2020 Webinar Archive Old

Learn about current and upcoming webinars or check out all of our videos on the VFS Video Library page!

The Vertical Flight Society has been hosting virtual technical sessions, workshops, presentations and interviews on timely and relevant topics in VTOL and eVTOL. These webinars were hosted either by VFS headquarters or by our chapters around the world.

These programs provide important information to help the community continue advancing vertical flight.  

Mon., Dec. 21: Levitate Capital Report on the Future of the Drone Economy , an eVTOL Writers Group Interview 1100-1200 EST/1000-1100 CST/0800-0900 PST/1600-1700 UTC Moderator: Brian Garrett Glaser, eVTOL.com Speakers: Bastiaan Janmaat, Levitate Capital Dario Constantine, Levitate Capital From enterprise adoption of commercial drones to technological and regulatory advancements of delivery and passenger drones, it’s clear that the drone economy is growing rapidly, but how fast is it growing exactly? Which segments are thriving today, and which ones will emerge five to ten years from now? What factors will influence how each market will unfold? Levitate Capital has spent six months researching these questions and building a bottom-up model that quantifies our views on how to approach the drone economy as an investor or operator. Levitate Capital will discuss answers to these questions and more with the Vertical Flight Society on December 21st at 11 am Eastern Time. The presentation will be a high-level overview of the firm’s comprehensive industry report on the drone economy.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Thu., Dec. 17: EmbraerX and Airservices Australia release Concept of Operations for Urban Air Mobility, an eVTOL Writers Group Interview 1200-1300 EST/1100-1200 CST/0900-1000 PST/1700-1800 UTC Moderator: Jason Pritchard, eVTOL Insights Speakers: David Rottblatt, Embraer Kristian Cruickshank, Airservices Australia EmbraerX, Embraer’s disruptive business subsidiary, and Airservices, Australia’s civil air navigation service provider, have developed a new concept of operations (CONOPS) for the air taxi market, also known as urban air mobility (UAM). Going forward, Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions, the new EmbraerX spin-off, will be responsible for this partnership with Airservices and for the development of Urban Air Traffic Management solutions.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Mon., Dec. 14: Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium (CAAM) | A National Strategy for AAM in Canada, presented by the VFS Montreal-Ottawa chapter 1200-1300 EST/1100-1200 CST/0900-1000 PST/1700-1800 UTC Moderator: Ken Swartz, Aeromedia Communications Speaker: JR Hammond, Executive Director. Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Canada has claimed its spot on the global stage for progressing Advanced Air Mobility utilizing a Triple Bottom Line (Economic, Environmental & Social) approach. Come join us as we highlight the launch of CAAM and it's founding members, the leading Triple Bottom Line analysis of Canada's first AAM use case and the launch of our new market in Canada.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Tue., Dec. 9: Energy Reserves for Electrically Powered Aircraft, presented by the VFS/SFTE/SETP/AIAA Electric VTOL Flight Test Council 1100-1200 EST/1000-1100 CST/0800-0900 PST/1600-1700 UTC Speakers: Mario Asselin, Chairman and CEO, Asselin Inc. Join the VFS Electric VTOL Flight Test Council for a presentation on energy reserves for electrically powered aircraft. This presentation aims at providing the building blocks for the E-VTOL/Electric Flight Test Council to define mission energy reserves. This can then serve to define acceptable flight test practices to validate the energy reserve. This is not aimed at defining regulatory values of reserves but the work done by this council can then be provided to the rule making committee for consideration. Reserves references used for examples in this presentation will be based on FAA requirements. They can easily be adapted to other agencies as required.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Tue., Dec. 8: Dan Schultz - The Future of Rotorcraft, presented by the VFS East New England Chapter 1200-1300 EST/1100-1200 CST/0900-1000 PST/1700-1800 UTC Speaker: Dan Schultz, President. Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company Join the VFS East New England Chapter as we hear from Dan Schultz, President of Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, where he is responsible for leading the strategic growth and program execution of Sikorsky’s government and commercial rotorcraft platforms. This talk will focus on the impact of autonomy, speed, and safety on the future of rotorcraft. Thanks to GE Aviation for sponsoring this webinar.	Watch Recording
