View past webinars on the VFS Video Library page!
The Vertical Flight Society is hosting virtual technical sessions, workshops, presentations and interviews on timely and relevant topics in VTOL and eVTOL. These webinars are hosted either by VFS headquarters or by our chapters around the world. There are sponsorship opportunities for each of the webinars.
The programs provide important information to help the community continue advancing vertical flight.
| 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. |
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| There will be a limited number of sponsorships available. Contact Jim Sherman to apply for a sponsorship and register. Platinum Sponsorship: $5,000 — includes logo on the program promotions, 2 minute video promotion at the start of the session. (Subject to approval and availability.) |
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| Previous webinars and resources: | |
| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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Durand R Begault has worked as a research scientist at NASA Ames since 1988 in the areas of human factors, aerospace communication and warning systems, virtual reality, psychoacoustics, and multimodal research. He is a fellow of the Audio Engineering Society and has over 100 publications and 4 patents assigned to NASA. Dr. Begault recently implemented a multi-channel spatial auditory laboratory for psychoacoustic investigations of UAM sound within the Human Systems Integration Division (Code TH) and works collaboratively with psychoacoustic researchers at NASA Langley Research Center.
Peter H. Schmidt, Co-Founder and COO of Transcend Air, is an entrepreneur and executive with startup, turn-around, and large enterprise experience. Schmidt’s aviation roles have included sUAS test pilot, with two first flights; President & COO of Linear Air, Eclipse 500 operator and Part 135 online charter marketplace; COO of Jet Advisors, a business aviation consultancy; and SVP of National Aviation Academy, the second largest Part 147 aviation mechanic program in the U.S. In his pre-aviation career, Schmidt led several networking and embedded systems companies, including as CTO North America for Ipanema Technologies, CEO of Echo Engineering, Division Manager of Teradyne, and Co-Founder and President of Midnight Networks. An aerobatic pilot, Schmidt did his undergrad in computer science and has a masters degree in management at MIT.
Gary Gysin is the Chief Executive Officer of Wisk. He brings more than 30 years of experience delivering market leadership and rapid growth in the autonomous vehicle, energy, IOT, and enterprise high technology sectors. Before joining Wisk, Gary was the president and CEO of Liquid Robotics, an autonomous ocean robotics company that fundamentally changed the way the world accesses, collects and monitors ocean data.
Bob Hammett serves as the CEO of OneSky, a recent spin-out company from Analytical Graphics, Inc. with headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania. In this role, Bob has senior leadership responsibility for the development and delivery of innovative UTM and UAM software. Bob has more than 30 years of experience in the information-technology industry providing COTS software and service solutions to government and commercial customers. Bob joined AGI in 2003 and has held Business Development, Sales Management, and Business Unit leadership positions. Prior to AGI, he spent seven years with Parametric Technology Corporation delivering engineering and enterprise product lifecycle management solutions to global aerospace, defense and manufacturing organizations. He held similar positions prior to that at Control Data Corporation. Bob graduated with a Systems Engineering degree from the United States Naval Academy and served over 28 years on active and reserve duty, retiring as a Captain. On active duty, Bob served as Communications Officer and Operations Department Head aboard USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN 363) and later as an Engineering Duty Officer and New Construction Submarine Project Officer. His reserve assignments included four Commanding Officer tours. Bob also earned an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University, is a licensed Professional Engineer and completed the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certification.