Virtual Meeting Link Coming Very Soon! GoToWebinar will be the Online Conference Platform (If you can't register online, you can download our PDF Registration Form.) Technical experts from industry, academia and government will speak at the Vertical Flight Society’s 8th Annual Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Symposium and 9th Biennial Autonomous VTOL Technical Meeting, to be held completely virtually on Jan. 26-28, 2021. The meeting will feature technical papers and presentation related to autonomous VTOL aircraft, while the Symposium will feature invited presentations, panel sessions and discussions on electric and hybrid electric VTOL aircraft, with a focus on urban air mobility. 2021 eVTOL Symposium/aVTOL Technical Meeting Program Guide (PDF) Registration Rates
* non-member rates include a complimentary 1-year membership in VFS. Sponsorship & Exhibit Opportunities – NOW CLOSED! Organizers Autonomous VTOL Technical Meeting Chairs
Electric VTOL Symposium Chairs
Note: This is a live event online organized by the VFS Arizona Chapter. All times are US Mountain Standard Time (MST), which is GMT-7. To find the times in your time zone, please use TimeAndDate.com or another time zone converter if you need help.
Electric and hybrid-electric propulsion is an exciting new approach to vertical flight aircraft design and the 8th Annual eVTOL Symposium is a unique opportunity for designers, developers, innovators, investors, regulators, infrastructure providers, end users, media and key influencers to share knowledge and work towards realizing the eVTOL revolution. This is also a tremendous networking opportunity for those new to the VTOL industry. The Vertical Flight Society has been leading efforts in electric VTOL with workshops starting in 2014, and the Electric VTOL News website, featuring the World eVTOL Aircraft Directory. |
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8th Annual eVTOL Symposium | GoToWebinar | All times are in MST (GMT-7) | ||
January 26, 2021 | ||
0800–1000 | Opening General Session Government Keynotes |
Robert Pearce, Associate Administrator, NASA COL Joseph Anderson, PM UAS, US Army COL Nathan Diller, Director, AFWERX Jay Merkle, Executive Director, UAS Integration Office, FAA |
1030–1200 | Opening General Session Industry Keynotes |
Brian Yutko, Chief Engineer, Sustainability and Future Mobility, Boeing Eric Allison, Head of Product, Joby Aviation (previously head of Uber Elevate) Stephane Fymat, VP/GM, Urban Air Mobility, Honeywell |
1200–1330 |
Networking Lunch with Sponsors and Exhibitors |
Sponsored Technical Talk: Making Zero-emission Air Transport Possible with Hydrogen Alex Ivanenko, PhD, Founder & CEO, HyPoint, Inc Sponsored Technical Talk: Reporting on the eVTOL Revolution Brian Garrett-Glaser, Managing Editor, eVTOL.com |
1330–1500 | Market Development: As the eVTOL industry continues to progress, it is clear there are other investments that need to be made to ensure success, from vehicle design to certification, infrastructure, and operations. This plenary session will highlight what is currently happening and what is left to be done. | Moderator: Parimal Kopardekar, NASA Michael Dyment, Managing Partner, NEXA Advisors Cyrus Sigari, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, UP.partners Jim Viola, President & CEO, HAI Starr Ginn, AAM National Campaign Lead, NASA |
1530–1700 | eVTOL Industry Updates: While 2020 has been a difficult year, it has been marked with great successes in advancing eVTOL technology. Aircraft developers will share their updates and plans. | Moderator: Colin Theodore, NASA Tim Williams, Chief Engineer, Vertical Aerospace Joerg-Peter Mueller, Head of Urban Air Mobility, Airbus Kyle Clark, Founder, Beta Technologies Gary Gysin, President and CEO, Wisk |
January 27, 2021 | ||
