2020 VFS Webinar Schedule

View past webinars on our 2020 Webinar Archive page or check out all of our videos 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.  

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.	Register Sponsored by:
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!	Register Sponsored by:
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.	Register
Tues.-Thurs., Sept. 1-3: VFS Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure
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.	Register
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.	Register
Mon.-Thurs., Oct. 5-8: Forum 76 The Vertical Flight Society's 76th Annual Forum & Technology Display is the world's leading international technical event on vertical flight technology. The virtual conference will span 4 days and include 230+ technical papers on every discipline from Acoustics to Unmanned Systems, as well as invited presentations and discussions by leaders in the military, government agencies and industry. The Technology Display, running concurrent with the Forum, is the most extensive exposition of cutting-edge vertical flight technologies in the world, and also includes other technologies more broadly applicable to aerospace in general. Leading manufacturers, service providers, defense agencies, universities, and research and development organizations will showcase the very latest in vertical flight technology in our virtual exhibit hall. Sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities are available on the Forum 76 event page.	Register
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.)

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.

Jonathan Hartman works at Sikorsky Innovations. In this role, he have maintains an international focus while gaining responsibility for a broad portfolio of emerging technologies with significant impact to the corporation. His role includes assisting with developing company strategy for emerging technology investment, creating partnerships with technology and funding providers, and building technical teams to execute rapid maturation activities to risk reduce value propositions.

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.

Larry Young works in the Aeromechanics Office, NASA Ames Research Center. Larry performs research in the area of advanced aerial vehicle and aerospace system conceptual design. Among his current and past projects are studies into fundamental vortical flow physics, tiltrotor aeroperformance and aeroacoustics, planetary aerial vehicles, vertical lift autonomous aerial vehicles, rotary-wing vehicles for disaster relief and emergency missions, metropolitan aerial transportation systems, advanced tiltrotor aircraft design, and 'rotorcraft as robots.' He was an early researcher into Mars rotorcraft and other vertical takeoff and landing vehicles for planetary exploration. He is a member of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team and mentored Phase A student intern work performed on the Titan Dragonfly project that helped lead to its New Frontiers mission award. He was the principal investigator for the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) Phase II study into metropolitan aerial transportation systems, aka Hopper networks, one of early studies into what has become known as eVTOL and Urban Air Mobility (UAM).

Dr. James Wang has held several executive leadership positions, and has more than 30 years of experience in aerospace, helicopters, defense and high-tech industries. He founded Vtolwerke LLC in 2018 and offers private consulting services in aerospace technology strategy, marketing & business strategy, engineering advising, and eVTOL problem solving. He is an expert in helicopter and eVTOL aircraft design. He is currently also a full professor teaching aircraft and VTOL design.

Dr. Wang received his bachelor degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., and a Masters and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. After completing his PhD, Dr. Wang started his career at Sikorsky Aircraft, where he was known as one of the most energetic and prolific engineers and managers; he contributed greatly to the Comanche, Black Hawk, S-92 and the Variable Diameter Tiltrotor programs.

In 2007, Dr. Wang joined AgustaWestland as the Vice President of Research & Development, reporting directly to the CEO. Dr. Wang created a comprehensive technology roadmap and initiated many pioneering research. He established three University Research Centers in Europe and one Think Tank in Japan. In 2015, Dr. Wang was promoted to become the Senior Vice President of Marketing, responsible for the global marketing strategy of all AgustaWestland helicopter products at Leonardo Helicopters. He served 7 years as a board member on the EU-sponsored 2 billion Euros CleanSky programs.

Dr. Wang was invited to teach courses and give lectures in US, Europe, Australia and Asia, and he has written over 40 technical papers. He holds seven patents and major international awards, including Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, UTC Gold Mead Award, AHS Fellow, AHS Grover Bell Award, M.I.T. Luis de Florez Award, NASA Research Award, Italian National Innovation Grand Prize, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Team Award. In 2013, WIRED Magazine named Dr. Wang “the Steve Jobs of Rotorcraft” for his ability to think “outside the box” and pushing the transportation technology boundaries by inventing and designing the AgustaWestland Project Zero, the world’s first all-electric VTOL technology demonstrator aircraft.

Barry Papke is the Director of Professional Services for No Magic Inc. He has thirty-two years of systems engineering and operations analysis experience in the aerospace and defense industry across the entire systems engineering lifecycle from concept development through integration, test and post-delivery support.

Throughout his career he has been actively involved in application of model based methods including requirements management, cost estimation, system design, and operations analysis. Barry has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Steven’s Institute of Technology. He is currently a member of the INCOSE Agile and Security Working Groups and the MBSE Initiative. Barry is an OMG-Certified Systems Modelling Professional.