ü From 25 February – 27 March 2025 (5 Weeks, 10 Classes, 20 Total Hours)
ü Every Tuesday and Thursday at 1–3 p.m. Eastern Time (all sessions will be recorded and available for replay; course notes will be available for download)
ü In this new joint course from AIAA and the Vertical Flight Society, the latest and greatest in eVTOL technology is presented.
ü All students will receive an AIAA Certificate of Completion at the end of the course
OVERVIEW
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are propelled by distributed electric propulsion and are capable of carrying people or cargo. There has been a dramatic increase in interest in these aircraft over the past several years, driven by advances in electric propulsion, digital manufacturing, high-fidelity simulations, and drone technologies (mobile computing and deep learning). However, man-rated aircraft are more complex than drones, and require more than a clever combination of scaled-up components from the consumer electronics and automobiles industries. Maturation of eVTOL into a safe, sound, and sensible aircraft requires a clear understanding of rotary-wing fundamentals, principles of enabling technologies and timely resolution of its major barriers. The objective of this course is to introduce these fundamentals, technologies and barriers.
This multi-presenter course — featuring pioneering experts from industry and academia — will provide an overview of the unique challenges and opportunities of this new class of vehicles. Both electric and hybrid-electric passenger carrying vertical flight aircraft will be covered for a variety of missions ranging from personal/private use to urban air taxis to regional electric VTOL bizjets.
Also included is in-depth coverage of industry-standard battery systems development (BAE Systems), advanced high-power hybrid-electric hardware (LaunchPoint), PEM fuel cells and hydrogen propulsion. In addition, the fundamentals of vertical lift and rotor aeromechanics from design to state-of-the-art in acoustics.
LEARNING OBJECTIVESAt the conclusion of this short course, students will have a basic understanding of:- The major constraints in designing an eVTOL aircraft, batteries and motors
- Leading battery chemistries, packaging, thermal management, charge/discharge, etc.
- Leading electric motor design types and metrics
- Acoustics fundamentals
- Sizing an eVTOL aircraft, batteries and motors for different missions and requirements
- Theory and available computational tools
- The pros and cons of different eVTOL aircraft configurations
- Cost estimating of eVTOL aircraft
Aerospace engineers interested in electric power. Electrical/mechanical engineers interested in VTOL aircraft. The content is aimed to engage a wide audience of mixed aerospace and non-aerospace background and will be presented in a simplified and practical manner to allow innovators, entrepreneurs, and non-VTOL experts to be able to make useful calculations and build their own design / simulation tools. A simplified multi-rotor VTOL aircraft will be designed and analyzed in class, progressively, as an illustrative example. In the final module, historical eVTOL design case studies will be reviewed by one of the earliest pioneers, and comparisons of the pros and cons of various eVTOL configurations.
COURSE FEES (Sign-In To Register)
- AIAA Member Price: $945 USD
- Non-Member Price: $1145 USD
- AIAA Student Member Price: $495 USD
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OUTLINE
Each module will span two 2-hour sessions and include exercises and Q&A with the instructor.
Fundamentals:
Rotors, Aircraft, and Integrated Electric Power.
Dr. Seyhan Gul, Research Engineer,
Science and Technology Corporation, NASA Ames Research Center
- Introduction
- Why eVTOL? Why now? A brief history
- State-of-the-art in aircraft, battery, and motor
- Single vs. distributed propulsion
- Sizing an example eVTOL
- The connection to infrastructure
- Rotor aeromechanics
- VTOL aircraft
- Basic aerodynamics and performance
- Rotors vs. propellers vs. prop-rotors
- Coaxial and shrouded rotors
- Blade structural dynamics and loads
- eVTOL controls and trim
- Example Quadrotor and Tiltrotor
- Flutter
- Electric power
- Power architecture
- Brushless permanent magnet motors
- Engine-generator hybrid
- Lithium ion and Sulfur batteries
- PEM fuel cells and hydrogen storage
Sizing
Advanced Battery Systems for eVTOL Application
Joshua Stewart, Associate Chief
Engineer, BAE Systems
- Definitions
- Describe battery operations and management
- Fundamentals of safe management and control
- Detail elements of battery packaging
- Discuss battery modeling
- Relate electrical and thermal elements to basic first principles
- Detail how systems are sized
- Assess battery performance (example)
- Power
- Energy
- Size
- Weight
- Life
- Cost
- Review development standards and testing
Brushless
Permanent Magnet Machines and motor drives for Aircraft
Michael Ricci,
LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions
- PM motor types and geometries (radial and axial flux)
- Motor performance metrics: size, weight, efficiency, torque, speed
- Characteristics and performance
- Designing a PM motor: sizing, weights and efficiencies
- Gearboxes
- Operating modes: motor vs generator
- Fundamental operation principles and sizing of motor drives
- Introduction to EMI concerns and mitigation
- Motor drive software and certification considerations
- Motor and drive reliability
- Geared and direct drive examples
eVTOL
and UAM Noise
Prof. James Baeder, Samuel P. Langley Distinguished
Professor, Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, University of Maryland
- Definitions
- Fundamentals of rotor acoustics
- Types of noise: broadband, rotational, and impulsive noise
- Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings Model
- Method to calculate noise
- Lifting-line versus CFD inputs
- Single versus multiple rotors
- Hover and forward flight
- Active control of noise
- Fundamental limits
- How quiet is quiet enough?
