Learning to fly: YASA Motors take off

If your grandad was an engineering pioneer, having worked alongside legends like Frank Whittle in the earliest days of the jet age, it could be something of a mixed blessing, pedigree and inspiration battling against the long shadow of achievement.

“I certainly remember as a kid, you know, being younger than 10 and there being a bit of an aura around Grandpa Bob and some of his achievements with jet engines and then gas turbines,” Tim Woolmer, grandson of Bob Feilden, told The Engineer.

“I wish we’d been a bit closer in age gap, because I would have loved to have picked his brains an awful lot more. He was already well into his 80s by the time I was really getting interested in engineering, but there was enough crossover to have some good chats.”

For Woolmer, his engineering heritage certainly seems more boon than burden. He founded automotive firm YASA in 2009 while still studying at Oxford. Ten years later, the company’s electric motors were chosen by Ferrari for the SF90 Stradale, the Italian marque’s first full production hybrid. In 2021, YASA was acquired by Mercedes-Benz, but not before Woolmer and colleagues spun out sister company Evolito, with the goal of adapting YASA’s cutting edge motor technology for the burgeoning electric aerospace market.