are looking at Rochefort airport in France as a potential location for our future supersonic and hypersonic flight campaigns. Friedling’s aeronautical background and regulatory expertise throughout Europe will help expedite our developments. Other locations are also being investigated, in particular in the South of Spain.
“We welcome Major General Michel Friedling into our multinational family,” said Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Destinus. “With his support and technical acumen, we know we will have an advantage to test and deliver the economical and sustainable high speed aircraft the world needs.”