Tue., Dec. 1: Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO), presented by the VFS/SFTE/SETP/AIAA Electric VTOL Flight Test Council 1100-1200 EST/1000-1100 CST/0800-0900 PST/1600-1700 UTC Speakers: Borja Martos, Ph.D, President. Flight Level Engineering Noel Duerkson, Ph.D, Consultant. Flight Level Engineering Join the VFS Electric VTOL Flight Test Council for a presentation on Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO).	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wed., Nov. 18: Solving Today's Aerial Firefighting Challenges, presented by the VFS PHL/AZ Chapters 1900-2030 EST/1800-1930 CST/1600-1730 PST/0000-0130 UTC Speakers: Robert Roedts, Sr. Director of Aviation at Columbia Helicopters Keith Saylor, Director of Commercial Operations at Columbia Helicopters Scott Janetsky, Director of Flight Operations at Columbia Helicopters The VFS Philadelphia Chapter will be holding a VIRTUAL Dinner Meeting on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, featuring speakers from Columbia Helicopters. We are very excited to have Robert Roedts, Keith Saylor, and Scott Janetsky from Columbia to talk about a variety of topics concerning aerial firefighting. This is sure to be an interesting event that you will not want to miss! More information is below and on the attached flyer. This is a collaboration with the VFS Arizona chapter as well!.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wed., Nov. 18: Finding a New Path - Discovering Your Passion in Life & Leadership, presented by the VFS Stratford Chapter 1730-1830 EST/1630-1730 CST/1430-1530 PST/2230-2330 UTC Speakers: Jeanette Eaton, Director, CSS Strategy & Business Dev. at Sikorsky Like so many of us, Jeanette Eaton was once traveling down a pre-determined path. Coming from a family where the norm was to attend the local state college and major in science, declaring electrical engineering as her major was basically predetermined. Upon starting her career as an engineer at Sikorsky, Jeanette was fortunate to be mentored by people who provided her with chances to stray from her path, ultimately helping her find her passion for flying and leadership. All the while, engineering providing a foundation for success. Throughout the course of her presentation, Jeanette will share her leadership style, personal anecdotes, and experiences and encourage attendees to adopt a “go for it” attitude when presented with opportunities and new experiences.	Watch Recording
Mon., Nov. 16: Bell reveals the Revolutionary Electrically Distributed Anti-Torque Demonstrator 1100-1200 EsT/1000-1100 CST/0800-0900 PST/1600-1700 UTC Speakers: Eric Sinusas, Program Director at Bell Bell is committed to exploring new technologies and opportunities including electric and hybrid-electric VTOL, the latest innovation, Bell’s electrically distributed anti-torque demonstrator (EDAT) continues to push the boundaries of flight and gather data to measure the potential of decreased noise pollution, decreased direct operating and maintenance cost and decreased carbon emissions that could be applied to future commercial platforms. Flight test activity and envelope expansion is currently taking place at Bell’s facility in Mirabel, Quebec.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Tue., Nov. 10: Bell V-280 Application of Joint Input-Output Methodology for Hover Model Identification 1900-2030 EDT/1800-1930 CDT/1600-1730 PDT/0000-0130 UTC Speakers: Caitlin Berrigan, Control Law Engineer at Bell Mark Lopez, Aerospace Engineer at US Army CCDC AvMC With modern aerospace vehicle configurations, highly-coupled redundant flight control surfaces are becoming standard practice. For such vehicles, traditional System Identification (SID) methods may not accurately capture the individual contributions of effectors to the vehicle bare-airframe response. A Joint Input-Output (JIO) methodology was used to estimate the control power for each highly-correlated roll effector of the Bell V-280 hover configuration. The methodology was demonstrated using flight test data, where the identification results were compared to a high-fidelity hardware-in-the-loop simulation in the V-280 System Integration Lab.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Thurs., Oct. 22: The S97 Raider, presented by the VFS South Florida Chapter 1800-1900 EDT/1700-1800 CDT/2300-2400 UTC Moderator: Phil Alldridge, VFS South Florida Chapter President Speaker: Mr. Bill Fell, Senior Experimental Test Pilot at Sikorsky Speaker: Mr. Christiaan Corry, Experimental Test Pilot at Sikorsky S97 Raider continues flight test efforts breaking new ground and testing new technologies in support of the FARA program. The S97 is a Sikorsky company funded X2 Technology aircraft that to date has flown over 100-hours, achieved 207 KTAS in level flight and sixty-degree angle of bank turns. The rigid coaxial aircraft has a pusher prop to achieve higher speeds. The Raider aircraft is a slightly smaller version of Sikorsky’s FARA offering to the US Army. Bill and Christiaan will provide an overview of the aircraft and discuss testing completed in the past and talk about some of the testing on the horizon. This is a joint meeting with SFTE, SETP and AIAA.	Watch Recording