0800–1000 | Modeling and Simulation: One of the key enabling technologies for eVTOL developing is access to modeling and simulation tools. These tools allow designers the ability to iterate designs and operations at faster than real-time. | Moderator: Ion Vintilescu, Boeing David Segal, Director, Business Transformation, FAD&E, ptc Tony Gioutsos, Director Portfolio Development, Autonomous Americas, Siemens Ronald du Val, President, Advanced Rotorcraft Technology Dan Wachspress, Senior Associate, Continuum Dynamics |
1030–1200 | Standards Development:The development of industry consensus standards to critical to achieving certification. This session will provide an update on the activities of the key standards development organizations. | Moderator: Anna Dietrich, CAMI Dave Stevens, Certification Program Manager, Joby Aviation; ASTM F44 Vice Chair Tom Gunnarson, Regulatory Affairs Lead, Wisk; ASTM AC433 Co Chair Mark DeAngelo, Aerospace Standards Engineer, SAE International Christine Dejong, Director, Global Innovation and Policy, GAMA; ASTM F44 Chair |
1200–1330 |
Networking Lunch with Sponsors and Exhibitors |
Sponsored Technical Talk: Recent eVTOL Certification Challenges & Real-World Solutions Vance Hilderman, Chief Technical Officer, Afuzion |
1330–1500 | Advanced Manufacturing: Electric VTOL requires very lightweight and strong materials that can be produced inexpensively. This session highlights the latest manufacturing technologies and materials that will enable affordable vehicles and infrastructure. | Moderator: Bill Bihlman, Founder & President, Aerolytics LLC DeWayne Howell, Senior Applications Engineer, Toray Imad Atallah, Director, Strategic Marketing, Hexcel Bob Hess, Engineering Manager, BAE Systems Jonathan Sourkes, Commercial Manager, TxV Aero Composites / Victrex Tulinda Larsen, Executive Director, UAMMI |
1530–1700 | eVTOL Industry Updates: While 2020 has been a difficult year, it has been marked with great successes in advancing eVTOL technology. Aircraft developers will share their updates and plans. | Moderator: Carl Russell, NASA Nobuo Kishi, Chief Technology Officer, SkyDrive Jon Rimanelli, Founder/CEO, Airspace Experience Technologies (ASX) Tine Tomazic, Group CTO, Pipistrel John Piasecki, President and CEO, Piasecki Aircraft |
January 28, 2021 | ||
0800–1000 | Infrastructure: While eVTOL vehicles get headlines, they will need infrastructure available to fly. Not just vertiports, but weather gathering and distribution, air traffic management systems, and centers for everything from flight test to operations | Moderator: Yolanka Wulff, Co-Director, Community Air Mobility Initiative Felipe Varon, Founder & CEO, Varon Vehicles Gene Dolgin, VP of Strategy and GM, ClimaCell Chris Kucera, Co-Founder & Head of Strategic Partnerships, OneSky |
1030–1200 | Realistic and Positive Training for eVTOL/VTOL Operators: As we approach the time when vehicles and infrastructure are in place for operations, realistic flight simulation and training facilities will be required to baseline and improve piloting skills. | Moderator: Scott Smith, ARINC Michael Uleski, Lead Instructor, UST, FlightSafety International Timothy Schoenauer & Marilyn Pearson, CAE Nick Papadopoli, Nick Papadopoli Consulting Arnab Lahiri, Training & Simulation Group, FAA |
1200–1330 | Networking Lunch with Sponsors and Exhibitors | Sponsored Technical Talk: How the Partial Discharge Phenomenon Could Stall Your eVTOL Project Tom Turner, Product Manager, Carlisle Sponsored Technical Talk: ASR…Increasing Safety for the Future of Flight Larry Williams, CEO, ASR |
1330–1500 | Future Vertical Workforce: As newly-hired engineers embark upon an ongoing, broad education in vertical lift aviation. This education is critical for these engineers to become high-performing subject matter experts, and the ongoing world-class effectiveness of CCDC AvMC ADD in executing its mission demonstrates the success of this broad education thrust. The session covers education in vertical lift aviation, categorized into formal education and in-house (on-the-job) education. | Moderator: Dan Newman, Senior Technical Fellow, Boeing Mark Robeson, Lead, Structures Technical Area, US Army Igor Cherepinsky, Director, Sikorsky Innovations, Sikorsky Kathryn Creedy, Editor in Chief, FA/AW News Nancy Leveson, Professor, MIT David Segal, Director, Business Transformation, FAD&E, ptc Amy Pritchett, Head of Aerospace Engineering, Penn State |
