In late 2019, after years of studying aviation and aerospace engineering, Hector (Haofeng) Xu decided to learn to fly helicopters. At the time, he was pursuing his PhD in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, so he was familiar with the risks associated with flying small aircraft. But something about being in the cockpit gave Xu a greater appreciation of those risks. After a couple of nerve-wracking experiences, he was inspired to make helicopter flights safer.
In 2021, he founded the autonomous helicopter company Rotor Technologies, Inc.
It turns out Xu’s near-misses weren’t all that unique. Although large, commercial passenger