From Vision Through Velocity … Transitioning Technology into Reality Written 16 April 2024

By Russell Boyce, AIAA Aeronautics Domain Lead

Originally published by Royal Aeronautical Society

In the pursuit of a sustainable and high-tech future, researchers, engineers, and pioneers are driving innovation in aviation. 2024 will be a landmark year with the first certification of electric VTOL aircraft, flight testing of new supersonic vehicles, expanded use of automated or autonomous systems, and continued progress of military programs. As aviation accelerates, innovators are bridging the gap between visionary concepts and tangible technological reality every day. 

However … the world is facing rapidly evolving generational-scale challenges – societal, economic, environmental, security – alongside those rapidly evolving technical capabilities. How do we achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while simultaneously advancing multimodal mobility solutions that take the world forward? What could a disruptive “AI-in-the-DNA” future look like for the world, and for the mobility solutions we will trust? What does the future highly skilled workforce look like, how will they be different from today, and how will they have been educated and trained? 

The aerospace sector cannot and does not exist in isolation from such challenges, nor from the broad landscape – or ecosystem – of policy, technology, investment, business, government, and end-user stakeholders grappling with them. Our community is brilliant at technology, but that’s not enough. It is critical that we embrace system-of-systems thinking, building understanding and collaboration across the ecosystem of stakeholders, so that the technological innovations we have no difficulty in creating are financeable, certifiable, publicly acceptable, and driven by and tuned for the challenges. 

Over the coming decade, we will see many new aeronautics capabilities introduced. The next generation will experience flight in ways we are just imagining. AIAA is excited about advancing these opportunities as we move from vision through velocity, transitioning technology into reality. AIAA is even more excited about the ways that will unfold as partnerships with non-aerospace stakeholders to address global needs. 

To join this timely conversation, plan to attend the 2024 AIAA AVIATION Forum, 29 July–2 August 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thought leaders from across the ecosystem will share, discuss, and debate the opportunities and challenges. New advances in aviation will be unveiled across a vast technical program. The conversation will flow from the big picture view from 50,000 feet, through developments poised to shift the transportation paradigm, to addressing global challenges, embracing transformational technologies both from within and from without (there’s blue sky over the horizon), and finally asking “where to from here?” 

We cannot predict the entire future of aviation, but the AIAA community is set to lead its shaping. Visit aiaa.org/aviation for more information. 

About the Author 

Russell Boyce, an AIAA Fellow, has spent 35 years building and leading teams in the development of hypersonic technologies and intelligent space systems. His roles have included DSTO Chair for Hypersonics at University of Queensland, and Chair for Intelligent Space Systems and Director of UNSW Canberra Space at University of New South Wales. The latter included spinning off multiple space companies, and playing a lead role in the establishment of the Australian Space Agency. Boyce is also a regular facilitator for senior executive strategic thinking with the global top 5 business school INSEAD, co-publishes the monthly podcast “Leadership in a Disruptive World,” and is passionate about combining disruptive, out-of-the-box thinking with the development of current and future leaders. As AIAA’s Aeronautics Domain Lead, Boyce is working with his Space and Aerospace R&D Domain counterparts to bring about the system-of-systems thinking and actions needed for the future of aerospace.