Often introduced as “that flying car girl,” Heather Chirtea’s story began long before she ever took to the sky. A Syracuse University graduate with Dean’s List honors, Heather launched her career in broadcasting at FOX45 before stepping into the early dot-com boom as a video-game developer. Along the way, she raised identical twins while building a career at the intersection of media, technology, and storytelling—an uncommon foundation that now fuels her dynamic, future-focused keynote presentations. Known for her contagious humor and hard-won insight, Heather inspires audiences to reimagine what’s possible in both business and life.

Heather’s most recognized chapter began with a six-year pursuit of a dream once found only in science fiction. Alongside her father, she followed the development of the Pivotal BlackFly eVTOL flying car, showing up year after year at the Oshkosh Airshow in “Future BlackFly Owner” shirts—until persistence paid off. Selected as one of only five early-access ownership teams, Heather became the first woman in the United States to both own and pilot a flying car. She went on to launch The Soar Tour, organizing flying car demonstrations across the country to introduce the public to personal electric aviation. Her current mission is to become the first woman to pilot a flying car coast-to-coast across America.

Five pilots are touring the nation under the banner of The Soar Tour. According to Heather Chirtea, the nation's first female consumer flying car pilot, "I will be the first person to cross the nation in a flying car. Right now the range of the flying car is only 20 miles on a single charge, but the battery life keeps getting longer. Eventually the range will be big enough to go coast-to-coast."

Father/Daughter flying duo - John and Heather Chirtea - have been flying together for years. They are joined by smoke jumper Tim Lum, the most experienced eVTOL pilot in the nation with over 1050 flights.