Richard Abbott graduated from Manchester Polytechnic (now the Metropolitan University of Manchester) in the UK in 1992. He worked as a stress engineer on multiple civil and military aircraft projects in the UK including multiple versions of the BAe Hawk, the Bombardier CRJ Aircraft and the Saab Gripen. Richard and family moved between San Antonio, Texas, USA (Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation), Gossellies, Belgium (Sonaca SA, the Dassault F7X program) and London, Ontario Canada (Diamond Aircraft D-Jet Program). In 2008 Richard left Diamond Aircraft and founded Abbott Aerospace with his partner Anna.
Since 2008, the Abbott Aerospace team has contributed to many projects at startup companies and established OEMs: Stratos Aircraft, Kestrel (One Aviation), Mooney, Boom, Piper, Bombardier, Solarship, CRI, PV Labs, Kopter (Marenco Swisshelicopter), ITPS, Wave Aircraft, Gore Design, Glasair, Knovel, Ampaire, M7, DeLorean Aerospace, Warrior Aircraft, Samad Aerospace, Cynergy Composites and ALP.
At the time of writing Richard holds the
position of acting structures manager on the Stratos 714 program, head of
structures and mechanical systems for the Otto Celera 500L program and is the
acting CTO for Samad Aerospace. Richard also teaches classes on structures
engineering and engineering management at the University College of the Cayman
Islands.