View past webinars on our 2021 Webinar Archive or 2020 Webinar Archive pages, 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.
| Thu., April 22: US Army Aviation Policy for Advanced Manufactured Aircraft Parts, presented by the VFS Philadelphia, Arizona and Redstone Chapters 1900-2000 EDT/1800-1900 CDT/1600-1700 PDT/2300-0000 UTC Moderator: Ed Martin, US Army Speaker: Mark Ratliff, US Army  Aviation parts, components and support products are crucial to maintain readiness on a global scale. The utilization of Advanced Manufacturing (AdvM) techniques provides an excellent opportunity to supplement the supply line to ultimately help improve readiness. The US Army mission for airworthiness related to AdvM is to ensure that the parts, components and support products made utilizing AdvM have sufficient information and process controls in place so that the components will operate effectively to support the attaining, sustaining and completion of flight. This policy provides users, commanders and US Army aviation enterprise stakeholders with the processes related to the categorization and types of supporting data necessary for airworthiness approval. The policy also provides the appropriate path to initiate an airworthiness assessment for these parts, components and support products. |
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| Fri., April 23: Recent Vertical Lift Research at the National Research Council of Canada, presented by the VFS Montreal Chapter 1130 EDT/1030 CDT/0830 PDT/15300 UTC  Agenda: Intro to NRC, IAM & Canadian Vertical Lift Autonomy Demonstration research – Mr. Derek Gowanlock, NRC-Canada Rotorcraft Flight Sim Model Fidelity Improvement – Bill Gubbels, NRC-Canada In-flight Physiological Monitoring of Pilot Workload – Dr. Andrew Law, NRC-Canada Drone Impact Testing – Dr. Azzedine Dadouche, NRC-Canada For over 60 years the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada’s Aerospace Research Centre has conducted a broad variety of helicopter and more broadly vertical flight focused research. Structural, manufacturing, flight controls, and aerodynamic improvements have all been focus areas for the research at the NRC. In this presentation four of the Aerospace Research Centre’s researchers and engineers will present the NRC’s Integrated Aerial Mobility (IAM) research program and several current research projects, including flight autonomy, rotorcraft simulator model fidelity improvements, in-flight physiological monitoring of pilot workload, recent testing of drone impact on aircraft structure. |
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| Fri., April 23: VFS Hampton Roads Chapter Virtual Luncheon 1200 EDT/1100 CDT/0900 PDT/1600 UTC Speaker: Ms. Susan Gorton, NASA  The presentation will provide an overview of NASA's new Advanced Air Mobility Mission with particular emphasis on research for eVTOL vehicle technologies and will include an update on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. |
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| Thu., May 6: Raising $tartup Capital: eVTOL Financing 101 - Lesson 2 1200-1300 EDT/1100-1200 CDT/0900-1000 PDT/1600-1700 UTC Lecturers: Michael Dyment, NEXA Capital Van Espahbodi, Starburst  The Vertical Flight Society is starting a new series of regular webinars to educate our members on avenues for startup funding. "Raising $tartup Capital" is intended to provide an introduction for our member companies on the different pathways for raising capital.
This second lecture will feature experts explaining investment needs and timing of the four supply chains defining eVTOL success, highlighting best practices for entrepreneurs seeking capital and providing historic data and current trends in venture capital placement. This is the second in a series of programs intended to educate the industry on the ins and outs of securing capital.
We want to help our small business members with innovative ideas be as efficient as possible in their efforts to find funding, and reduce the number of blind alleys that only waste time and effort. A lot of money is being invested in eVTOL/advanced air mobility and a majority of our member companies are active in this space, so these webinars will be focused primarily (but not exclusively) on eVTOL/AAM.