Prof. James Wang, Director of the eVTOL Research and Innovation Centre, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore
- Different configurations for VTOL
- Rotor designs and control methods
- How to quickly estimate performance
- Benchmark comparison of different eVTOL aircraft
- Design recommendations
- Cost estimation
- Vertiport operations
- Certification
INSTRUCTORS
Dr. Seyhan Gul is a research engineer at Science and Technology Corporation, NASA Ames Research Center. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland. His research focused on aeromechanics modeling of tiltrotor aircraft and prediction of high-speed aeroelastic stability and loads of hingeless hub proprotors. He developed Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center's new comprehensive analysis code UMARC-II. Gul also led a graduate team in 2018-2019 to design an extreme-altitude mountain rescue vehicle, which won the 36th VFS Student Design Competition. Before his Ph.D, he completed another Master's Degree at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara/Turkey and worked at Turkish Aerospace. There, he focused on comprehensive analysis and rotor/airframe loads predictions of T625 Gökbey Helicopter. Gul is a recipient of the prestigious Vertical Flight Foundation Scholarship and best paper awards in dynamics session at VFS Forum 77 and AIAA SciTech Forum in 2021.
Joshua Stewart is an Associate Chief Engineer at BAE Systems and a member of the VFS. He has been working in the aerospace industry for over 12 years. Over the last 7 years, Josh has been a technical leader in the development of high-power, high-voltage battery systems for aircraft propulsion at BAE Systems. Josh is involved with the analysis and development of electric and hybrid electric aircraft propulsion systems, including Li-Ion battery storage, high-fidelity battery management systems, power distribution, motor drives and cables. He has played a critical role in the development of aircraft propulsion solutions for CTOL and eVTOL aircraft. With a strong background in flight-critical avionics and energy storage for ground transit, Josh has been able to apply a broad systems approach to the design of battery systems, including design for thermal runaway propagation and containment. He holds a B.S. degree from Binghamton University and a M.S. degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Mechanical Engineering.
Michael Ricci is the Chief Technology Officer of LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, and the driving force behind LaunchPoint’s “Propulsion By Wire” electric aircraft propulsion effort and spent the last decade as PI on a number of projects to develop electric aircraft propulsion technologies. These projects have included the development of highly efficient and powerful dual halbach array motors, high specific power wide bandgap semiconductor motor drives, and hybrid-electric gen-sets and bus power management systems. Applications have included HALE vehicles, helicopter electric tail rotors, multi-rotors, and eVTOL vehicles. During Mike’s 20+ year tenure at LaunchPoint he has worked on flywheel energy storage, implantable heart assist pumps, medical oxygen concentrators, engine valve actuators, and a magnetically levitated freight transportation system. Prior to joining LaunchPoint, Mr. Ricci worked as a mechanical engineer with Spectra F/X, a theme park engineering company, where he served as the lead Project Engineer on several very large custom systems with high cycle rates, intimate man-machine interfaces, and high human-safety concerns. Mike holds an M.S. degree from UC Santa Barbara in Mechanical engineering focused on control theory and a B.S. from Caltech in Engineering and Applied Sciences with a focus on electromechanical systems.
Prof. James Baeder is a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center as the Igor Sikorsky Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He joined the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center in 1993 after nine years at the Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate co-located at NASA Ames Research Center. He pioneered the development of multi-fidelity coupled CFD/ free-wake/ structural dynamics/ acoustic methods for heterogeneous computing environments. He is currently working on improving Computational Fluid Dynamics algorithms, with a focus on GPGPU technology, Meta-Machine Learning, and exploiting Hamiltonian paths and strands in unstructured meshes to capture: the details of laminar/turbulent transition; dynamic stall; as well as rotor tip vortex formation, convection and subsequent interaction with other surfaces including fuselages, towers or the ground. He has mentored 41 MS and 33 PhD students in addition to Capstone Design teams focused on Collegiate Wind Competition and Vertical Flight Society Undergraduate Design. He has authored more than 75 archival journal articles; served on various committees; and chaired sessions for both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Vertical Flight Society. Dr. Baeder is a Technical Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society and a member of the Acoustics Technical Committee (1996-present).
Dr. James Wang has over 35 years of experience in aerospace and high-tech industries. He is an internationally renowned expert in eVTOL aircraft and advanced air mobility. In 2013, WIRED Magazine named Dr. Wang “The Steve Jobs of Rotorcraft” for his ability to think “outside the box” and pushing the transportation technology boundaries for inventing and designing the AgustaWestland Project Zero, the world’s first all-electric VTOL technology demonstrator aircraft. Dr. Wang has held many executive leadership positions, including as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of R&D at Leonardo Helicopters; led Strategic Sales and worked on numerous helicopter designs at Sikorsky Aircraft. He is the founder of Vtolwerke LLC which provides consulting services in advanced air mobility, eVTOL aircraft designing and problem solving, product development strategizing, and due diligence studies. Dr. Wang is currently a full professor teaching aircraft and eVTOL design.
Dr. Wang received his Bachelor’s degrees in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from M.I.T., and a Master’s and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. After completing his PhD, Dr. Wang started his career at Sikorsky Aircraft, where he was known as one of the most energetic and prolific engineers and managers; he contributed greatly to the Comanche, Black Hawk, Naval Hawk, S-92 and the Variable Diameter Tiltrotor programs.
Classroom hours / CEUs: 20 classroom hours / 2.0 CEU/PDH
Course Delivery and Materials
- The course lectures will be delivered via Zoom. You can test your connection here: https://zoom.us/test
- All sessions will be available on-demand within 1-2 days of the lecture. Once available, you can stream the replay video anytime, 24/7. All slides will be available for download after each lecture.
- No part of these materials may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted, unless for course participants. All rights reserved.
- Between lectures, the instructors will be available via email for technical questions and comments.
Cancellation Policy: A refund less a $50.00 cancellation fee will be assessed for all cancellations made in writing prior to 5 days before the start of the event. After that time, no refunds will be provided.
Contact: Please contact Lisa Le or Customer Service if you have questions about the course or group discounts (for 5+ participants).