Bill James has 35 years of aerospace industry experience, most recently serving as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Space Transportation Business Segment for Sierra Space, a provider of space transportation vehicles and services for low earth orbit space operations. Responsible for the $2+ billion Dream Chaser development, he led Sierra’s top priority program to develop the latest generation spaceplane to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station on behalf of NASA.
Prior to his work in the space sector, Bill was Vice President of Advanced Systems at Sierra Nevada Corporation, where he was responsible for the development of a twin-jet military trainer to compete in the US Air Force’s TX advanced jet trainer program. Bill also held executive leadership positions with Hawker-Beechcraft, where he was responsible for the company’s engineering and advanced development functions, which included new and derivative products. These included the T-6 (flown by US and Canada’s air forces), AT-6, Hawker 4000, Hawker 200, Premier I, and all derivative King Airs. Prior to Hawker Beechcraft, Bill was the director of engineering for Airbus Americas Engineering, where he led wing design on the A340, A350, and A380 jetliners. Bill has also held executive leadership positions at ICON Aircraft, MD Helicopters, and Spirit AeroSystems in technical and business/program capacities. Bill holds an Executive MBA from the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University and a Bachelor of Science in Aircraft Engineering Technology from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.