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| Wed., May 25: FAA and VFS Present the Vision Systems Summit 1000-1400 EDT/0900-1300 CDT/0700-1100 PDT/1400-1800 UTC Moderator: Cliff Johnson, FAA Speakers: Carlo Tiana, Collins Trish Ververs, Honeywell   “Sightlines: The Emerging Role of Advanced Vision Systems for Vertical Flight” Advancements in Vision System technologies offers the potential to “see” clearly in degraded visual environments (DVE); such as those often experienced by rotorcraft. Helicopters are no stranger to challenging operational environments at low altitudes, over water, at night, in high and low lighting conditions, in obstacle-rich environments, and during less-than-ideal weather conditions. Rotorcraft pilots are frequently called upon to operate to and from sites that lack the real estate to support the necessary infrastructure for instrument approaches similar to those used by fixed-wing pilots (i.e. approach lighting and instrument landing systems). To confront these challenges, enhance safety, mitigate risk, and reduce accidents/incidents, the rotorcraft community embracing advanced technological solutions. These solutions include advanced Vision Systems technologies that can provide increased situational awareness capabilities to detect and remain clear of obstacles and weather in visually degraded environments. The Vertical Flight Society is proud to present the first in a series of initiatives focused on exploring the viability and utility of Advanced Vision Systems technologies for vertical flight for the purposes of enhanced safety and a potential operational credit. Although Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS) have been in existence for some time and are used by multiple fixed-wing and rotorcraft operators; corresponding guidance and authorizations do not currently exist for rotorcraft for using EFVS on straight-in Instrument Approach Procedures to runways and existing regulations do not support other types of rotorcraft operations (i.e. Point in Space, Offshore, etc.). To address this gap, the goal of the Vision Systems Summit is to develop a framework to enable the use of Vision Systems technologies for enhancing safety and possible operational credit by understanding the particular sensor and display technologies, identifying specific operational profiles, and discussing regulatory considerations associated with these technologies, across all stakeholders. This summit is being presented in partnership with the United States Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), EUROCAE/RTCA WG-79/SC-213, the Helicopter Association International (HAI), the General Aviation Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA), and other safety teams, government, and industry organizations representing the vertical flight community. |
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| June 14-15: 2021 Short Course on Electric VTOL Technology 1000-1500 EDT/0900-1400 CDT/0700-1200 PDT/1400-1900 UTC Lead Instructor: Anubhav Datta, University of Maryland Instructors: Michael Ricci, Launchpoint Technologies James Baeder, University of Maryland Bob Hess, BAE Systems  The Vertical Flight Society’s signature eVTOL class is now expanded over 2-days with in-depth coverage of industry-standard battery systems development (BAE), advanced high-power hybrid-electric hardware (LaunchPoint), PEM fuel cells and hydrogen propulsion and as always, the fundamentals of Vertical Lift and rotor aeromechanics from design to state-of-the-art in acoustics (Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, University of Maryland). More information about the course can be found here. |
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| June 22-23: 2021 Short Course on Introduction to Practical Cost Estimating Methods for VTOL Aircraft 1000-1500 EDT/0900-1400 CDT/0700-1200 PDT/1400-1900 UTC Lead Instructor: Robert Scott Instructor: Michael Vegh  Are you working to build the next great VTOL aircraft? Do you share an interest in trying to solve one of the great challenges to the application of rotorcraft? Whether you’re a student of aircraft design, a professional engineer, or a program manager, this short course is for you. In this 2 day class, we will explain the language, methods, and strategies that define the field of aerospace cost engineering as it is applied to VTOL aircraft. This class will teach you how to estimate and describe the cost of an aircraft and how to identify an affordable design. More information about the course can be found here. |
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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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Maryam Khoshlahjeh is Propeller Integrity Lead at Joby Aviation, an eVTOL venture-backed startup in Santa Cruz, CA. Prior to joining Joby Aviation, Maryam worked at Sikorsky Aircraft as a Deputy Program Manager and Dynamics Lead. Maryam was the recipient of the 2016 Marshall-Tan Engineering Leadership Award and President’s Award in 2015 at Sikorsky. Maryam started her undergraduate education in Iran. She moved to the US and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from San José State University. She started working as an Aerospace Engineer at Advanced Rotorcraft Technology Inc, in Sunnyvale, CA. She went on to receive an MS degree in Aeronautics & Astronautics from Stanford University and Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University.
