The Aerospace Testing International Podcast: Recent Episodes
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The official podcast of Aerospace Testing International magazine, the only magazine which covers the latest news and technology relevant to aerospace engineers working in aerospace test and development.
This episode of the Testing Talk Podcast from ATI is an interview with Ulrik Grape, president of European operations at US-based battery technology company 24M.
Ulrik has more than 30 years of experience working in batteries and energy storage. Most interestingly, he has seen lithium-ion batteries roll out in the electronics and automotive sectors, and brings that perspective to the same process, which is happening in aerospace now.
He has some great insights into battery safety and testing, and combines this with 24M's pragmatic approach to battery technology that will be useful for aviation applications. Enjoy the interview!
Swiss company Daedalean has been developing autonomous systems for aircraft for several years. It has recently made headlines by being bought by Netherlands-based autonomous drone and hypersonic aircraft company Destinus.
Daedalean aims to one day make a completely autonomous aircraft. Before then the plan is to release autonomous safety systems for aviation, with the first expected to reach the market at the end of this year.
I spoke to Sylvain at the Paris Air Show earlier this year about the company’s technology, how it works and its capabilities. We also discuss how the firm plans to ramp up testing and development.
In this Testing Talk interview John Piasecki, President and CEO of US aerospace company Piasecki Aircraft talks to ATI editor Ben Sampson about the company’s growth and the rapid progress it is making on several drone development programs for the US military.
Piasecki has a rich heritage in rotorcraft and is leveraging its expertise to shape the next generation of drones and helicopters. Although test is core to the company John has big plans for expanding from its R&D roots. In particular, the recent acquisition of a former Sikorsky helicopter site in Pennsylvania means the firm now has a manufacturing capability.
Enjoy this episode of Testing Talk, and look out for August's episode!
In this episode of the Aerospace Testing International podcast Paul Davison, manager of BAE System's Faraday Test Centre in Rochester, UK talks to Benedict Evans about the testing and simulation facilities at the Centre.
A diverse range of products goes through the laboratories at Rochester: flight sticks, helmets, defibrillators, and even microwaves. But BAE Systems Rochester is best known for the several key advances in the helmet-mounted displays (HMD) and the heads-up-display (HUD) technology used by fighter jet pilots developed there, including the company's Striker HMD.
The Aerospace Testing International podcast returns with an interview with Mark Walker, Application Engineering Manager at MathWorks UK.
Mathworks MATLAB and SIMULINK are mathematical software tools engineers use to design and analyze systems and embedded software within aerospace. They are used in everything from flight control systems through to modelling the behaviour of entire aircraft in different environments.
Mark works with the company’s aerospace and defence clients helping them make the best use of the software and during this chat discusses trends and concepts in aerospace development attached to digitalisation such as digital twins and model-based engineering.
During the talk, Mark references a case study and video that provide more detailed information about the topics under discussion. These can be found here:
https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/65605-predictive-maintenance-in-hydraulic-pump
https://uk.mathworks.com/videos/our-journey-towards-model-based-product-lines-1573233985120.html
For more podcast episodes go to www.aerospacetestinginternational.com
This month I chat to Martin Nüsseler, chief technical officer of Deutsche Aircraft about how the company is transforming, alternative propulsion systems for aircraft and testing and certification challenges.
Deutsche Aircraft renamed itself this year – it was previously known as 328 Services. The new name is a clear sign the company is moving confidently through its two major aircraft development programs – one is to develop a more environmentally friendly version of the Dornier 328 and the other a hydrogen fuelled variant of the same aircraft.
Martin Nüsseler joined the company from Airbus in February to help drive these development and certification programs.
My thanks to Martin for his participation and I hope you enjoy the podcast.
In this month's Aerospace Testing podcast, I talk to David Mayman, founder and CEO of JetPack Aviation, which develops and sells foot-launched aircraft.
The first prototype backpack mounted jetpack made by the company flew about ten years ago. Mayman himself then piloted it around the Statue of Liberty in 2015, garnering global media attention.
Its latest project is the Speeder, a futuristic air vehicle that resembles a motorbike for the air and is aimed initially at the defense sector.
During the podcast David speaks about what the company has achieved with the jetpack and the development of the new Speeder aircraft.
In this month’s podcast we preview our forthcoming event London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation by talking to one of the speakers – Norris Tea, co-founder and CEO of Exosonic.
