Come to SWAS to celebrate March 2026: The Goddard Centennial!
March 16th marks the 100th anniversary of Dr. Robert Goddard’s historic first flight of a liquid propulsion rocket, back in 1926. That flight is rocketry’s closest equivalent of the Wright Brothers’ first flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk in 1903. And just like the similarly historic Kitty Hawk flight, Goddard’s pioneering first liquid propulsion flight opened the way to a world-changing future that all of humankind benefits from today. The advances in rocket propulsion, guidance, and control that Dr. Goddard pioneered from the 1920s to the 1940s led to virtually every modern launch vehicle and in-space propulsion system flying today. Most of what we have as a spacefaring species today would not have been possible without liquid propulsion. Read More at AIAA Aerospace America
Southwest Aerospace Symposium (SWAS)
Saturday, 28 March 2026
UT Arlington
SEIR Engineering Bldg., Room 294
0800-1700 hrs.
College Students
Network with Aerospace Professionals
Meet industry-leading engineers and test pilots working on the cutting edge of current & future rotorcraft, aircraft, and spacecraft. Find out about intern opportunities and start networking.
High School Students
Meet and talk with UTA & UTD Engineering students
UTA & UTD will present on their programs & have display tables with rockets, drones, and airplanes. Chat with their teams about studying engineering and competing on a rocket, drone, or DBF (Design Build Fly) team or any number of other projects, as well as what it is like to study engineering at some of our great local universities.
Meet Virgin Galactic Astronauts Kelly Latimer & Mike “Sooch” Masucci!
Kelly & “Sooch” have commanded numerous test and operational flights to the edge of space in the Virgin Galactic Unity SpaceShipTwo. As Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) President, Kelly will be chairing the morning session as Sooch presents lessons learned from the Unity spaceflight program, including flying Sir Richard Branson to space in 2021 (see schedule below). Meet these exceptional test pilots, then stay for lunch for NASA Astronaut Bob “Farmer” Hines’ keynote address, including the Artemis program that plans to take humans back to the moon.
REGISTRATION due by 19 March at 12pm CDT!
$15 Full-time Student members (AIAA, VFS, SFTE)
$20 Full-time Student nonmembers
$50 AIAA, SETP, VFS, SFTE Members
$60 Non-Members
Includes sessions, breaks, & luncheon
Keynote
NASA Astronaut Bob “Farmer” Hines (Colonel, U.S. Air Force)
“The Artemis Test Campaign”
Bob Hines was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He reported to the Astronaut Office in August 2017. He has served more than 23 years in the United State Air Force (USAF) as an instructor pilot, fighter pilot, and a test pilot. Before his selection in 2017, he was serving as a Research Pilot at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He has accumulated more than 4,000 hours of flight time in 50 different types of aircraft and has flown 76 combat missions in 3 different aircraft types while supporting contingency operations around the world. Hines served as the pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station, which concluded on Oct. 14, 2022. The mission was the first spaceflight for Hines. He has logged 170 days in space, overseeing the arrival of crew and cargo, maintaining the space station, and conducting science experiments of various disciplines.
NASA Artemis
Schedule
0800 - Check in, Coffee & Refreshments
Session I
Chair - Kelly Latimer (F), USAF/NASA/VG Retired, SETP President
0830 - X-76 Predecessor: Full Scale Stop-fold System Transition Demo on a High-Speed Test Track, Dr. Troy Schank, Bell
0900 - Air Tractor 1002, Jim Acree (AF), Lead Test Pilot Air Tractor 1002
0930 - UT Dallas AIAA Project Teams, Mi Vo & Mikail Naqib, UTD AIAA Student Chapter President & VP
"0945 - Coffee Break
1015 - Findings from FAA-sponsored flight tests of Handling Qualities Task Elements for VTOL Aircraft, Marty Shubert (F), Tiltrotor Flight Test Consulting
1045 – High-Altitude Airport Operations (HAAO) Testing Lessons Learned, Brian Nyaberim, Bombardier
1115 - VSS Unity Test Program Lessons Learned, Mike Masucci (AF), Virgin Galactic
1145 - CIRP: Mental Health Support for Flight Testers, James Sergeant F AIAA/SFTE
1200 - Luncheon & Keynote
NASA Astronaut Bob “Farmer” Hines (Colonel, U.S. Air Force)
The Artemis Test Campaign
Session II
Chair - Ryan Blake (AF), Lockheed Martin
1330 - We Work for the Robots - Lessons from Autonomy Flight Testing, Kasey Dixon, Lockheed Martin
1400 - Initial MV-75 Handling Qualities Evaluation in Vertical Motion Simulator, Alekxander McGuinness (M) and Tom Berger M, Bell
1430 - UT Arlington AIAA & Aero Mavs
Mauricio Nava, UTA Aero Mavs Outreach Officer
Karthik Nuti, UTA Aero Mavs Hybrid Research Operations Lead
1445 - Coffee Break
1515 - Aerodynamics Research in North Texas at the Dawn of CFD, Dr. Dennis Finley, Lockheed Martin (retired), AIAA North Texas Advisory Board
1545 - Strategies for Integrating Complex Aircraft Software Systems: Insights from Software Engineers at Lockheed Martin, Jennifer Klenka & Stephanie Figueroa, Lockheed Martin
1615 - Risky Business: These are the Risks you are Looking For, David Hoey SM 586th Flight Test Squadron, NM
1645 - 2026 SFTE International Symposium Introduction, Bob Brock SM , SFTE North Texas
1655 - Closing Remarks & Presentation of Best Paper Award
1800 - No-Host Social at TIPSY OAK, 301 East Front St, Arlington TX 76011
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