Chip Downing is the Senior Market Development Director of Aerospace and Defense at Real-Time Innovations (RTI). In this position he manages RTI’s global aerospace and defense business and helps drive the RTI Connext product, now used in over 1,500 global systems, into the commercial and military aerospace market. In addition, Mr. Downing currently serves as Chair of the FACE Consortium Business Working Group Outreach Subcommittee, promoting the FACE approach globally. A luminary of the embedded systems industry and an innovator for creating COTS safety certification evidence for commercial RTOSs, he previously served as Senior Director of Aerospace & Defense at Wind River Systems, where he was responsible for the business development of the company’s global A&D markets. During his 14-year Wind River tenure, design wins grew for certified avionics products grew to more than 500 projects. Mr. Downing has also led sales, marketing, and consulting organizations at Esterel Technologies (now Ansys), Validated Software, OnCore Systems, and Mentor Graphics (now Siemens).
Anubhav Datta is a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center (AGRC) and an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park.Anubhav Datta He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Maryland. He re-joined AGRC as faculty in 2016 after nine years at the U. S. Army Aviation Development Directorate (ADD) at NASA Ames Research Center. At Maryland, Datta and his students are focused on future vertical lift barriers through Mach-scale wind-tunnel tests and HPC-based high-fidelity simulations. The research conducted by Datta and his colleagues have led to new fields in VTOL such as Mars Helicopter (2000), CFD/CA (2004), and eVTOL (2012). Over the years his work has been recognized by the VFS Grover E. Bell and Alfred Gessow Awards, NASA Technical Excellence in Publications Award, and U.S. Army and NASA Group Achievement Awards. Datta is the founder and inaugural chair of the VFS eVTOL Technical Committee, Chair of the AIAA Structural Dynamics Sub-committee on Conferences, and Associate Editor of the Journal of the AHS.
Michael Ricci is the Vice President of Engineering, LaunchPoint Technologies, and the driving force behind LaunchPoint Technologies “Propulsion By Wire” electric aircraft propulsion effort and spent the last 6 years as PI on a number of projects to develop electric aircraft propulsion technologies.Mike Ricci These projects have included the development of highly efficient and powerful dual halbach array motors, high specific power wide bandgap semiconductor motor drives, and hybrid-electric gen-sets and bus power management systems. Applications have included HALE vehicles, helicopter electric tail rotors, multi-rotors, and eVTOL vehicles. During Mike’s 17 year tenure at LaunchPoint Technologies he has worked on flywheel energy storage, implantable heart assist pumps, medical oxygen concentrators, engine valve actuators, and a magnetically-levitated freight transportation system. Prior to joining LaunchPoint, Mr. Ricci worked as a mechanical engineer with Spectra F/X, a theme park engineering company, where he served as Project Engineer on several very large custom systems with high cycle rates, intimate man-machine interfaces, and high human-safety concerns.
James Baeder is a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park.Jim Baeder He is currently the Samuel P. Langley Distinguished Professor at the National Institute for Aerospace. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He joined the AGRC in 1993 after nine years at AFDD. His research interests are in developing and applying Computational Fluid Dynamic methods to better understand rotor aerodynamics, acoustics and dynamics. He is a pioneer in the development of high-fidelity CFD and aeroacoustic methods and tools for rotorcraft. Currently he is focused on the development of improved CFD algorithms on GPGPU technology, to: capture the details of laminar/turbulent transition; dynamic stall; as well as tip vortex formation, convection and interaction with other surfaces including fuselages, towers or the ground and including adjoint capabilities. Dr. Baeder's research has been funded by Excelon, NASA Ames and Langley, the Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, the Army Research Office, the National Rotorcraft Technology Center, NAVAIR and DARPA, with support from the various helicopter companies. Dr. Baeder is a Technical Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society, member of the Acoustics Technical Committee (1996-present), member of the Aerodynamics and Propulsion Area Committee, and Chairs the Innovation and Commercialization Committee of the Business Network for Offshore Wind as well as the National Offshore Wind Innovation Center.
