William R. Sears Memorial Lecture Series: Dennis M. Bushnell

The Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering 
William R. Sears Memorial Lecture Series

Dennis M. Bushnell
Chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center
"30-Year Futures of Civilian Aviation"

Thursday, Oct 7th at 4:00 pm
AME Lecture Hall, Room S212

Microsoft Teams Virtual Link

Responsible for Technical Oversight and Advanced Program formulation for a major NASA Research Center with a technical emphasis in the areas of Atmospheric Sciences and Structures, Materials, Acoustics, Flight Electronics/Control/Software, Instruments, Aerodynamics, Aerothermodynamics, Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion, Computational Sciences and Systems Optimization for Aeronautics, Spacecraft, Atmospheric Science, Space Exploration and Space Access, Member of the National Academy of Engineering, Honorary Fellow of the AIAA, Fellow of ASME and the Royal Aeronautical Society. AIAA Sperry and Fluid and Plasma Dynamics Awards, AIAA Dryden Lectureship, Royal Aeronautical Society Lanchester, Swire and Wilber and Orville Wright Lectures, ICAS Guggenheim Lecture, Israel Von Karman Lecture, Contributions to National Programs include Sprint, HSCT/SST, FASTSHIP, Gemini, Apollo, RAM, Viking, X15, F-18E/F [patent holder for the "fix" to the wing drop problem], Shuttle, NASP, Submarine/Torpedo Technology, Americas’ Cup Racers, Navy Rail Gun, MAGLEV Trains and Planetary Exploration. Technical Specialties include Flow Modeling and Control across the Speed Range, Drag Reduction, Advanced Configuration Aeronautics, Aeronautical Facilities, Advanced Power and Energy, Planetary Exploration, Commercial Deep Space, Future Warfare and Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion.

The presentation includes the evolving new $1T/ year aero market in UAV/UAS/ODM/UAM/UAM/AAM/PAV, considering especially personal aircraft, their enablement of living off-road/anywhere and the key infrastructure issues of safety and an ATM for 10’s of millions of flying things. For longer haul presentation projects optimal aero configurations and then the major energetics approaches that will rapidly result in emissionless aircraft for all stage lengths. Also considered are the rapidly evolving technological advancements in digital reality, immersive presence, AKA "tele-travel" and its impacts upon aviation going forward.