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This week on The Ways We Move, I sit down with Francois Lassale, the current CEO of VAI — Vertical Aviation International, formerly HAI — and it turned out to be one of the richest conversations we have had on this podcast.

VAI represents the largest vertical lift association in the world, and Francois arrived at its helm at what he rightly calls an inflection point. Helicopters, drones, and eVTOLs are converging in the same airspace, with the same DNA and the same infrastructure challenges — and somebody needs to hold that community together. That is what VAI does. And Francois is the man who left Bali to do it.

His background alone is worth the listen. Born in Zimbabwe to a French father and a South African mother of Dutch descent, raised on a farm where he learned Zulu, deployed to Angola as a soldier in a Zulu commando unit, then the Royal Air Force, then the French national reserve — all three commissions simultaneously. He flew Harriers. He was a VIP helicopter captain and Special Forces pilot. Then the airline world, the UAE Presidential Flight, offshore safety in the North Sea, and three helicopter companies across Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia — run from Bali. His wife has followed him around the world more than once and kept the house in Bali. He still owes her.

In this episode we get into:

• Why VAI rebranded from HAI to VAI — and what vertical means for an industry that now includes drones, eVTOLs, and everything in between
• The investment gap that should concern everyone: roughly $6.5 billion went into helicopter innovation over the last five years while $28.5 billion went into AAM — and infrastructure received almost none of either
• How helicopters, drones, and eVTOLs share the same DNA and will operate in the same airspace — and why that makes VAI's institutional role more critical, not less
• The 10-year workforce cliff nobody is talking about: the average helicopter mechanic today is 56 years old, and the pipeline is not filling fast enough before AAM adds its own demand on top
• The Docklands Railway story — how London's autonomous train went from nobody will get on it to nobody thinks twice — and what that tells us about public trust in autonomous aircraft
• Why Florida leads the country in AAM infrastructure readiness, and why the airport funding model is the blueprint every other state should be following right now
• The FAA's $12.5 billion ATC modernization and what AI-driven airspace separation means for a sky shared by helicopters, drones, and eVTOLs
• Why vertiport should become multiport — and the real complexity of building charging, fire suppression, and certification for an entirely new class of aircraft into existing infrastructure
• VAI's data-sharing platform: anonymous, non-judgmental, benchmarking-driven — and why sharing safety data is the single most powerful thing an operator can do to protect their business and their industry
• Why safety is the currency of credibility — not a compliance checkbox, not a marketing line

Francois closes with the line he carried out of the Royal Air Force: keep the blue side up. And the reminder that none of this — not the aircraft, not the airspace, not the infrastructure, not the public trust — gets built by anyone working alone.

CHAPTER INDEX

00:00 Introduction 

00:06 Episode overview and guest introduction 

03:15 Welcome Francois Lassale 

03:29 Growing up in Zimbabwe, learning Zulu, serving in Angola 

05:09 The Royal Air Force, Harriers, and the path to helicopters 

06:00 VIP pilot, Special Forces, and the airline world 

06:52 UAE Presidential Flight and the move to America 

07:20 Offshore safety with Helioshore: oil, gas, and wind 

07:48 Running helicopter operations across Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia 

08:05 Why VAI came calling — and why Francois left Bali 

10:20 Replacing James Viola at the helm of the world's largest vertical lift association 

11:31 The VAI mission: bringing the full vertical lift community together 

12:35 Helicopters, drones, and eVTOLs: shared DNA, shared airspace 

15:23 Nobody can do this alone: the collaboration imperative 

16:17 The investment gap: $6.5B for helicopters vs $28.5B for AAM 

17:30 The FAA's $12.5B ATC modernization and what it means for shared airspace 

19:28 VAI's role: keeping heliports open and converting them to multiports 

20:39 ACAS, TCAS, and AI-driven separation in congested airspace 

23:25 Why vertiport should become multiport 

24:35 Infrastructure priorities: energy, public transport, and the full ecosystem 

25:27 VAI's five strategic initiatives and five-year plan 

26:43 The 10-year workforce cliff: average mechanic age is 56 

28:37 School visits, scholarships, and Rotor's autonomous Robinson helicopter 

31:27 The US vs. Europe infrastructure investment gap — and why it exists 

33:50 Why infrastructure is less attractive to investors than aircraft 

35:06 Florida as the model state: the airport funding blueprint for AAM 

38:35 The Docklands Railway story: public trust and the autonomous transition 

40:18 Horses, steam engines, EVs, and now eVTOLs: how technology adoption always goes 41:24 Francois goes electric: the Porsche Taycan 

42:41 What gets Francois out of bed: leaving Bali for Virginia to help lead a global industry 

46:09 Key takeaways: collaboration and safety as the currency of credibility 

47:24 VAI's data-driven approach and the benchmarking platform 

49:09 Start with the question, then collect the data 

50:32 Making the invisible visible: advocacy for the vertical lift industry 

51:35 Closing: keep the blue side up