Tag: 13 January 2026

Fast and Furious: Aerospace Firms Reduce Hypersonic Design to Months, Not Years

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Used to be, designing hypersonic aircraft, a complex and lengthy process, presented a choice: One could choose low-fidelity and have it quickly, or high-fidelity and it would take seemingly forever. Those days may be gone if aerospace firms Specter Aerospace and nTop have their way. Now, hypersonic aircraft can be designed quickly, with high fidelity, at scale, reducing time from development requirements to validated design in days instead of weeks or months, said presenters on the HUB stage at AIAA SciTech Forum on 13 January.

Industry Innovation: Art and Design Meet in Space

Experts explored how storytelling, entertainment‑industry practices, and other more artistic careers can influence engineering, and vice versa. Danica Vallone, Board Member and Founder, Organization for Space Medicine, Engineering, and Design; Ted Southern, Softgoods Division Manager for Paragon Space Development; and Brook Willard, Vice President of Development, Making Space Agency, took the stage to describe how science and art can inform each other.