The Society's Annual Forum & Technology Display is the world's leading international technical event on vertical flight technology. The three-day meeting includes more than 200 technical papers on every discipline from Acoustics to Unmanned Systems. Forum Proceedings papers can be purchased as individual pdf files or as CD-ROMs from the Society's Online Library.
Every year, the best paper in each technical discipline is selected by the Society's Technical Committees. All of the best papers from each technical discipline from every Annual Forum since 2001 – including the overall Alfred Gessow Best Paper Award since 2004 – are recognized as some of the most important technical contributions in the field of vertical flight.
The Forum 74 (2018) winning technical papers are linked below.
| Technical Area | Title of Paper | Author(s) |
| Winner of the Alfred Gessow Forum Best Paper Award: Avionics & Systems |
Avoiding Obstacles during Approach: DVE-Mitigation Flight Trials and Beyond | Michael Zimmermann, Martin Gestwa, DLR (German Aerospace Center); Stephanus Klasen, Andreas Lederle, HENSOLDT Sensors GmbH |
| Acoustics | Estimating Helicopter Noise Abatement Information with Machine Learning | Eric Greenwood, NASA Langley Research Center |
| Advanced Vertical Flight | A Truly Biomimetic Hover-Capable Flapping Wing Robot | David Coleman, Moble Benedict, Texas A & M University |
| Aerodynamics | Unsteady Boundary Layer Transition Measurements on a Rotor in Forward Flight | Austin Overmeyer, US Army; Christian Wolf, German Aerospace Center (DLR); J.T. Heineck, NASA Langley Research Center |
| Aircraft Design | Heuristic Discovery of Improved Rotor Designs | Jeff Sinsay, US Army AMRDEC; Juan Alonso, Stanford University |
| Crash Safety | Preliminary Assessment of Bird Strike on Low Noise Rotor Blade Sections | Martin Annett, NASA Langley Research Center; Mike Pereira, NASA Glenn Research Center |
| Crew Stations & Human Factors | ARSAD: An Augmented Reality Spatial Auditory Display for Obstacle Avoidance for all Phases of Flight | Martine Godfroy-Cooper, Joel Miller, Elizabeth M. Wenzel, SJSUF/NASA |
| Dynamics | Automated Operational Modal Identification of a Rotor Blade | Daiju Uehara, Jayant Sirohi, Marc Eitner, University of Texas Austin |
| Handling Qualities | Piloted Simulation Evaluation of Tracking MTEs for the Assessment of High-Speed Handling Qualities | David Klyde, Systems Technology, Inc. |
| Health and Usage Monitoring Systems | Rotary Inspection Tracking System | Melvin Cooke, Traci Webb, Mandy Kramer, GS Engineering, Inc.; Zachary Edel, Corey Packard, ThermoAnalytics, Inc. |
| Manufacturing Tech. & Processing | Utilization of Factory Physics in Reducing Span and Variation in Production | Chandrashekhar Tiwari, Gregg Skinner, Bell |
| Modeling & Simulation | Full-Envelope Stitched Simulation Model of a Quadcopter Using STITCH | Eric Tobias, Mark Tischler, US Army ADD; Frank Sanders, San Jose State University |
| Operations | The Evolving Threat & Operational Environment’s Impact on Aircraft Vulnerability Reduction | Warren Aylworth, US Army |
| Product Support Systems Technology | Estimating On-Condition Direct Maintenance Cost (DMC) | Isaac Munene, Bell |
| Propulsion | Design Space Exploration of Pericyclic Transmission with Counterbalance and Bearing Load Analysis | Zachary Cameron, NASA Glenn Research Center; Edward Smith, Robert Bill, Pennsylvania State University; Hans DeSmidt, University of Tennessee |
| Safety | Development of Powered Lift Airworthiness Standards as Applied to the AW609 Tiltrotor Certification Basis | Joseph Schaeffer, David King, William Fraser, Dan Wells, AWPC |
| Structures & Materials | Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator Fuselage Proof Test | Dennis McCarthy, Dan Solari, Jasmina Maack, Boeing Co.; Darryl Toni, Matthew Spies, Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Co. |
| Systems Engineering Tools & Processes | Architecture-Driven Assurance for Safety-Critical Avionic Systems | Dan Bliek, Rockwell Collins |
| Test & Evaluation | Experimental Evaluation of Multi-rotor UAV Operation under Icing Conditions | Sihong Yan, Tomas Opazo, Jose Palacios, Jack Langelaan, Pennsylvania State University; Louis-David Germain, Transport Canada |
| Unmanned VTOL | A System for Autonomous Rotorcraft Dual-Lift Flight Research | Marc Takahashi, Matthew Whalley, Marcos Berrios, US Army; Greg Schulein, San Jose State University |