Robert Hess is a Systems Engineering Manager at BAE Systems. He has been working in the aerospace industry for over 35 years. Bob HessHe currently leads the development of high-power, high-voltage battery systems for vehicle propulsion at BAE Systems where he leverages a multidisciplinary design team to advance battery solutions. Over the last 10 years, Bob has been involved with the analysis and development of Li Ion, ultra-capacitor and LiS battery concepts for all-electric and hybrid-electric propulsion. He holds several patents in the area of battery systems. As he has many years’ experience in vehicle avionics systems, Bob is able to apply a broad systems approach to the design of battery systems, including design for safe operations and sustainability. Prior to his work with battery systems, Bob was involved in the development of helicopter HUMS as well as aircraft aerodynamic analysis. He published a number of papers in the fields of battery systems, diagnostics, prognostics and aircraft aerodynamic modeling and simulation. He hold a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Western New England University as well as a M.S degree from the George Washington University. Bob is a member of VFS and SAE International.
Hector is the Honeywell Chief Technology Officer for the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) & Urban Air Mobility (UAM) organization. He leads a highly motivated and skilled engineering team in developing and integrating innovative, safe and cost-effective technologies across the entire UAS/UAM ecosystem. He brings all of Honeywell’s technologies and capabilities from the Business & General Aviation, Air Transport & Regional, and Defense & Space industries to UAS/UAM into the on-board Vehicle Systems, Airspace and Ground Operations for this new industry. His professional engineering career started in 1992. He has worked for a total of four Aerospace companies throughout his career each providing increasing levels of learned knowledge, growth, and skills in the following industries: Defense, Space, Commercial Air Transport, Commercial Business Aviation, General Aviation and most recently in Urban Air Mobility. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, fluent in Spanish, and leads the Honeywell Corporate Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Inclusion, Diversity, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives.
Dana Jensen joined Gemini in 2019 from the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Industrial Policy where he led the DoD's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) Non-Notified Transactions Unit. Previously, Dana worked on Political-Military affairs with the Department of State and as an equity derivatives trader with Blackrock and BNP Paribas. Dana holds master’s degrees in Archaeology from Stanford University and Geography from the University of Florida.
Rafferty Jackson built her diverse career through leadership roles at major market disruptors, repeatedly creating executive leadership roles requiring oversight, accountability, strategic planning and execution as well as collaboration across all company functions. Now she focuses on using her unique and valuable business insights to fill leaders and founders with courage, new tools and a strategy forward for them to transform company purpose into company culture, creating better businesses through better jobs, products and services.
Kirsten Bartok Touw has been an active early-stage investor in new and emerging advanced air mobility, or AAM, technologies through AirFinance’s Venture Capital arm. She has sourced, diligenced and executed early stage investments in AI, machine learning, computer vision, autonomy, data analytics, drones, VTOL aircraft, electrification and battery technology. She is also an advisor to many AAM startups and a frequent speaker at the intersection of AAM and finance. She was named to Corporate Jet Investor’s “Power List” in 2015 as one of the industry’s top 10 innovators and is currently the only woman on the list.
Mark Ratliff is an aerospace engineer who has been supporting US Army Aviation for the past 11 years as a member of the Systems Readiness Directorate (SRD). During his time he has served in multiple capacities at SRD including structural engineer on OH-58, systems engineer supporting both the US Army Fleet and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) partner AH-64 aircraft, and currently as the rapid response integration manager supporting the Prototype Integration Facility as an Airworthiness advisor on all platforms. He has also spent time at the Multi-national Aviation Special Projects Office (MASPO) as the technical lead for the AH-6i aircraft..