Thurs., Oct. 22: PEO AVN Electrical Power Systems: Positioning for the Future, presented by the VFS Redstone, Arizona and Philadelphia Chapters 1300-1400 EDT/1200-1300 CDT/1000-1100 PDT/1800-1900 UTC Moderator: Bill McCandless, VFS Stratford Chapter President Speaker: Mr. Matt Sipe, Chief, Tech Management Division Aviation at US Army PEO AVN Please join the Redstone, Arizona, and Philadelphia Chapters Thursday 22 October 2020 at 1300 for "PEO AVN Electrical Power Systems: Positioning for the Future" as part of their joint Tech Talk Webinar Series. Our speaker is Mr. Matt Sipe, Chief, Tech Management Division, Aviation Turbine Engines Project Office, PEO-AVN.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wed., Oct. 21: 21st Century Helicopter Design, presented by the VFS Stratford Chapter 1800-1900 EDT/1700-1800 CDT/2300-2400 UTC Moderator: Alex Mark, VFS Stratford Chapter President Speaker: Dr. Andreas Bernhard, Director of Aircraft Design at Sikorsky Igor Sikorsky designed his first Helicopter at the age of 18 in 1909 and flew the first practical helicopter in 1939. A lot has changed since then. Dr. Andreas Bernhard will provide some interesting insights into 21st century helicopter design. A glimpse into hardware and mechanical design tools, processes, creativity and ingenuity that enable Sikorsky to effectively compete for Future Vertical Lift.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wed., Oct. 21: Composites design and manufacturing technology assimilation for the RACER rotorcraft 1000-1400 EDT/1400-1800 UTC Speakers: Katrin Mayrhofer, Program manager at INCAS Albert Arnau Cubillo Ph.D., R&D Engineer at Romaero RACER is a fast rotorcraft project coordinated by Airbus Helicopters and funded by the European Commission as part of the Clean Sky 2 framework. The rotorcraft integrates a high proportion of composite structures for which Romaero has limited industrial production capability. This workshop reviews the challenges in the manufacturing process assimilation and management.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Tues., Sept. 29: Flight Testing the Bell 525 Relentless 1200-1300 EDT / 0900-1000 PDT / 1600-1700 UTC  Harry Nahatis, President of VFS East New England Chapter Speaker: Joe Twomey, Bell Flight Test Pilot The Vertical Flight Society's East New England Chapter held a webinar on Sept. 29, 2020 with Joe Twomey of the Bell 525 Flight Test Team. After a career in the US Navy and time at Sikorsky, he joined Bell in 2016, supporting the 525 FBW helicopter and V-280 Future Vertical Lift programs. He conducts structural evaluation, rotor characterization, height-velocity diagram, Category A profile development, degraded systems, extreme weather, and FBW control law development tests. In 2020, he assumed the duties of Rotary Wing Chief Test Pilot. Joe has more than 3,800 hours in over 50 rotary, fixed, and unmanned aircraft and is an SETP Associate Fellow.	Watch Recording
Thurs.-Fri., Sept. 24-25: Short Course on Model-Based Systems Engineering 1000-1400 EDT/1400-1800 UTC Instructor: Barry Papke In this professional development course, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) expert Barry Papke provides a thorough introduction to MBSE. The course will cover systems modeling using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) on day one and the Enterprise Architecture using the Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) on day two.	Purchase Videos Sponsored by:
Mon.-Tues., Sept. 21-22: Short Course on Electric VTOL Design 1000-1400 EDT/1400-1800 UTC Instructor: Dr. James Wang Taught by Dr. James Wang, this course will provide an overview of the unique design challenges and opportunities of this new class of vehicles. Both electric and hybrid-electric passenger-carrying vertical flight aircraft will be covered for a variety of missions ranging from personal/private use to urban air taxis to regional electric VTOL bizjets.	Purchase Videos Sponsored by:
Tuesday, September 16:  VFS Stratford Chapter Webinar: Audrey Brady's Flight Path 1800-1930 EDT / 1500-1630 PDT / 2200-2330 UTC  Moderator: Alex Mark, VFS Stratford Chapter President Speaker: Audrey Brady, Vice President, Sikorsky Commercial Systems & Services Audrey Brady provides overall strategic leadership for all aspects of the Sikorsky Commercial market segment including the entire lifecycle in market assessment, product development, engineering design, sales and marketing, manufacturing and delivery, aftermarket services and customer relationships. Audrey will be sharing her personal stepping-stones along the flight path of her career, with insight into how she is inspired through the act of giving back.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides  Sponsored by:
