Vertical Flight Society Event Will Include 120+ Presentations At Three Concurrent Meetings In San Jose, CA. Jan. 21-23

The Vertical Flight Society, the leading advocate for the advancement of helicopters, rotorcraft and other vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL), has announced details for a unique conference, Transformative Vertical Flight 2020, being held in San Jose, CA Jan. 21-23, 2020.

Some 60 technical paper authors plus 75 invited speakers will present the gamut of technologies, technical breakthroughs, key challenges and innovative solutions for transformative vertical flight aircraft. Keynote talks are being provided by leaders in government and industry, including NASA, the FAA, US Army Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), Bell, Lockheed Martin and Uber.

Monday, Dec. 16, 2019 is the deadline for discounted registration rates and the cutoff for the hotel room block.

The Transformative Vertical Flight 2020 conference will include three concurrent events covering more than 120 cutting-edge presentations:

• The 7th Annual Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Symposium
• The International Powered Lift Conference (IPLC)
• The Aeromechanics for Advanced Vertical Flight Technical Meeting

VFS has held a biennial conference in the San Francisco Bay area since 1974, covering aeromechanics, design and other key aspects of rotorcraft technology. This year’s pivotal event comes at a time of transformative capabilities beginning to be realized for vertical flight aircraft.

“The vertical flight industry is undergoing a technological revolution that will see advanced rotorcraft and electric/hybrid-electric powered aircraft flying new passenger, first response, public and utility missions in the next decade and beyond,” said Mike Hirschberg, VFS Executive Director.

This year’s Aeromechanics for Advanced Vertical Flight meeting will provide a forum for addressing aeromechanics challenges and solutions for the US Department of Defense FVL program, next generation civil rotorcraft and new fixed-wing VTOL aircraft. Technical discipline subject matter will encompass advanced dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics and flight mechanics, all of which are strong drivers in the design process.

The International Powered Lift Conference is the only technical meeting focused on the technologies, promise and progress of powered lift systems, with applications ranging from advanced rotorcraft to jet-borne vertical flight and electric VTOL aircraft.

The 7th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium is the world’s longest-running technical meeting on the promise and progress of eVTOL aircraft. It covers the critical challenges for eVTOL and urban air mobility (UAM), including technology, regulations and standards, infrastructure, autonomy and public acceptance.

“The VFS eVTOL Symposium is the world’s preeminent technical gathering of eVTOL experts,” said Hirschberg. “It’s a unique opportunity for designers, developers, innovators, investors, regulators, infrastructure providers, end users, media and key influencers to share knowledge and work towards realizing what we call The Electric VTOL Revolution. This is also a tremendous opportunity for those new to eVTOL.” VFS is hosting a full-day Short Course on eVTOL Aircraft Design Fundamentals in conjunction with the conference, taught by experts in their fields, on Monday, January 20th (8:00 am - 5:00 pm).

“The mainstream aerospace industry dismissed electric VTOL technology in 2013 when VFS recognized its potential. Through the years, our eVTOL Symposiums have tackled the key barriers and connected innovators with vertical flight experts. The meetings have shown that eVTOL aircraft for passenger services are not only possible but likely within the next few years,” noted Hirschberg, adding, “eVTOL companies have attracted some $2B in investment.”

The organizers of Transformative Vertical Flight 2020 include Dr. Colin Theodore, NASA Ames Research Center; Dr. Mark Fulton, US Army Aviation Development Directorate; Dr. Michael Yu, Continuum Dynamics, Inc. and Mr. Carl Russell, NASA Ames Research Center. A tour of NASA Ames Research Center is planned for Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.

In early December, VFS added the 230th eVTOL aircraft design to the “World eVTOL Aircraft Directory” at www.eVTOL.news. Created in 2017, the Electric VTOL News was the first website to track the emerging eVTOL industry and continues to add innovative new eVTOL concepts to its directory every week as they come to light. The website also includes more than 200 original news articles, links to videos and many other public and media resources.

The Electric VTOL Revolution is being supported by some of the world’s largest aerospace companies (e.g. Airbus, Bell, Boeing and Honeywell), automotive companies (e.g. Daimler, Geely, Hyundai and Toyota), and technology leaders and investors (e.g. Intel Capital, JetBlue Investments, Micro Technologies, Tencent and Uber). “Many of the VFS’s 120 corporate and 6,000 individual members in industry, government and academia are leading these eVTOL programs or contributing to their development,” added Hirschberg.

Recent market studies commissioned by NASA, as well as those published by financial investment and analysis companies (e.g. NEXA Capital, KPMG, Morgan Stanley and Roland Berger), suggest that as many as 100,000 eVTOL aircraft could be flying commercially in the coming decades as part of an emerging $500 billion to $2 trillion eVTOL market.

(Source: Vertical Flight Society news release. Images from file)

FMI: www.vtol.org/transformative