Tag: Entrepreneurs

2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum: AAM And Autonomy

By AUVSI News
Written 17 April 2023

Originally published by AUVSI

In June, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will host their annual AIAA AVIATION Forum. AIAA is the world’s largest aerospace professional society, and the 2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum is the only event that covers the entire integrated spectrum of aviation business, research, development, and technology.

AUVSI met with Jeremy Wang, an AAM expert, to learn more about the event’s programming around autonomy. Wang is the co-founder and COO of Ribbit, a venture-backed startup developing autonomous aircraft with the goal of improving e-commerce supply chains. Ribbit is credited with the first fully automated gate-to-gate flight in Canada and will soon be bringing commercial routes online in collaboration with regulators, communities, and customers.

Leaps Toward a New Age of Aviation
Wang explained that 2023 is a critical year to convene for discussions on AAM, noting: “What’s exciting right now is that we’re seeing proof that the technology to support eVTOL and autonomous flights is operationally ready…. We’re at a point where technologies have been initially validated, and now the question is how we integrate this into civilian airspace.”

Wang identified outdated regulations as a key challenge for reaching operationalization of AAM. As he explained, there is agreement that the starting point is flight with experimental permits and testing and the desired endpoint is a clear basis for certification processes – but the path in between is uncertain and challenging. In the early stages, some companies are focusing on autonomy for operations without passengers, such as cargo, aerial surveillance, and other missions in rural areas.

Regarding regulatory frameworks and U.S. aviation leadership, Wang said: “Entrepreneurs will go wherever opportunities take them. In fact, companies are looking to achieve airworthiness approvals in other regions and convert them over to the United States, which indicates there is a lack of good frameworks here.” He suggested that the industry work together to support the expansion of existing bilateral frameworks that can be converted to the United States to avoid duplicative regulatory work.

Wang has reason to be optimistic, adding: “One thing that’s exciting is the talk around Digital Flight Rules (DFR) being championed by NASA.” These rules recognize there are new technologies available for collision avoidance. NASA is soliciting feedback from the aviation industry, including from airports, ATC, and operators.

As he considers where autonomy is headed, Wang praised the industry collaboration taking place via standards communities, including RTCA and ASTM.
He also shared his hope that the small UAS and AAM communities will identify areas for increased collaboration, saying: “There can be a lot of benefit for both sides to take from each other on new standards and operational risk frameworks.”

Learn More at the 2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum

Given recent advancements in autonomous technology and commercial aviation, Wang anticipates that the 2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 12–16 June, will be well-timed to provide informed perspectives on where AAM is going in the next 10–20 years.

The event will cover key topics on aviation and aeronautics, with Daily Forum Themes:

Monday, 12 June: State of the Industry
Tuesday, 13 June: Decarbonization & Sustainability
Wednesday, 14 June: Advanced Air Mobility
Thursday, 15 June: Aircraft Certification
Friday, 16 June: Hypersonics & Supersonics

Why should AUVSI members attend?

Over 1,700 technical presentations on the latest innovations spanning 20+ aviation and aeronautics research topics will be delivered.
Speakers and panelists participating in the sessions are proven business leaders and innovators with their fingers on the pulse of the aviation industry.
Over 2,000 participants from across the globe are expected, representing hundreds of government, academic, and private institutions.

About Jeremy Wang
Jeremy Wang is the co-founder and COO of Ribbit, a venture-backed startup developing autonomous aircraft with the goal of improving e-commerce supply chains. Ribbit is credited with the first fully automated gate-to-gate flight in Canada and will soon be bringing commercial routes online in collaboration with regulators, communities, and customers. Prior to Ribbit, Jeremy was the CTO of Canada’s top-ranked commercial drone operator where he oversaw the development of special-purpose drones for industrial and defense applications. Jeremy completed a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and PhD in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Transitioning AAM Into Reality at AIAA AVIATION Forum

By AUVSI News

Originally published by AUVSI

The 2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum will be held 29 July–2 August in Las Vegas, and this year’s event aims to bridge the gap between visionary concepts and tangible technological reality.

Starr Ginn, Advanced Concepts and Partnerships at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, served on the forum’s Guiding Coalition. AUVSI met with Ms. Ginn to learn more about NASA’s participation at AIAA AVIATION Forum and the Agency’s vision for how Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) will transform aviation’s role in the everyday movement of people and goods.

Ginn’s Background and AAM Expertise
Ms. Ginn has 27 years of experience conducting one-of-a-kind flight tests. Since 2011, she has played a critical role at NASA Armstrong to develop a roadmap for the AAM ecosystem. In her current role, she builds long-term strategies for complex system integration in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and industry.

She recently led the planning, development, and execution of the Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign (AAM NC) series, which consists of flight testing an experimental AAM ecosystem of novel eVTOL and cargo vehicles, infrastructure, and airspace management technologies in the context of increasingly complex safety scenarios enabled by automation.

In parallel to her work on electric propulsion and energy storage, she has also pushed research and certifiable automation software architectures to increase the safety of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
In addition, she is a proponent for encouraging young women to get into aviation and mechanical engineering careers. As she works with university students and interns at NASA, she says, “It’s exciting to see when they learn about this new area of opportunity” with AAM careers.

Big-Picture View for the AAM Ecosystem
NASA has been working continually on UAM Research Roadmaps assessing where industry is and making sure NASA is providing research to assist them in the near term, mid-term, and long term.

The Agency’s objective is to safely support operations at scale in the National Airspace System (NAS). Ms. Ginn explains her vision of tens of thousands of air taxis and cargo aircraft operations in existing airports and new locations that are closer to urban areas. Reaching this vision will require a lot of new certifiable automation, new airspace tools and routes, and increased digital communications that integrate into the very safe airspace system the U.S. has today.