Exosonic is a US company developing a low-boom supersonic jet capable of cruising at Mach 1.8. The company and Norris garnered much attention when their partnership with the US Air Force to produce a supersonic Air Force One aircraft was announced last year.
Norris has been working in the aerospace sector for the last four years, exclusively on vehicles that fly faster than the speed of sound and has been passionate about supersonic commercial flight from a young age.
During the podcast We discuss Exosonic's development plans, the connection between Exosonic and NASA/Lockheed's X-59 supersonic aircraft as well as some of the major technical challenges for passenger supersonic aircraft.
London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation is co-located with the firstAerospace Testing Symposium. Both are being held in London on the 29th and 30th of September. The conferences will also be available online if you can’t make it to London.
In this month’s podcast I’m talking to Sandro Di Natale, product and application manager from test and measurement company HBK.
Sandro works on static and fatigue testing, wind tunnel testing and iron bird testing in both the aviation and space sectors. His clients include companies like Airbus, IABG, Dynetics, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, and Gulfstream.
Sandro has some really interesting insights during that talk about integration between virtual and physical testing and how software can really complement validation phases in tests. He also has lots of enthusiasm for the aviation sector!
Sandro is also speaking at the Aerospace Testing Symposium in London on the 29th and 30th of September, which is co-located with the London to Sydney: The future of aviation conference.
For more information about those events, for instance you might want to look at the program or register for the event, go to symposium.aerospacetestinginternational.com or email anna.young@markallengroup.com
In this month's podcast we preview our forthcoming event London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation by talking to one of the speakers – Dr Michael Smart, head of research and co-founder of Hypersonix Launch Systems.
Dr Smart is one of the world's leading experts in scramjet technology and for 10 years was a research scientist at the Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion Branch of NASA’s Langley Research Center. He was also professor and chair of hypersonic propulsion at the University of Queensland in Australia.
This a great discussion about hypersonic propulsion, the technology that is enabling advances now and the challenges it poses for engineers.
London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation is co-located with the first Aerospace Testing Symposium. Both are being held in London on the 29th and 30th of September. The conferences will also be available online if you can’t make it to London.
In this month's podcast Brandon Robinson, CEO of Canadian company Horizon Aircraft discusses the details his company's eVTOL-development program, including the technical issues they are addressing and market trends.
Horizon is developing the Cavorite X5 eVTOL. The hybrid-electric X5 will have a top speed of 280mph a range of more than 300 miles and be able carry 5 passengers.
Horizon is a small company making big ambitious noises with a pragmatic development and testing plan making this company and its progress one to watch.
In this episode ATI chats to Jason Chua, co-founder and COO of Universal Hydrogen, a hydrogen logistics company for aviation based in California that was founded last year.
During April the company, which is developing modular hydrogen storage and infrastructure technology raised more than US$20 million in funding.
As well as creating the infrastructure for transporting hydrogen fuel to aircraft, the company is also developing a retrofit kit to modify regional airplanes to run off hydrogen.
In the podcast Jason talks about both programs, the scale of the challenge facing his company, the challenge aviation in general faces to decarbonise and why he thinks hydrogen is the answer.
In this podcast Wil Benton, venture and ecosystem director for the ATI Boeing Accelerator and Nichola Bates, from Boeing HorizonX Ventures in the UK discuss the ideas driving this industry initiative, some of the trends impacting the aviation sector and the latest cohort of startups that it has attracted.
The ATI (Aerospace Technology Institute) Boeing Accelerator is a three month program for startups in the aerospace sector from around the world. Run with a growing list of industry partners, the program works with companies in areas such as sustainability, Industry 4.0, energy and lifecycle and resilience.
Companies get access to a possible £100,000 equity investment from Boeing HorizonX Global Ventures, entrepreneurship mentoring and access to technical experts.
The latest cohort attracted 200 applicants from 40 different countries, from which 10 companies were selected.
In this episode of the Aerospace Testing International podcast, we talk to Andrew Patton, who sits on the advisory board of ZeroAvia, a company that is developing the world’s first ‘practical’ hydrogen powertrain for use in aircraft.
Andrew has a flight test background, having started his career with Boeing’s Tactical Aircraft Flight Test group, where he was assigned to the Navy in support of F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler development programs. He then worked for several years in Silicon Valley, including for Google X and Wing Aviation and is now an angel investor in aerospace technologies and companies.
