Episode 30 with Dr. Anita Sengupta

Episode Summary

Join Dr. Adnan Baranbo in the 30th Episode of AVIAPRENEURS talks about The Flight Plan to Emission Free Aviation featuring The Founder & CEO of Hydroplane, Dr. Anita Sengupta.

Dr. Anita Sengupta

An Aviapreneur from the USA, and originally from Scotland. A commercial and private pilot, and holder of a Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California. Dr. Anita held senior positions in many of the world’s most prestigious companies and organizations. She started her career as an engineer for more than 3 years in Boeing Space and Communications. 

She later worked for 17 years at NASA as a senior engineer and project manager on various important projects, such as Venus, Mars, and the International Space Station. She was also Senior Vice President for Virgin Hyperloop One between 2017 and 2019. She’s also an adjunct professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. 

In 2020, Dr. Anita founded Hydroplane, a green energy technology company developing a hydrogen fuel cell powerplant for aviation and aerospace applications.

 Watch this Episode to know Dr. Anita’s answers to the following questions:

• What does Hydroplane aim to do?
• Where’s Hydroplane now?
• How will Hydroplane helps aviation achieves its sustainability target? 
• Why hydrogen fuel? For the listeners who’re not experts in this area, can you clarify how hydrogen is different from another type of fuel?
• General Aviation, Business Aviation, or Commercial Aviation: which ones are Hydroplane targeting to benefit from your technology? 
• How big is the Hydroplane team? What are their specialties? 
• The hydroplane is a revolutionary idea, which requires significant time and investment to become commercially viable. How are you financing it?
• What made you leave big teams and organizations to do all this on your own with a small team? Do you think startups can do wonders that big organizations cannot? 
• Is the entrepreneurial life more rewarding and fulfilling compared to the academic and corporate lives? 
• What advice do you give the women and the male listeners willing to follow your path and build successful startups like Hydroplane? 

All of this and more on the 30th Episode of AVIAPRENEURS!