In the nearer term, Ms. Ginn sees NASA being able to help in a variety of areas, including:

Piloted eVTOL operations and safety systems
Studying human-machine interaction
Making operations more efficient at current airports
Supporting portable charging infrastructure to support electric flight before large-scale charging infrastructure investments are possible
Determining efficient routes and how we can decrease an IFR approach area

In the longer term, Ms. Ginn says NASA is conducting research on automation. More research on 1:N operations and how they will push the envelope of NASA’s vision for UAM. She described how industry is doing a “crawl, walk, run approach” to certification, starting with piloted cargo operations with 2 pilots. Eventually, as the industry transitions to increasing levels of autonomy, there will be opportunities to increase efficiency – but there will also be challenges to prove safety and compliance via detect-and-avoid and flight path management.

AAM Certification, Automation, and Software Considerations
Considering what’s ahead for software and automation, Ms. Ginn says, “I would really like to look at how multiple algorithms being operated at same time, and how automation software can determine which of those algorithms is eminent or most important to safely avoid a hazard.” Software for ground collision avoidance, air collision avoidance, geofencing, and object avoidance like towers are all using different kinds of algorithms relying on different sensors. Ms. Ginn is interested in how software architecture determines which algorithm is needed to protect the vehicle at any given moment and how the system switches between different inputs and algorithms prioritization.

Ms. Ginn emphasizes that autonomy software must verifiable, deterministic, and predictable to be safe enough to fly in the NAS. This will be a challenging and complex state of operations for both NASA and industry to achieve.

This year’s AIAA AVIATION Forum will host discussions on how AI can help keep pilots or aircraft safe – beyond just those on the vehicle. The session will explore ways that AI is being used across the entire aviation ecosystem, from ATC to pilot training, as well as the software concepts behind these types of AI.

Register now for AIAA AVIATION Forum
2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum will feature participation from every NASA site, with representatives sharing AAM research on different use cases, from regional cargo operations to urban air mobility operations, to different types of aircraft configurations and control systems. In addition to AAM, NASA experts will also discuss hypersonics, supersonics, and sustainability.

Register for the event here and save before the Early Bird deadline on June 10th.

RAeS Article: Taking Revolutionary Leaps Toward a New Age of Aviation

By Ming Chang, AIAA Aeronautics Domain Lead* and Senior Director of Flight Technologies, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (Retired).
Written 17 April 2023

Originally published by Royal Aeronautical Society

The first age of aviation proved that human flight was possible and developed aviation into a safe and viable transportation industry. The second age of aviation started with the development of the jet engine, which enabled higher speeds, improved safety, and paved the way for air travel accessibility for all. The next age of aviation will separate power from propulsion in conjunction with specialised materials and modern avionics and software to enable unique mission-specific aircraft, enhance people’s connectivity, and fully elevate human activity while reducing its environmental footprint.

The widespread use of UAVs and drones –both commercial and recreational – has led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adapt its certification processes. Similarly, the FAA must facilitate the safe use of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems for local passenger and cargo transport. As the FAA refreshes its certification strategy, we expect to see clear specifications, regulations, and standards emerge that will strike an appropriate balance between safety and innovation.

Incremental advances in aerodynamics, lightweight structures and materials, manufacturing processes, and air traffic efficiencies will provide only part of the solutions to power aircraft in this next age of aviation. For significant carbon reductions, more efficient aircraft engines and new fuels are needed. The industry will have to shift to more sustainable sources of energy, from sustainable fuels to various forms of electric propulsion to hydrogen.

The transition from oil to new energy sources presents challenges for every facet of aviation systems. The R&D infrastructure in the aeronautics community is ready to meet these challenges through development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), hydrogen fuel cells (HFC), hydrogen turbine propulsion (HTP), battery-electric vehicles (BEV), and innovations yet to be discovered. Past R&D investments ensure that battery-electric vehicles deliver improved performance by a few percent annually. HFC systems are likely to be cost competitive with internal combustion in as little as five years. ‘Green’ hydrogen production costs are expected to decline to levels competitive with fossil derived sources. Meanwhile, SAF is available today but needs support for greater production and wider adoption. What will it take? If the community focuses and invests in these products and systems, aeronautics can play a leading role in decarbonisation.

AIAA believes we can achieve decarbonisation in aeronautics by 2050. We see several steps needed:

More government support for the goal of carbon-free aviation by 2050
Deploying SAF for current airline fleets, while also addressing fleet recapitalization
Adopting hydrogen fuel cells and other clean, renewable energy sources
Focusing on new R&D
Developing the ‘green’ aviation workforce
Promoting alternate fuel infrastructure development – SAF and hydrogen hubs – to reduce refinery or transportation costs and increase supply availability

Autonomy is certainly going to be part of this next age of aviation and America’s transportation future. With clear operational guidelines, regulations, and standards for accommodating and incorporating autonomy, we see a thriving integrated urban and regional airspace in the next decade. The benefits of autonomy will enhance safety for everyone and enable capabilities we are only just imagining.

In 10 years, we will see many new aeronautics capabilities introduced, and the next generation will experience flight in ways we are just imagining. AIAA is excited about advancing these opportunities as we shape the new age of aviation.

To join the conversation and learn more, attend the 2023 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 12–16 June 2023, in San Diego. Visit: aiaa.org/aviation for more information.

About the Author
As AIAA’s Aeronautics Domain lead, Ming Chang ensures that the US aeronautics community focuses on integrating ground and air vehicles in new ways, building on the industry advances made since the early 20th century taking us further and faster, possibly commercialising supersonic and hypersonic flight. He is supporting the community’s emphasis on addressing carbon emissions and sustainability with advanced materials and clean energy sources.