Electra officials receive top AIAA honours

The Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics (AIAA) has recog­nised key Elec­tra prin­ci­pals with two of their high­est awards.

John Lang­ford is to receive the 2023 AIAA Reed Aero­nau­tics Award, the high­est hon­or AIAA bestows for notable achieve­ments in aero­nau­tics, while Mark Drela is elect­ed as an AIAA Class of 2023 Hon­orary Fel­low.

Lang­ford and Drela have worked togeth­er for 45 years, since they first col­lab­o­rat­ed on the explo­ration of human-pow­ered flight at the Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy (MIT) with the Chrysalis, Monarch, and Daedalus air­craft projects.

Lang­ford cur­rent­ly leads Elec­tra as its founder and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer (CEO) and was pre­vi­ous­ly founder of Auro­ra Flight Sci­ences where he served as CEO from 1989–2019. Drela was a key con­trib­u­tor to many projects at Auro­ra and, along with John Hans­man, orig­i­nat­ed the con­cept for the Elec­tra eSTOL air­craft while at MIT.

Lang­ford and Drela are both mem­bers of the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Engi­neer­ing, and both hold doc­tor­al degrees from the MIT Depart­ment of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics.

The AIAA award cit­ed Lang­ford: “For exem­plary achieve­ment as an out­stand­ing aero­nau­ti­cal engi­neer, vision­ary lead­er­ship in the devel­op­ment of autonomous flight, and relent­less advo­ca­cy of the future aero­space work­force.”

The Reed Aero­nau­tics Award is named after Dr. Syl­vanus A. Reed, aero­nau­ti­cal engi­neer, design­er, and found­ing mem­ber of the Insti­tute of Aero­nau­ti­cal Sci­ences in 1932. 

Drela is one of three new­ly elect­ed AIAA Hon­orary Fel­lows, the high­est dis­tinc­tion con­ferred by AIAA that recog­nis­es pre­em­i­nent indi­vid­u­als who have had long and high­ly con­trib­u­to­ry careers in aero­space and who embody the high­est pos­si­ble stan­dards in aero­nau­tics and astro­nau­tics. In 1933, Orville Wright became the first AIAA Hon­orary Fel­low.

World-renowned as an aero­dy­nam­i­cist and human-pow­ered vehi­cle expert, Drela is the Ter­ry Kohler Pro­fes­sor at the MIT Depart­ment of Aero­nau­tics and Astro­nau­tics. His pri­ma­ry research inter­ests are in low speed and tran­son­ic aero­dy­nam­ics, phys­i­cal mod­el­ling and design of air­craft and aero­me­chan­i­cal devices, and com­pu­ta­tion­al aero­dy­nam­ic design method­ol­o­gy.

The awards were pre­sent­ed at the AIAA’s Awards Gala at the Kennedy Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton DC. The AIAA is the world’s largest aero­space tech­ni­cal soci­ety.