The Sustainable Aviation Symposium (SAS) opened Friday morning in Redwood City, California, for two days of seminars and discussions about the future of efficient flight. The event has drawn the attention of A-list attendees, including representatives from NASA, FAA, Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Company, Icon Aircraft, Epic Aircraft, General Atomics and Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Dr. Brien Seely, chair of SAS, celebrating the event’s success, told AVweb, “Finally, the industry is awakening” to the market opportunities available in sustainable aviation.
Dr. Tine Tomazic, chief engineer at Pipistrel, a leader in commercially available light aircraft, gave the Friday morning keynote lecture imploring guests to work together and keep a close eye on safety, reminding engineers in the audience that certification hurdles will follow closely on the heels of electric aircraft accidents. Representatives from DARPA and NASA, Dr. Carl Schaefer and Al Bowers, also gave impressive presentations Friday morning on their research in hybrid-electric VTOLs and extremely efficient wing designs.
More information on the SAS is available at http://sustainableaviation.org/sas2017/program/.