Tuesday, September 15:  An interview with Jerome Casteret and Matthew Tkac of CS Inc. 1200-1300 EDT / 0900-1000 PDT / 1600-1700 UTC  Moderator: Dave Clarke, AeroCar Journal Speakers: Jerome Casteret, Vice President, CS Inc. Matthew Tkac, President and Chief Engineer, CS Inc. At CS Inc., we develop, validate, verify and certify safety and mission critical embedded software. Our customers are Tier1 and Tier2 that design systems & subsystems for the aerospace, defense and automotive industries, and they develop systems for engine controls, avionics, autonomous driving, and many more.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wednesday, September 9:  An interview with Thomas Pfammatter and Jasmine Kent of Dufour 1200-1300 EDT / 0900-1000 PDT / 1600-1700 UTC  Moderator: Nicolas Zart, VFS Vertiflite and eVTOL.news Speakers: Thomas Pfammater, Co-Founder and CEO, Dufour Jasmine Kent, CTO, Dufour Dufour Aerospace has been at the forefront of electric propulsion in aviation since 2015, when we built aEro 1, the world's first electric aerobatic plane. We bring decades of experience from Airbus, Pilatus, Solar Impulse, Kopter, and Google to our mission to accelerate sustainable aviation. We are developing aEro 3, a hybrid electric tilt-wing VTOL aircraft offering significant operational benefits and cost savings compared to helicopters for many missions.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Tues.-Thurs., Sept. 1-3: VFS Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure VFS hosted its 3rd Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure for Urban Air Mobility (UAM). This two-day virtual meeting was the third in a series of solution-focused workshops. This 3rd Workshop was dedicated to addressing the identified challenges in eVTOL Infrastructure and plotting out a plan of action in collaboration with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center to advance eVTOL Infrastructure development.
Tues., Aug. 25:  Accelerating Towards Design-by-Analysis for Composite Aerospace Structures 1900-2000 EDT / 1800-1900 CDT / 1600-1700 PDT / 2300-0000 UTC  Moderator: Colton Marchesseault Speaker: Dr. Subramaniam ("Subby") D. Rajan, Arizona State University Composite materials are now beginning to provide uses in structural systems hitherto reserved for metals such as airframes and engine containment systems, wraps for repair and rehabilitation, and ballistic/blast mitigation systems. In the United States, several governmental agencies (including NASA and the FAA) recognized the importance of building a framework for composite systems by forming a public-private consortium in support of the Advanced Composites Project, which is part of the Advanced Air Vehicles Program in the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The project’s goal is to reduce product development and certification timelines by 30 percent for composites infused into aeronautics applications. In this talk, FAA and NASA-sponsored R&D work done at Arizona State University is described with respect to experimental methods and computer simulations. Examples include modeling of a variety of composite systems subjected to impact loadings – aircraft engine containment systems, low and high velocity impacts on aerospace composites, and other structural systems such as football helmets and personal body armor.	Watch Recording
Thurs., Aug. 20:  Rotorcraft as Robots 1400-1500 EDT / 1100-1200 PDT / 1800-1900 UTC  Moderator: Dr. Robert Scott, US Army Speaker: Larry Young, Aerospace Engineer, NASA Ames This is not a presentation about autonomous helicopters. This is, instead, a talk about rotorcraft that are robots -- i.e. VTOL aerial platforms that have some level of capability to transform their nature and/or manipulate their environments. Autonomous system technologies, coupled with the development and maturation of novel aerial vehicle concepts (both fixed- and rotary-wing), leads inevitably to new design paradigms for aerial robots. In that spirit, a number of mission and design concepts for “rotorcraft as robots” are discussed and their merits and limitations are noted, as well as future opportunities for development. The objective of this work is to inspire future generations of aerospace engineers, intelligent systems technologists, and roboticists to develop systems that can address critical societal needs and application domains such as planetary exploration, field science campaigns on Earth, environmental monitoring, disaster relief and emergency response, wildlife conservation, and new aerospace transportation and distribution systems.	Watch Recording Presentation Slides