Robert Scott is an aerospace engineer with over 10 years of research experience in aircraft design and cost assessment at the conceptual development stage for various government programs involving advanced rotorcraft and VTOL aircraft configurations. He holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech.
Michael Vegh is an aerospace engineer specializing in the application of battery models to aircraft design, with experience performing government assessments of unconventional configurations and concepts, including both fixed wing and rotary wing designs. He holds a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford.
Carlo Tiana has focused his career on the development of vision systems spanning the electromagnetic spectrum in the interest of aviation safety and operational improvements of airborne platforms. In his early days at NASA, he put his Physics background to use in the design of windowless supersonic cockpits where windows were to be replaced by sensors. He wildly underestimated how challenging this problem would be, and how much of his life it would consume. When it became apparent that no one sensor could solve all aspects of low-visibility operations, he developed some of the early successful imaging sensor fusion techniques, which are now part of our multispectral EVS camera product line. He relishes expanding the reach of our vision products to users around the globe.
Trish Ververs, PH.D., is an Engineering Fellow in the Advanced Electronics and Services in Honeywell’s Advanced Technology Division. Trish joined Honeywell in 1998 and has led programs in the areas of High Speed Research, Flight Critical Systems Research, Aviation Safety Program’s System Wide Accident Prevention, Advanced Primary Flight Displays, Improving Information Intake Under Stress/Augmented Cognition, Neurotechnology for Information Analysts, Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems, Combined Vision Systems, and Advanced Features for Commercial Helicopters. Her interests include avionics display design, alerting and notification, cognitive state assessment, and human factors evaluation. Dr. Ververs served as the technical lead for the Honeywell Combined Vision Systems program designing and evaluating a Next Generation avionics display that integrates real-time infrared imagery with Honeywell’s innovative synthetic vision technology for advanced cockpits. She’s currently the Human Factors technical lead of Honeywell’s NextGen Avionics flight deck. Dr. Ververs regularly serves on RTCA Special Committees addressing human factors and pilot interface issues for avionics. She holds multiple patents on alerting and notification, display design, and the human-machine interface and is a six-time recipient of Honeywell Aerospace’s Technical Award. Dr. Ververs was the award recipient of Avionics Magazine’s Women in Technology Emerging Leader.
Ms. Susan Althoff Gorton has been with NASA for 22 years and has been the NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology Project lead for the past 15 years. The project mission is to develop and validate tools, technologies and concepts to overcome key barriers for vertical lift vehicles. Ms. Gorton is responsible for the work in this area that is conducted at NASA Ames, Armstrong, Glenn and Langley. Prior to joining NASA, she was a researcher in the Army's Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, now known as the Technology Development Directorate, for 15 years. Ms. Gorton is an Honorary Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society and Associate Fellow of the AIAA.
As Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Starburst, Van Espahbodi is championing today’s aerospace renaissance, uniting early-stage technology innovators with private investment to modernize infrastructure in mobility, communications and intelligence. Van launched Starburst in the US in 2015, operating globally today with offices in Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi, and Montreal. His team works alongside 500+ technology startups developing new aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, drones, sensors, autonomy, robotics and much more. An entrepreneurial futurist, Van has over 16 years of experience in aerospace, identifying future trends, shaping product strategy and investment trade policies. Having worked in Government and Corporate strategy positions in both defense and commercial aviation markets, Van started his career as a congressional aide before joining Raytheon and later UK NATS, the British air navigation service provider. Following graduate studies at George Mason University, Van participated in executive programs at Thunderbird School of Management in AZ and Cranfield School of Management in the UK. He currently serves as a member of the Economic Development Advisory Council for the City of El Segundo and the Advisory Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum.