AIAA AVIATION FORUM – Day 2 (June 16, 2020)
Forum Theme: We Get You Here, There and Now Everywhere
Day 2 Theme: Emerging Technology/NASA
The plenary address this morning concentrated on the first "A" in NASA this morning, as we welcomed NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, to everyone's "small screen." A former naval aviator, Mr. Bridenstine's showed that his passion for Aeronautics and the Aeronautics Research is truly "big screen" worthy. His spoke excitedly about his favorite airplane – the X-29 forward swept wing airplane built to demonstrate computerized flight controls and the use of composite materials in the planes wing's primary structure. Later, in his introductory remarks at the Forum 360 Panel on NASA Aeronautics, Bob Pearce, the NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Research talked about his own industry experience working on the X-29's aerodynamics and flight controls. But far from looking back, both Mr. Bridenstine and Mr. Pearce instead were looking ahead – to how the NASA Aeronautics Research program today will affect aviation for the next 50 years. By revolutionizing large civil transportation aviation and by enabling an entirely new modes of transportation, such as air taxis, through their Advanced Air Mobility project. The picture was painted of exciting things to come in aviation.
Day 2 Top Three Take-Aways:
1) Large Civil Transport Aviation has been on an approximately 50+ year run since the advent of the use of the turbine engine for propulsion. The NASA Aeronautics Research Program seeks to transform the next 50 years with technologies such as truce-braced wings, electric propulsion, small core-turbine engines, and high-rate composite manufacturing. It also seeks to pave the way for the first 50 years of high-density on-demand air mobility, e.g, air taxis, through research partnerships and community integration leading to a National Campaign Series that will enable the operation of 100s of vehicles simultaneously in an urban environment.
2) The CFD Community announced the CFD2030 Aerospace Grand Challenge for Revolutionary CFD Capabilities. Challenge problems include a) High-lift aerodynamics prediction, b) Propulsion – a full engine simulation in less than a week, from model build-to-results, c) Simulation of hypersonic glider and air-breathing vehicles, and d) Space access – CFD in the loop Monte Carlo simulation for space vehicle design
3) Once again, the Rising Leaders in Aerospace, this time in cooperation with the International Forum for Aviation Research secured an compelling speaker – Greg Bowles, the Head of Government Affairs at Joby Aviation talked with the rising leaders about the Joby eVTOL aircraft and how and why it will be used in on-demand mobility. He previewed the aircraft which cruises at 200 mph, has a range of 150 miles, and is 100 times quieter than existing air vehicles that typically operate in the urban airspace. Clearly, opportunities for these rising leaders who are just starting their careers in aerospace are varied and exciting.
Quote of the Day: My favorite plane is the X-29, a forward-swept wing aircraft that was aerodynamically unstable. It wasn't flown in order to build forward swept-wing aircraft, but rather to demonstrate computerized flight control systems and that things such as wings could be made from composite materials. -Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator in response to a question about NASA 's X-57 and X-59 experimental aircraft.
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Thomas B. (Tom) Irvine
Consultant
TBI Aerospace Consulting LLC
Cedar, MI
tbirvine3@gmail.com------------------------------