Wed., Aug. 19:  Is Urban Air Mobility Really Disruptive? 1800-1930 EDT / 1500-1630 PDT / 2200-2330 UTC  Moderator: Mark Alexander, President of VFS Stratford Chapter Speaker: Jonathan Hartman, Sikorsky Innovations Urban Air Mobility has been gaining significant attention and traction, racking up hundreds of interested companies and billions of dollars of investment. But are these new designs and market entrants the start of a true disruption, a simple evolution, or a minor fluctuation to the established VTOL industry? Join Jonathan Hartman, Disruptive Technologies Lead for Sikorsky Innovations, in understanding disruption in the context of aviation and examining the potential of this market space through the lens of established product disruption theories. Thank you to our generous sponsor, Dassault Systemes!	Watch Recording  Presentation Slides Sponsored by:
Mon., Aug. 10:  Progress Towards Autonomous Vertical Flight 1130-1530 EDT / 0830-1230 PDT / 1530-1930 UTC  Moderator: Graham Warwick, Aviation Week Panelists: Sanjiv Singh, Near Earth Autonomy  Dave Merrill, Elroy Luuk van Dijk, Daedalean Igor Cherepinsky, Sikorsky Francis Govers, Bell Col. Nathan Diller, USAF Agility Prime Maxime Gariel, Xwing Daniel Moczydlower, EmbraerX Gary Gysin, Wisk Wes Ryan, FAA  Steve Jacobson, Autonodyne Steve Cook, Northrop Grumman / ASTM The future of vertical flight, especially for eVTOL including cargo delivery, will require autonomous flight. There has been exciting progress from both the eVTOL and Cargo Delivery. The Vertical Flight Society has brought these innovative leaders together to share their progress and discuss what yet needs to be accomplished to reach the ultimate goal of pilotless flight. Learn more at VFS - AUVSI Progress Toward Autonomous Vertical Flight.	Purchase Video Sponsored by:
Tuesday, July 7:  An interview with Bob Hammett of OneSky 1300-1400 EDT / 1000-1100 PDT / 1700-1800 UTC  Moderator: Brian Garrett-Glaser, Avionics International Speaker: Bob Hammett, Chief Executive Officer, OneSky OneSky provides industry-leading analytics for aerospace systems, particularly within the commercial unmanned aerial systems (UAS) market. Designed to enhance mission planning with advanced safety-of-flight analysis, OneSky leverages 30+ years of software modeling and simulation to put powerful predictive capabilities into the hands of pilots, operators, and systems integrators.	Watch Recording
Friday, June 26:  An interview with Gary Gysin of Wisk 1330-1500 EDT / 1030-1200 PDT / 1730-1900 UTC  Moderator: Charles Alcock, Aviation International News Speaker: Gary Gysin, President & CEO, Wisk Wisk was established in 2019 as a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with locations in Atlanta, GA and New Zealand, Wisk believes in a world where less time getting there means more time being there for the moments that matter. Their journey began with Kitty Hawk in 2010 (originally known as Zee.aero), and it’s where Cora, their self-flying air taxi, was born. Since it first took to the skies in 2017, Cora has logged more than 1,000 test flights.	Watch Recording
Wed., June 24: Transcend Air — VTOL for VIP Transport Hosted by East New England Chapter 1200-1300 EDT / 0900-1000 PDT / 1600-1700 UTC Moderator: Harry Nahatis, President of VFS East New England Chapter Speaker: Peter Schmidt, Co-Founder and COO of Transcend Air Transcend Air was co-founded in 2017 by Gregory Bruell, who formerly led the Silicon Valley-based eVTOL company Elytron, and Peter Schmidt, the senior technology  advisor for air taxi company Linear Air. Headquartered in the Greater Boston area, Transcend's Vy 400 is a tiltwing VTOL aircraft designed to provide VIP city-to-city transport with exceptional performance at half the operating cost. The company is currently seeking a manufacturer to build and fly the first full-scale prototype of the Vy 400 air taxi.	Watch Recording Vy 400R Presentation Slides Transcend Q&A
Thurs., June 11: Psychoacoustic Measures for UAM Noise Regarding Ambient Sound Hosted by San Francisco Bay Area Chapter 1600-1700 EDT / 1300-1400 PDT / 2000-2100 UTC Moderator: Dr. Natasha Schatzman, President of VFS San Francisco Bay Chapter Speaker: Dr. Durand R Begault, Research Scientist, NASA Ames The noise component of future aircraft and operations from Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles is widely recognized as a challenge to community acceptance. NASA’s RVLT (Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology) program is currently supporting research in the area of human response and psychoacoustics in an effort to augment current metrics for traditional aircraft. This talk will review current work at NASA Ames’ Human Systems Integration Division to evaluate detection, annoyance, and acceptability of UAM sound, in the context of expected ambient sound conditions.	Watch Recording Presentations: Psychoacoustics Presentation Q&A: Psychoacoustics (PPT) Psychoacoustics (Doc)