The Aerospace Testing International Podcast

In this edition of the ATI Testing Talk Podcast , Dr Francesco Di Sabatino, group leader of the Advanced Combustion for Power and Propulsion Group, Southwest Research Institute, tells me about a research project that he has overseen at SwRI that aims to fill a gap in knowledge about SAF by publicly releasing its test data. Francesco hopes the data will help engineers working on SAF and could also...

This episode of the Testing Talk Podcast from ATI is an interview with Ulrik Grape, president of European operations at US-based battery technology company 24M. Ulrik has more than 30 years of experience working in batteries and energy storage. Most interestingly, he has seen lithium-ion batteries roll out in the electronics and automotive sectors, and brings that perspective to the same process,...

Swiss company Daedalean has been developing autonomous systems for aircraft for several years. It has recently made headlines by being bought by Netherlands-based autonomous drone and hypersonic aircraft company Destinus.   Daedalean aims to one day make a completely autonomous aircraft. Before then the plan is to release autonomous safety systems for aviation, with the first expected to reach the...

In this Testing Talk interview John Piasecki, President and CEO of US aerospace company Piasecki Aircraft talks to ATI editor Ben Sampson about the company’s growth and the rapid progress it is making on several drone development programs for the US military.  Piasecki has a rich heritage in rotorcraft and is leveraging its expertise to shape the next generation of drones and helicopters. Although...

In this episode of the Aerospace Testing International podcast Paul Davison, manager of BAE System's Faraday Test Centre in Rochester, UK talks to Benedict Evans about the testing and simulation facilities at the Centre. A diverse range of products goes through the laboratories at Rochester: flight sticks, helmets, defibrillators, and even microwaves. But BAE Systems Rochester is best known f...

The Aerospace Testing International podcast returns  with an interview with Mark Walker, Application Engineering Manager at MathWorks UK. Mathworks MATLAB and SIMULINK are mathematical software tools engineers use to design and analyze  systems and embedded software within aerospace.  They are used in everything from flight control systems through to modelling the behaviour of entire aircraft in d...

This month I chat to Martin Nüsseler, chief technical officer of Deutsche Aircraft about how the company is transforming,  alternative propulsion systems for aircraft and testing and certification challenges. Deutsche Aircraft renamed itself this year – it was previously known as 328 Services. The new name is a clear sign the company is moving confidently through its two major aircraft development...

In this month's Aerospace Testing podcast, I talk to David Mayman, founder and CEO of JetPack Aviation, which develops and sells foot-launched aircraft. The first prototype backpack mounted jetpack made by the company flew about ten years ago. Mayman himself then piloted it around the Statue of Liberty in 2015, garnering global media attention. Its latest project is the Speeder, a futuristic...

In this month’s podcast we preview our forthcoming event London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation by talking to one of the speakers –  Norris Tea, co-founder and CEO of Exosonic. Exosonic is a US company developing a low-boom supersonic jet capable of cruising at Mach 1.8.  The company and Norris garnered much attention when their partnership with the US Air Force to produce a supers...

In this month’s podcast I’m talking to Sandro Di Natale, product and application manager from test and measurement company HBK. Sandro works on static and fatigue testing, wind tunnel testing and iron bird testing in both the aviation and space sectors. His clients include companies like Airbus, IABG, Dynetics, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, and Gulfstream. Sandro has some really interesting insights d...

In this month's podcast we preview our forthcoming event London to Sydney in Five Hours: The Future of Aviation by talking to one of the speakers – Dr Michael Smart, head of research and co-founder of Hypersonix Launch Systems.   Dr Smart is one of the world's leading experts in scramjet technology and for 10 years was a research scientist at the Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion Branch...

In this month's podcast Brandon Robinson, CEO of Canadian company Horizon Aircraft discusses the  details his company's eVTOL-development program, including the technical issues they are addressing and market trends.  Horizon is developing the Cavorite X5 eVTOL. The hybrid-electric X5 will have a top speed of 280mph a range of more than 300 miles and be able carry 5 passengers. Horizon i...

In this episode  ATI   chats to Jason Chua, co-founder and COO of Universal Hydrogen, a hydrogen logistics company for aviation based in California that was founded last year.  During April the company, which is  developing modular hydrogen storage and infrastructure technology raised more than US$20 million in funding. As well as creating the infrastructure for transporting hydrogen fuel to aircr...

 In this podcast Wil Benton, venture and ecosystem director for the ATI Boeing Accelerator and Nichola Bates, from Boeing HorizonX Ventures in the UK discuss the ideas driving this industry initiative, some of the trends impacting the aviation sector and the latest cohort of startups that it has attracted. The ATI (Aerospace Technology Institute) Boeing Accelerator is a three month program for sta...

In this episode of the Aerospace Testing International podcast, we talk to Andrew Patton, who sits on the advisory board of ZeroAvia, a company that is developing the world’s first ‘practical’ hydrogen powertrain for use in aircraft. Andrew has a flight test background, having started his career with Boeing’s Tactical Aircraft Flight Test group, where he was assigned to the Navy in support of F/A-...

John Garvey, chief engineer of launch for Virgin Orbit, discusses the company reaching space with its air-launched rocket and the challenges of testing and launching horizontally underneath an aircraft wing. This interview was conducted shortly after California-based Virgin Orbit successfully reached space for the first time with its LauncherOne rocket in January 2020. Garvey, who has a worked in...

Iris Automation is a safety company developing  Detect-and-Avoid systems that enable  aircraft manufacturers to integrate Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations for  drones. The company is pushing the boundaries of not just sensing and computing to develop Detect-and-Avoid (DAA), but also aerospace testing and certification methods. It has established an early lead in deployment of its Casia DAA s...

The CEO of Swedish startup Heart Aerospace talks about developing the company's all-electric regional airliner the ES-19. and its measured approach to testing and certification Anders Forslund founded Heart Aerospace in 2018 in Gothenberg, Sweden with the goal of developing an all-electric regional aircraft.  The company’s planned 19-seater ES-19 will have a range of 400km (250 miles) and wil...

In this special podcast we focus on the US defense sector and telemetry with Derek Hinton, chair of the ITC – the International Telemetry Conference. Derek is an expert in his field – during this 30 minute interview we discuss what attracts engineers into telemetry, the unique challenges they face, and some of the latest technology that’s being tested, such as hypersonic missiles. The ITC conferen...

Aerospace Testing International’s testing innovation podcast, episode number 3 features an interview with Dean Moore, flight test specialist at Vertical Aerospace. Vertical Aerospace is a startup based in Bristol, UK that is making good progress developing an eVTOL air taxi that it initially wants to operate in between cities.  After finishing the testing of its prototypes, Vertical Aerospace rele...

In this second in our series of podcasts with company's testing innovative aircraft at Aerospace Testing International, we talk to Jean Botti, CEO of French aircraft-development company VoltAero.  VoltAero is one of a handful of companies doing what many others just talk about - developing a hybrid-electric aircraft. The company plans for its Cassio aircraft, which has been flight tested in e...

In this interview Robert Dingemanse, CEO and co-founder of flying car company Pal V describes the background of the company, the design of the vehicle and Pal V's approach to testing, certification and marketing the Liberty, which will be certified for road use this summer and use in the air by the end of next year.