1530–1700 | eCTOL / eSTOL Industry Updates: Electric VTOL shares much of its potential success and most of its supply chain with the eCTOL/eSTOL industry. Leaders from this market provide an update on their progress and plans | Moderator: Ken Swartz, Aeromedia Communcations Marie-Claire Camin, Sales Director, Turbotech Marc Ausman, CEO & Co-Founder, Airflow.aero Kevin Noertker, Co-Founder, Ampaire |
9th Biennial Autonomous VTOL Technical Meeting
The 21st century has seen a continued emphasis on Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) and greater autonomy and automation for both military and civilian applications. Unmanned aircraft are in varying stages of development all over the world, and continue to expand into the civil and military sectors for a variety of uses. Autonomy is being used to unmanned versions of manned helicopters for dull, dirty and dangerous military cargo missions. In addition, the operator-interface and human factors can be one of the most significant contributions to UAS safety and successful operations. Correspondingly, technologies and regulation are being developed to safely operate UAS, and integrate them into commercial and military airspace.
Meanwhile, automation and various levels of autonomy are being used in modern civil helicopter cockpits, while the military’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) aircraft will need to be optionally-manned or optimally-manned. Autonomy is also a key enabler for new classes of vehicles for civil missions — such as personal air vehicles, urban air mobility and air taxi missions — using electric or hybrid-electric propulsion (eVTOL).
This biennial meeting is an excellent opportunity to learn about and discuss with academic, industry, and military engineers from around the world the latest advancements in manned/unmanned, electric/hybrid/turboshaft-powered, and civil/military autonomous VTOL aircraft technology.
Papers have been invited in the areas of autonomous or unmanned air vehicles and control stations, including the following:
- Civilian and military platforms of all sizes, ranging from micro vehicles (MAVs) through full-scale manned aircraft, and the full range of autonomy and associated enabling technologies
- Fully autonomous, ground-controlled, and optionally manned vehicles
- All aspects of operator interface design
- Air vehicle and operator control stations
Preliminary Autonomous VTOL Technical Agenda | ||
Session 1: Invited Speakers | Chairperson: Ajay Sehgal, KBR Jan. 26, 2021 | All times are in MST (GMT-7) |
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1330–1400 | eXtreme Unmanned Aerial Systems (XUAS) for Multi-domain Operations through VTOL and Extreme Mobility in all Environments and Terrains (MOVEMENT) | Rajneesh Singh and Brett Piekarski, US Army Vehicle Technology Directorate |
1400–1430 | Using Autonomy to significantly improve safety for VTOL Vehicles | Igor Cherepinsky, Sikorsky LMCO |
1430-1500 | V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) communications to alleviate burden on ATM (Advanced Air Traffic Management) or on ATC to deconflict traffic (in conjunction with GAMA) | Francis X. Govers III, Bell |
1530–1600 | Micro Air Vehicles to Delivery Drones: Growing Potential Applications | Inderjit Chopra, University of Maryland |
1600–1630 | Essential Capabilities for Autonomous Flight in the National Air Space | Sanjeev Singh, Near Earth Autonomy |
Session 2: Flight Dynamics, Controls and Simulation | Chairperson: Dr. Russell Enns, Boeing Jan. 27, 2021 | All times are in MST (GMT-7) |
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0800–0830 | Wing Tilt Scheduling in Tandem-Wing VTOL Configurations | Kacper Grzedzinski, Valentin Stephan and Argyrios Zolotas, Cranfield University |
0830–0900 | The Systematic Methods to define the Deck Environment of a non-traditional Ship Platform for a Maritime VTOL UAS | Bernard Ferrier, Hoffman Engineering; A. Sehgal, KBR; J. Duncan, MoD; M. R. Belmont, Exeter University |
0900–0930 | A Robust Uniform Control Approach for VTOL Aircraft | Jacob W. Cook and Irene M. Gregory, NASA Langley |
1030–1100 | Toward an Urban Air Mobility Ride Quality and Safety Assessment Analytical Tool | Jeffrey Keller, A. Sharma, D. Wachspress, Continuum Dynamics; J. Horn and P. Theron, Penn State |
1100–1130 | A Modular and Novel Flight Stabilization System for Highly Unstable sUAV Configurations | Nicholas Rehm and Inderjit Chopra, UMD |
Session 3: Aerodynamics and Acoustics | Chairperson: Prof. Lakshmi Shankar, Georgia Tech Jan. 27, 2021 | All times are in MST (GMT-7) |
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1330–1400 | Experimental Flight Testing of High-Speed Mini Quadrotor Biplane Tail-sitter | Peter Ryseck, G. Jacobellis, D. Yeo and I. Chopra, UMD |
1400–1430 | Proprotor/Wing/Flap Interaction For V/STOL Aircraft With Partial Slipstream Immersion | Todd R. Quackenbush, D. Wachspress, M. Yu and C. Solomon, Continuum Dynamics |
1430–1500 | Time Variation of Rotor Broadband Noise | Ze Feng, K. Brentner and E. Greenwood, Penn State |
1530–1600 | Combined Momentum Simple Vortex Theory Inflow Model for Multi-Rotor Configurations | Feyyaz Guner and JVR Prasad, Georgia Tech |
1600-1630 | Fundamental Aeroelastic Analysis of an Urban Air Mobility Rotor | Stephen J. Wright, NASA Ames |
Session 4: UAV Operations and Certification | Chairperson: Dr. Daniel Schrage Jan. 28, 2021 | All times are in MST (GMT-7) |
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0800–0830 | Certification of Machine Learning Algorithms for Safety-critical Avionics | Luuk van Dijk, Daedalean Corp. |
0830–0900 | Concept of Operations for Unmanned Rotorcraft in Maritime Security and Rescue Operations in Germany | Bianca Isabella Schuchardt and Alexander Donkels, DLR Institute of Flight Systems |
0900–0930 | Detection of Obstacle-free Landing Zones in Crowded Environments for Aerial System Emergency Planning | Caleb Harris, Alexia Payan and Dimitri Mavris, Georgia Tech |
0930–1000 | Urban Aerial Mobility Networks using Amphibious Vertical Takeoff and Landing Vehicles | Larry Young, NASA Ames |
1030–1100 | A Civil Military Functional Safety Management Development Assurance Framework Example for Certification of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems | Dan Schrage and JVR Prasad, Georgia Tech; Eric Johnson, Penn State; Suresh Kannan, Nodein Autonomy |
Session 5: Design and Structures | Chairperson: Prof. Inderjit Chopra, University of Maryland Jan. 28, 2021 | All times are in MST (GMT-7) |
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1330-1400 | Real-time Load Following with a 100kW Hybrid-Electric Generator System of an eVTOL Power Profile Simulation in a Turbulent Atmosphere | Kyle Collins, P. Curier, R. Prazenica and R. Anderson, ERAU (Florida) |
1400-1430 | Interface Properties and Improvements in Overmolded Composites | S. Ivan, S. Green, F. Ferfecki and J. Sourkes; Victrex and TxV Aero composites |
1430-1500 | A Study of Past, Present, and Future Mars Rotorcraft | Michael Radotich, S. Withrow-Maser, Z. deSouza and S. Gelhar, H. Gallagher, NASA Ames |
1530–1600 | High Speed Long Range Powered-Lift e/hVTOL Dual System Aircraft Designs | Brian Morgan, VOX Aircraft |
1600-1630 | Automation-ready Process for High-rate Manufacturing of Aerospace Capable Composite Parts | Kevin Dupuis, A Rodriguez, R.Key, A. Bras and A. Whysall, Solvay Composite Materials |
1630–1700 | Mechanical Design of the Urban Air Mobility Side-by-Side Test Stand | Haley Cummings, G. Willink, and C. Silva, NASA Ames |
Updated Jan. 13, 2021