Tag: 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum

A Half Century of Deep Space Exploration Is Just the Beginning

FROM THE INSTITUTE
For 50 years, Lockheed Martin and NASA have collaborated to advance understanding of the solar system, designing, building, and operating the spacecraft and instruments that transformed planetary science into precise, data‐driven exploration. During the “50 Years of Deep Space Exploration” session at the HUB during AIAA AVIATION Forum and ASCEND in July, Whitley Poyser, Lockheed Martin’s Director of Deep Space Exploration Mission Segment, traced this partnership from its origins in 1975 through today’s ambitious missions – and offered a glimpse of what lies ahead.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

RTX Ventures Aims to Transform the Industry, One Investment at a Time

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Innovators! If you know of a startup enterprise in the aerospace or defense industries looking for investments, you may want to get to know RTX Ventures. A subsidiary of aerospace giant RTX Corporation, RTX Ventures is a three-year-old venture capital firm with a unique approach, noted Executive Director Roman Mueller. He described how the firm seeks companies to provide investment funding.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

A Day in the Life of the Thunderbird Crew

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Keeping America’s premier aerial demonstration team flying day in and day out takes extraordinary skill behind the scenes. More than just routine aircraft upkeep, maintaining the Thunderbirds fleet is a high-precision dance. A handpicked cadre of 135 maintenance professionals across 30 specialties keeps the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds sky-ready to perform the precision flying and heart-stopping maneuvers that viewers on the ground love.
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Hybrid Aircraft One Step Toward the Future of Aviation

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Aircraft powered by hybrid-electric engines can bridge the gap between today’s fossil-fuel jets and tomorrow’s zero-emission aircraft, said Susan Ying, CEO of AMP2FLY, during the 2025 AIAA Wright Brothers Lecture in Aeronautics. Ying, an AIAA Fellow, used the lecture during the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum in July to unveil a practical roadmap for hybrid-electric flight for commercial aviation that will help achieve near net-zero emissions by 2050 and provide cleaner flights for short-hop routes for commercial success “within a few years.”
Full Story (Aerospace America)

Panel Delves into Autonomy, UAS Advances in Disaster Response and the Need for Better Policy Enforcement

FROM THE INSTITUTE
As the United States braces for more natural disasters, NASA and private industry are looking to a future national airspace that can manage crewed aircraft and autonomous drones together. Yet, hurdles remain before the technology and policy are aligned, said drone and aviation safety experts, speaking on the “Revolutionizing Disaster Relief” panel at the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum in July.
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Industry Experts Chart the Future of AI and Autonomy in Military Aviation

FROM THE INSTITUTE
The future of air power lies in the seamless collaboration between humans and machines, according to a panel of thought leaders from the Canadian Department of National Defence, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and leading defense firms Anduril, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Ribbit who discussed “Injecting Intelligence in Military Programs” at AIAA AVIATION Forum last month in Las Vegas.
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Myths Busted! AI Systems Are Not Inherently Unsafe Concludes Aviation Experts as They Put to Rest AI Myths

FROM THE INSTITUTE
A group of experts from NASA and industry put to rest several myths regarding artificial intelligence (AI) certification during AIAA AVIATION Forum in Las Vegas. Key points raised by the aviation experts included the need for clear requirements and traceability to reduce human error, the importance of functional hazard assessments, and the role of probabilistic requirements in guiding hardware and software architecture.
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Are Seaplanes Making a Comeback? It May Be Just Beyond the Horizon

FROM THE INSTITUTE
Once upon a time, before the arrival of the jet age, seaplanes owned the skies. Float-planes and flying boats dominated international travel in the earliest decades of aviation, such as the Boeing 314 Clipper that was a mainstay of Pan American’s service and ferried President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Miami to Morocco during World War II. Now, a renaissance may be just beyond the horizon.
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2025 Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics Awarded to Susan Ying, AMP2FLY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 30, 2025 – Reston Va. – AIAA is pleased to award the 2025 AIAA Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics to Susan Ying, AMP2FLY. Ying will deliver her lecture, “Emergence of Hybrid Electric Aircraft,” Wednesday, 23 July, 11:45 a.m. PT, during the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, Las Vegas.

Ying’s lecture will provide an overview of past, present, and future Ampaire efforts to commercialize hybrid-electric aircraft. Prior work includes Ampaire’s flight of the first hybrid-electric test platform in 2019 (the Electric EEL), using both electric and traditional powertrains. Current work includes the Eco Caravan, which offers fuel savings over the original aircraft of up to 70% on short-hop routes and over 50% on long-haul flights, while still carrying nine passengers or cargo. Future work includes upgraded larger aircraft and clean sheet aircraft designs. She will highlight recent flight operations lending additional credibility to Ampaire’s plan for deploying hybrid-electric commercial service in the very near future.

Ying was the senior vice president of Global Partnerships, responsible for strategy and international partnerships at Ampaire, a deep tech start-up for electric commercial aircraft. In 2017, she retired from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China as the chief integration officer. In 2013, she retired from The Boeing Company as director of Boeing Research and Technology. Demonstrating success both at individual and team levels, she has been the recipient of many honors, including the Chinese Government’s Friendship Award and NASA Group Achievement Award. Before joining Boeing, Ying taught at universities and directed research in the DOE Research Labs at ISU and FSU, as well as at NASA Ames Research Center.

Ying is currently a board member of ElFly, an electric amphibian aircraft start-up based in Norway, and the immediate past vice president, Aerospace, and board member of SAE International. Ying is an AIAA Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She is the former president of the International Council of Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS). Ying holds a commercial pilot license and is an FAA-Certified Flight Instructor. She received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

The AIAA Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics commemorates the accomplishment of the Wright Brothers in creating the first practical airplane and also recognizes the success of their approach to problem-solving – beginning with study of the literature and including innovative thinking, constructive debate, systematic testing, and teamwork. In particular, the Wright Brothers Lectureship is awarded for the recent accomplishment of a significant “First in Aeronautical Engineering.” The lecture will highlight the details of the accomplishment and the approaches to meeting both the technical and programmatic challenges involved.

Registration for the forum is open now. Journalists can request a Press Pass online. For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at [email protected].

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.