Flying Cars: Air Force and the U.S. Advanced Air Mobility Strategy

The current National Defense Strategy calls on the United States to out-partner and out-innovate our near peer competitors. AFWERX is a United States Air Force program with the goal of fostering a culture of innovation within the service. Encompassing a number of programs supported with relatively small amounts of funding, the initiative is intended to circumvent bureaucracy and engage new entrepreneurs in Air Force programs. Col Salinas, the COO of AFWERX, will discuss their leading edge work in advanced air mobility (AKA flying cars) as a use case for transforming the Air Force. 

About our Speaker:

Col Martin Salinas is Chief Operating Officer for AFWERX, Air Force Research Laboratory, Austin, TX.

Col Salinas received his commission through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1999 from Texas A&M University, and completed undergraduate navigator training at Randolph AFB, Texas. Prior to his current position he was the Mission Design Team lead for AFWERX Agility Prime and a Test Director for the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center. As a Test Director he led test and operational context initiatives for experimental programs such as Agility Prime’s electronic vertical take-off and landing aircraft portfolio, and Skyborg’s Autonomous Attritable Aircraft experiment (AAAx).

Colonel Salinas has deployed to Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, in support of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM, to Kabul, Afghanistan as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Electronic Warfare Coordination Cell Chief of Plans and Operations, and to Africa as the Air Forces Africa Liaison Officer to Niger.

Colonel Salinas is a Senior Navigator with over 2000 hours in the B-52H, including over 600 combat.

How to Attend this meeting via Zoom using your smartphone: