Executive Vice President Kim Gun-woo joins, completing “The Only Team” behind a fighter-jet-DNA next-generation eVTOL
Full autonomy for high-speed eVTOL, and a defense pipeline across nine countries moving into full gear
Airbility (co-CEOs Lee Jin-mo and Ryu Tae-kyu), a specialist in high-speed eVTOL aircraft, announced on the 16th that it has appointed Dr. Kim Gun-woo as Executive Vice President for AI. Dr. Kim spent 30 years at the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), where he led advanced aerospace and defense technology programs spanning missile seeker systems, AI autonomous flight architectures and UAV swarm frameworks.
At ADD, Dr. Kim advanced from senior researcher to head of the AI division. There he designed an “AI pilot” architecture for maneuverable unmanned aerial platforms and established a safety-first autonomy framework that cleanly separates high-level decision-making systems from the flight control layer. His expertise spans multi-domain sensor and AI fusion — including AESA-based airborne radar, SAR-based object recognition and super-resolution AI for satellite imagery — together with hands-on experience designing distributed multi-agent drone collaboration and autonomous swarm mission command systems.
Airbility’s founding team brings together core engineers from Korea’s KT-1, T-50 and KF-21 fighter aircraft programs, a former design team leader in Hyundai Motor’s future mobility division, and specialists in commercializing crewed eVTOL aircraft. With Dr. Kim’s arrival, the company adds AI autonomous flight — the last of its core capabilities — to airframe design, systems integration and mobility UX, completing the only team in Korea able to develop a high-speed vectored-thrust eVTOL.
The appointment accelerates both of Airbility’s strategic pillars at once. First, it advances the autonomous mission AI of the AB-U60 high-speed unmanned aircraft, strengthening execution across the C-UAS and DFR (Drone as First Responder) pipeline the company has secured in more than nine countries. In an export-driven revenue structure spanning the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe, AI-based autonomous UAV operation is a decisive competitive factor. Second, with the FAA’s MOSAIC rule now finalized and formally opening the 370 trillion won general aviation market to eVTOL aircraft, the company will develop SVO-based (Simplified Vehicle Operations) autonomous flight algorithms to lay the groundwork for commercializing the AB-M1300 — a personal aircraft that “anyone can fly.”
Kim Gun-woo, Airbility’s newly appointed Executive Vice President, said: “By bringing the AI autonomous flight and system architecture experience I built at ADD to Airbility’s high-speed eVTOL platform, I intend to deliver immediately deployable autonomous UAV solutions for the defense market, and, for the personal aviation market, the experience of anyone taking to the sky safely.”
Lee Jin-mo, CEO of Airbility, added: “With Dr. Kim joining us — someone who bridges fighter-jet DNA and AI autonomous flight — we have secured a technological edge not only in global defense and public safety, but also in the MOSAIC-driven personal eVTOL market.”