Tag: Journal of Aircraft

AIAA Announces Next Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Aircraft

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 18, 2025 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce that Rakesh Kapania, Norris and Wendy Mitchell Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech, will serve as the next editor-in-chief of the Journal of Aircraft, with service commencing in January 2026.

Kapania succeeds Mark Drela, Terry J. Kohler Professor of Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has led the journal since 2023.

The AIAA Publications Committee oversees the search and selection effort for new editors-in-chief. The search committee was led by Misty Davies, NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division, and an AIAA Publications Committee member. Kapania was chosen from a group of highly qualified candidates.

“Being selected as the Editor-in-Chief of AIAA’s Journal of Aircraft, one of the most prestigious journals in aircraft engineering, is a tremendous honor. Succeeding one of the giants of aircraft engineering, Mark Drela, is very humbling. I am thrilled to take this role at a time when there are enormous ongoing developments in all facets of aircraft engineering, including advanced air mobility, autonomy, artificial intelligence, materials, advanced manufacturing, and hypersonic vehicles.” said Kapania.

Kapania received his doctoral degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University, M.S. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and B.S. from the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India. At Virginia Tech he has taught courses related to aerospace structures and computational methods. His research interests are analysis and design of aerospace structures, computational aeroelasticity, composite structures, multidisciplinary analysis and design optimization, and machine learning. Kapania has published nearly 240 archival journal articles and more than 385 proceeding papers, a significant number of them at AIAA conferences. He has guided/co-guided 59 Ph.D. and 77 M.S. students and 20 Postdoctoral Fellows. Kapania has a long history of service to AIAA, serving on technical committees, two tours of duty as an associate editor of the AIAA Journal, as a member of the editorial advisory board of the AIAA Education Series, and as Faculty Advisor to Virginia Tech’s Design/ Build/Fly team. A winner of the AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Award (2016) and Boeing Welliver Summer Fellowship (1996), Kapania is a Fellow of AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

The Journal of Aircraft is devoted to the advancement of the applied science and technology of airborne flight through the dissemination of original archival papers describing significant advances in aircraft, the operation of aircraft, and applications of aircraft technology to other fields.

For more information on the Journal of Aircraft, contact David Arthur, Senior Director, Publications.

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, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

Mark Drela Appointed Editor-in-Chief of AIAA’s Journal of Aircraft

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 20, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has selected Mark Drela, Terry J. Kohler Professor of Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as its new Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Aircraft (JA). He succeeds Eli Livne, the Boeing Endowed Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington, who has served as the fifth Editor-in-Chief for JA since 2011. Drela, the sixth editor-in-chief for JA, will begin this new role in January 2023.

The AIAA Publications Committee oversees the search and selection effort for new editors-in-chief. This year’s search committee was led by Jacqueline A. O’Connor, Pennsylvania State University, Publications Committee member. Drela was chosen from among a group of highly qualified candidates.

“The fields of aircraft engineering and aeronautics in general are vital to the global transportation system, to national defense, and to the international economy, and their importance is only growing. The Journal of Aircraft is a valuable venue for advancing engineering knowledge, tools,
and methods that are critical to developing new aeronautical concepts, vehicles, and systems to further the field. It is an honor to have been selected as its new Editor-in-Chief.” said Drela.

Drela, an AIAA Fellow, holds a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics with a Minor in Applied Mathematics and Structures from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some of his recent awards and honors include the 2022 ASME IGTI Turbomachinery Committee Best Paper Award, the 2018 AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award, and the 2017 AIAA Theoretical Fluids Best Paper. Drela’s research interests consist of aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, design methodology, computation-based design, and low-order modeling of aeromechanical systems.

The Journal of Aircraft is devoted to the advancement of the applied science and technology of airborne flight through the dissemination of original archival papers describing significant advances in aircraft, the operation of aircraft, and applications of aircraft technology to other fields.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. 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 aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.