Editor’s Note: Over the next two years, we’ll be hosting a series of GoFly Master Lectures where industry experts share advice, insights, and answer questions from anyone interested in participating in the GoFly Prize.
For the third in our series of “Master Lectures,” Dr. Paul Bevilaqua shares lessons learned from 50 airplanes that have made it to flight test in an attempt to develop VTOL aircraft.
Dr. Bevilaqua has spent much of his career developing vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. He joined Lockheed Martin as the Chief Aeronautical Scientist and became the Chief Engineer of the Skunk Works, where he played a leading role in creating the Joint Strike Fighter. He invented the dual cycle propulsion system that made it possible to build a stealthy supersonic VSTOL Strike Fighter, and led the engineering team that demonstrated the feasibility of building this aircraft. He received a USAF Scientific Achievement Award, both the AIAA and SAE Aircraft Design Awards, both the AIAA and AHS VSTOL Awards, and the Lockheed Martin AeroStar and Nova Awards.
You can watch the full lecture below. If you have follow-up questions, check out current discussions about design on the GoFly forum or start your own thread!
