Exploring Technological Advancements in Aircraft Design

In the afternoon of May 20, the second session of the NAE regional meeting held at Duke University moved from discussing airspace to aircrafts, focusing on the technologies that could shape the next generation of flight. Speakers explored how new aircraft designs, autonomous systems and structural monitoring tools could make aviation safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

Michimasa Fujino, former president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Company, opened the session with a look back at the development of the HondaJet and a look forward to what is coming in business aviation. He described how the aircraft’s over-the-wing engine mount, natural laminar flow design and composite fuselage were developed to improve light jet performance.

“This was a kind of breakthrough, finally, to push HondaJet at higher speeds and better fuel efficiencies,” Fujino said.

Ella Atkins, the Fred D. Durham Chair in Engineering and department head of aerospace and ocean engineering at Virginia Tech, then delivered her keynote on autonomy, specifically on how aircraft and airspace systems can better respond in an emergency.

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s famous emergency landing in 2009 of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River averted a catastrophic result. However, studies of the incident suggest the plane could have landed safely on land had it changed course in the first 12 seconds of emergency. Atkins argued that many useful tools for safer autonomy are not speculative or reliant on the unknowns of AI. On the contrary, they would help reduce risk for pilots and could have helped in the Sullenberger incident.

“The type of work that’s being done here has been done in the self-driving car industry for quite some time,” Atkins said. “In the context of contingency management, if the crew or pilot doesn’t understand what has happened, the software will need to do it.”

Shorter panel talks then focused on transportation and structural perspectives. John Hansman, the T. Wilson Professor in Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), argued that one of aviation’s biggest challenges is decoupling from legacy paradigms. Michael Todd, University of California San Diego structural engineering professor and department chair, examined whether aircraft structural health monitoring could be incorporated into the broader ecosystem for air traffic control. Rather than viewing aircraft condition as a maintenance operation, Todd argued that real-time data on structural integrity and health could inform decisions in air traffic control operations.

“Adding structural health monitoring from a digital twin component of the airframe or system gets us to the complete integrated digital ecosystem because we can actually put outcomes in terms of quantified uncertainty,” Todd said.

A panel discussion moderated by Earl Dowell, the William Holland Hall Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke, moved between technology, the human element and audience questions about how quickly the industry can move. Panelists discussed when commercial aircraft might fly without pilots, how to maintain public trust as AI tools become more common and how engineering education needs to evolve. Although aviation has a long list of challenges, session participants noted many emerging technologies and proposed solutions while stating that the real challenge going forward lies in implementation and incorporating multiple solutions together.

Deploying the Future Aviation Ecosystem

The working day wrapped up with a panel session moderated by Yiran Chen, the John Cocke Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke. The session focused on how technology, operations, industry and policy must align to implement the various systems discussed during the day at scale.

Participants included Kerry Buckley, vice president of the Center for Integrated Transportation at MITRE; Maria Gorlatova, the James N. & Elizabeth H. Barton Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke; Farhan Gandhi, the Hassan A. Hassan Distinguished Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State University; and Alan Epstein, the R.C. Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Emeritus at MIT.

Buckley said modernization will require not just new technology, but also faster and more flexible regulatory pathways. Gorlatova added that future aviation will depend on distributed computing, advanced sensing, and reliable 5G and 6G communications networks. Gandhi brought perspective on eVTOL aircraft, explaining that they face tight constraints around battery range, weight and noise, among other factors. Epstein, continuing his thoughts from the morning session, added that the future of aviation will not only require improvements in aircraft design, but also in infrastructure and energy.