During the podcast Andrew discusses the progress the company is making with its technology development and testing program, as well as the merits of hydrogen as an aviation fuel and the future sustainability of the sector.
John Garvey, chief engineer of launch for Virgin Orbit, discusses the company reaching space with its air-launched rocket and the challenges of testing and launching horizontally underneath an aircraft wing.
This interview was conducted shortly after California-based Virgin Orbit successfully reached space for the first time with its LauncherOne rocket in January 2020.
Garvey, who has a worked in launches since the 1980s, discusses how launch procedures and testing have to be modified for a horizontally-launched rocket and how Covid-19 has impacted the way the team works.
Iris Automation is a safety company developing Detect-and-Avoid systems that enable aircraft manufacturers to integrate Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations for drones.
The company is pushing the boundaries of not just sensing and computing to develop Detect-and-Avoid (DAA), but also aerospace testing and certification methods. It has established an early lead in deployment of its Casia DAA system for drones in the USA and is involved in several trials and testing programs.
In this podcast Iris Automation's CEO Jon Damush talks about how the technology works, how it is being developed and tested and how DAA is a fundamental part of autonomous aviation's future.
The CEO of Swedish startup Heart Aerospace talks about developing the company's all-electric regional airliner the ES-19. and its measured approach to testing and certification
Anders Forslund founded Heart Aerospace in 2018 in Gothenberg, Sweden with the goal of developing an all-electric regional aircraft.
The company’s planned 19-seater ES-19 will have a range of 400km (250 miles) and will be able to operate from runways just 750m (2,461ft) long. With a targeted certification by summer 2026, Heart is rapidly growing its team, onboarding experience in its team and developing its design while progressing steadily through testing and certification. The company recently demonstrated the powertrain for the ES-19, the focus of its engineering efforts for the past two years.
In this podcast Forslund details Heart’s approach to development, testing and certification of the ES-19, discusses the importance of knowing your market and why reducing aviation’s environmental impact should still be the top of everyone’s agenda.
In this special podcast we focus on the US defense sector and telemetry with Derek Hinton, chair of the ITC – the International Telemetry Conference.
Derek is an expert in his field – during this 30 minute interview we discuss what attracts engineers into telemetry, the unique challenges they face, and some of the latest technology that’s being tested, such as hypersonic missiles.
The ITC conference is held annually – apart from this year because of Covid-19 – as a forum for suppliers and users in their community to discuss, and is planned to return October 2021 in Las Vegas, USA.
Aerospace Testing International’s testing innovation podcast, episode number 3 features an interview with Dean Moore, flight test specialist at Vertical Aerospace.
Vertical Aerospace is a startup based in Bristol, UK that is making good progress developing an eVTOL air taxi that it initially wants to operate in between cities.
After finishing the testing of its prototypes, Vertical Aerospace released the details of its production aircraft, the VA-1X this summer. It also announced its first supplier partnership with Honeywell for the avionics earlier this year.
But most importantly, the company recruited Dean to head up its flight-testing program, which is planned to start next year.
This interview was recorded during early September, just a couple of months after Dean's recruitment and shortly after the big design. Durng it, Dean discusses the VA-1X aircraft, his plans for the testing program and gives his thoughts on urban air mobility.
In this second in our series of podcasts with company's testing innovative aircraft at Aerospace Testing International, we talk to Jean Botti, CEO of French aircraft-development company VoltAero.
VoltAero is one of a handful of companies doing what many others just talk about - developing a hybrid-electric aircraft. The company plans for its Cassio aircraft, which has been flight tested in electric mode, to begin commercial operations in late 2022, just 2 years away. Available in 4,6 and 10-seat configuration, the general aviation aircraft will be suitable for use at smaller, regional airports for 'air taxi' type journeys of up to 600km (370 miles).
Botti, who up until 2016 was chief technology officer at Airbus and was behind that company's E-Fan electric aircraft research project, has a strong vision of a more sustainable future for aviation. His Cassio aircraft has a clear parthway to certification, making this a company and development and testing program to keep an eye on.
In this interview Robert Dingemanse, CEO and co-founder of flying car company Pal V describes the background of the company, the design of the vehicle and Pal V's approach to testing, certification and marketing the Liberty, which will be certified for road use this summer and use in the air by the end of next year.