Speaker Shares The Future of Aviation

Teddy Tzanetos, Operations Lead for the ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be a featured speaker for the Day One Keynote on October 12 at NBAA’s BACE in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His team sent their small helicopter, the Ingenuity, aboard the Mars Perseverance rover on a 36 million mile journey for what they had thought would be a short 30-minute proof-of-concept demonstration. After enduring a hard, bone-shaking landing, the flyweight helicopter took off for the first time in April.  Upon liftoff it broke records as the first extraterrestrial powered flight, only to soldier onwards, beyond any initial expectations.   Over the following six months, the ‘little drone that could’ made 13 successful flights.  Flight number 14 is set for the near future, once the martian atmosphere’s seasonal changes are accounted for and the system is cleared for take off.

“The spirit of human ingenuity has always guided our industry to boundaries thought unimaginable,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “Likewise, the immense success of Ingenuity is testament to our ability to accomplish something so futuristic that it seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. I am excited to welcome Teddy to tell us that story at NBAA-BACE.” 

Teddy has an impressive resumé in the unmanned industry, having served as Head of Engineering at the Drone Racing League, where he built UAS racing infrastructure, embedded avionics, and an online first-person view simulator. Tzanetos graduated from MIT with a B.S. and M.Eng in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in 2013.

NBAA is the place to be this month, for anyone interested in the future of UAS, air mobility, and business aviation.  They say their 2021 edition of BACE will “focus on the advances carrying the industry toward a thrilling, and increasingly sustainable, future.”

FMI: www.nbaa.org, www.nasa.gov