Management Team

Mat Potulski

Mat has been involved in the ownership, operation and management of former military aircraft since the early 1990's and is the Managing Director of HHA. After university he pursued a management consulting and city-banking career, having worked for ( amongst others) Bain Strategic Consultants, Robert Fleming Investment Bank and Commerzbank. In 2000 he founded HHA as a standalone Defence Contractor and is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, overseeing all its activities including finance, marketing and corporate liaison.

Simon Hargreaves OBE

Simon is HHA's OPERATIONS DIRECTOR. He spent 20 years in the Royal Navy as a Sea Harrier pilot 1996 as Commanding Officer of 899 NAS. He completed ETPS in 1987 and, during his tour at Boscombe Down, was involved in the flight test programmes of Harrier, Jaguar and Tornado.

He joined BAES at Dunsfold as a company test pilot and quickly became involved in the Joint Strike Fighter programme, which took him out to Lockheed Martin Skunk works to participate in the X-35 Concept Demonstrator Aircraft programme. Simon flew the X-35A and X-35C before performing the first flight and all subsequent envelope expansion flying on the X-35B STOVL aircraft.

On return to the UK he became DCTP at the BAES Warton where he participated in the flight test programmes of Typhoon, Tornado, Harrier and Hawk. He remains active in the Royal Navy Reserve Air Branch, initially flying Sea Harrier and now the Hawk. He has 7,000 hrs on a large variety of types, including around 850 hrs on the Hunter.

Louis McQuade

Louis is our Chief Pilot and Military Head of Flying and one of only two MoD approved Instructors and Type Rating Examiners / Standard Evaluators on the Hunter (the other being his HHA colleague Chris Carder)

His 13,000+ hours of pilot in command time include extensive time on the Hawk, Phantom, Tornado F3 and F18 Hornet in addition to the Hunter and a multitude of historic types.

Michael Elliot

Michael is our Chief Engineer and heads up our team of 8 skilled, enthusiastic engineers and ground crew. Like the rest of the engineering team, Michael has evolved through the ranks of the RAF to SNCO level with experience covering 8 jet types and numerous operational postings including Gulf War 1 and the Balkans with Tornado and Chinook aircraft.

Also employed in an instructional role, he has trained RAF technicians in the complex avionics systems of Tornado and Typhoon.

In addition, he has served at the prestigious RAF College Cranwell where he trained and assessed student engineer officers in preparation for their first active tours in management roles.