The Vertical Flight Society's Annual Forum & Technology Display is the world's leading international technical event on vertical flight technology. This year, the four-day virtual meeting included more than 259 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 Vertical Flight 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 2004 – including the overall Alfred Gessow Best Paper Award – are recognized as some of the most important technical contributions in the field of vertical flight.
The Forum 79 winning technical papers are linked below.
| Technical Area | Title of Paper | Author(s) |
| Crew Stations & Human Factors: Winner of the Alfred Gessow Forum Best Paper Award | Validation of a Motion Sickness Prediction Model via Flight Tests on DLR's Bo-105 Helicopter | Philippe Petit, German Aerospace Center (DLR) |
| Acoustics | Evaluation of Acoustic Propagation in Layered Media using Wave Confinement | Subhashini Chitta, John Steinhoff, Wave CPC, Inc.; Mary Houston, Analytical Mechanics, Inc.; James H. Stephenson, U.S. Army |
| Advanced Vertical Flight (best overall in Vehicle Design disciplines) | Development, Simulation, and Flight Testing of Damage Tolerant Control Laws for the ADAPT™ Winged Compound Helicopter Scaled Demonstrator | Samuel Nadell, Tom Berger, U.S. Army; Alex Dijoseph, Eric Huang, Piasecki Aircraft Corp. |
| Aerodynamics (best overall in Aerodynamics disciplines) | Fundamental Test of a Hovering Rotor: Comprehensive Measurements for CFD Validation | Thomas R. Norman, James T. Heineck, Edward T. Chairer, Lauren N. Wagner, Gloria K. Yamauchi, Michelle Dominguez, Alex L. Sheikman, NASA Ames Research Center; Norman W. Schaeffler, NASA Langley Research Center; Austin D. Overmeyer, Manikandan Ramasamy, Christopher C. Cameron, U.S. Army |
| Aircraft Design | Blade Shape Optimization of Rotors using Neural Networks | Hrithwik Shalu, Bharath Govindarajan, Indian Institute of Technology Madras; Ananth Sridharan, VTOL Analytics LLC; Rajnesh Singh, DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory |
| Avionics & Systems | Evaluation of an Automatic System for Cockpit Integration Testing | David Frisini, Glorgia Giulianini, Marco Romano, Nicola Zonzini, Glauco Rinaldi, TXT e-Tech; Vomcemzp Taumaturgo, Leonardo Helicopters |
| Crash Safety (best overall in Vehicle Integrity disciplines) | A Summary of Test Results from a NASA Lift + Cruise eVTOL Crash Test | Justin Littell, Jacob Putnam, NASA Langley Research Center |
| Dynamics | Wind Tunnel Testing and Aeromechanics Predictions on Slowed Mach-scaled Thrust Compounding Rotorcraft with a Trailing Propeller | Noam Kaplan, Mrinalgouda Patil, Inderjit Chopra, Anubhav Datta, University of Maryland |
| Electric VTOL | Fundamental Understanding of Hybrid-Electric Power | Matt Arace, Anubhav Datta, University of Maryland |
| Handling Qualities | Piloted Simulation Evaluation of Maneuver Optimization Control for a Coaxial Compound Helicopter | Joseph Horn, Ryan Perry, Pennsylvania State University; Derek Bridges, Nicholas Kuhn, Grey Hagwood Jr., Piasecki Aircraft Corporation; Tom Berger, Anthony Gong, U.S. Army |
| Health and Usage Monitoring Systems | Towards an Evaluation Process for Regime Recognition Approaches: Addressing Variability in Labeling Training Data | Catherine Cheung, Emma Seabrook, National Research Council Canada |
| History | Operation Ivory Soap and the Largest Helicopter Rescue of WWII | Paul J. Fardink, U.S. Army (Retired) as the winner of the Bernard Lindenbaum Best Historical Paper |
| Manufacturing Tech. & Processing | Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation for Additive Friction Stir Deposition of Aluminum Alloy | Xuxiao Li, Manoj Rajanna, Jim Lua, Global Engineering and Materials Inc.; Alan Timmons, Gabriel Murray, Nam Phan, Naval Air Warfare Center; Richard Eberheim, Solvus Global LLC |
| Modeling & Simulation | Estimation of Probability of Exceeding SC-VTOL Performance Requirements During Automatic Landing Using Subset Simulation | Christoph Krammer, Florian Holzapfel, Technical University of Munich |
| Operations (best overall in Operations & Product Support disciplines) | Simulation-Assisted, Weather-Aware Urban Air Mobility System Planning | Michael Yablonski, Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.; Alexander Klein, AvMet Applications Inc. |
| Product Support Systems Technology | SmartHangars and SAE International Aircraft Charging Standards | Joshua Portlock, Richard Watson, Electro.Aero Pty Ltd |
| Propulsion | Full Scale Gear Tooth Bending Fatigue Tests Obtained Early in the Development of a Rotorcraft Transmission | Yuriy Gmirya, Peter Palcic, Dave Binney, Wei Hu, Erin Carter, Sikorsky a Lockheed Martin Company |
| Safety | A Comparison of Traditional And Vuichard Vortex Ring State Recovery Techniques Using On-Line Simulation | Eleni Sotiropoulos-Georgiopoulos, Alexia Payan, Dimitri Mavris, Georgia Institute of Technology; Charles Johnson, Federal Aviation Administration |
| Structures & Materials | Vibratory Loads/Stress Analysis and Fatigue Alleviation with Rotorcraft Comprehensive Modeling Tool | Dooyong Lee, Chengjian He, Advanced Rotorcraft Technology Inc.; Mulugeta Haile, DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory |
| Systems Engineering Tools & Processes (best overall in Systems Engineering disciplines) | System Simulation at Airbus Helicopters: From Early Validation to Formal Certification | Nicolas Brisset, Andrew Duffy, Airbus Helicopters |
| Test & Evaluation | CH-53K Maneuvering Envelope Expansion Challenges | John Rucci, Rob Pupalaikis, Glen Knaust, Sean Maloney, Alex Faynberg, Don Ream, Steven Spoldi, Rich Lamb, Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Co.; Laura Slingerland, Kenneth Cahill, NAVAIR |
| Unmanned VTOL | Intelligent Wind Estimation for Chemical Source Localization | Jared Cooper and Michael DeVore, Barron Associates, Inc.; Jeremy Hopwood and Craig Woolsey, Virginia Tech.; and Stephan DeWekker, University of Virginia |