Ohio State University students fly eVTOL simulators as part of day learning about AFWERX and Advanced Air Mobility

Aero­space engi­neer­ing stu­dents from Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty were invit­ed to Spring­field-Beck­ley Munic­i­pal Air­port to learn about AFWERX and Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ear­li­er this month.

The vis­it, which took place on Novem­ber 7th, began with Hank Grif­fiths, AFWERX chief of test and air­wor­thi­ness, telling the stu­dents about the inno­va­tion arm of the Depart­ment of the US Air Force and its part­ner­ship with elec­tric air­craft com­pa­nies, such as BETA Tech­nolo­gies and Joby Avi­a­tion, to bring zero-emis­sion avi­a­tion to the mil­i­tary.

“I want you all to be excit­ed about the third rev­o­lu­tion in aero­space,” he said. “The first was pow­ered flight with the Wright broth­ers. Then we had the jet age. Now we are just enter­ing the elec­tric age. Get excit­ed about that, because you’re future engi­neers and these elec­tric air­craft com­pa­nies need engi­neers.

“Our Air Force Chief of Staff pub­lished a let­ter called ‘Accel­er­ate Change or Lose’ in order to keep up with our adver­saries. Inno­va­tion is hap­pen­ing in the pri­vate sec­tor and we need to part­ner with them to accel­er­ate tech­nol­o­gy into the Air Force.”

Grif­fiths invit­ed the stu­dents to Spring­field-Beck­ley Air­port because it has become a hub for unmanned aer­i­al sys­tems and eVTOL air­craft research, devel­op­ment and test­ing. The air­port also has sim­u­la­tors from BETA and Joby, in which stu­dents were able to fly. 

“The sim­u­la­tor was amaz­ing and easy to fly, like dri­ving a car,” said Maya Sivaku­maran, Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty aero­space engi­neer­ing sopho­more. “It’s a very excit­ing time to be an aero­space major and I’m very opti­mistic about the future of avi­a­tion and how that can pos­i­tive­ly impact human­i­ty.”

Hen­ry Kitchen, Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty aero­space engi­neer­ing sopho­more, added: “We learn the basics in the class­room but these oppor­tu­ni­ties allow you to apply those con­cepts. “This vis­it is some­thing I’ve been real­ly excit­ed about and was a real­ly cool expe­ri­ence.” 

The Air Force Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry is the pri­ma­ry sci­en­tif­ic research and devel­op­ment cen­ter for the Depart­ment of the Air Force. AFRL plays an inte­gral role in lead­ing the dis­cov­ery, devel­op­ment, and inte­gra­tion of afford­able warfight­ing tech­nolo­gies for our air, space and cyber­space force.

With a work­force of more than 12,500 across nine tech­nol­o­gy areas and 40 oth­er oper­a­tions across the globe, AFRL pro­vides a diverse port­fo­lio of sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy rang­ing from fun­da­men­tal to advanced research and tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment.

As the inno­va­tion arm of the DAF and a direc­torate with­in the Air Force Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry, AFWERX brings cut­ting-edge Amer­i­can inge­nu­ity from small busi­ness­es and start-ups to address the most press­ing chal­lenges of the DAF.

AFWERX employs approx­i­mate­ly 325 mil­i­tary, civil­ian and con­trac­tor per­son­nel at six hubs and sites exe­cut­ing an annu­al $1.4 bil­lion bud­get. Since 2019, AFWERX has exe­cut­ed 4,697 con­tracts worth more than $2.6 bil­lion to strength­en the U.S. defense indus­tri­al base and dri­ve faster tech­nol­o­gy tran­si­tion to oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ty.

Main pic­ture cred­it: (U.S. Air Force pho­to by Matthew Clouse)