*UPCOMING* VFS Philadelphia April Dinner Meeting

We are pleased to announce our next dinner meeting on Wednesday April 17th at the Emerald Room in Philadelphia!  We will hear two presentations: one from the United States Naval Academy Rotorcraft Students on their Capstone Work, as well as a presentation on European Rotorcraft Developments by Jim McLaughlin, Director – Technology & Innovation, Leonardo Helicopters. Special thanks to the National Defense Industrial Association Delaware Valley Chapter (NDIA DVC) for sponsoring this meeting!

For more information and to RSVP check out our Upcoming Events page

A Night at the American Helicopter Museum

On Wednesday February 28th, VFS Philly heard from Kaydon Stanzione, CEO of LogistiWerx Inc and VFS Membership VP and the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center. In addition to his extensive experience in advanced technology development, Kaydon has aided both VFS and AIAA in varying capacities – especially in expanding student outreach and programs.

Thoughts from the Vertical Flight Society Executive Director

VFS Philadelphia had the great opportunity to hear from VFS Executive Director Angelo Collins at our January 24,m 2024 dinner meeting at the Inn at Swarthmore! We want to give a big thank you to our sponsor, Insight Global, for a great night!

Boeing Vertical Lift: Past, Present, and Future

VFS Philly had a great dinner meeting a Widener University, sponsored by Boeing! Attendees heard from many great Boeing Vertical Lift employees, including Bob Beggs, Keith Conaron, and Mark Osborne. They discussed Past, Present, and Future of Boeing Vertical Lift!

A Night at the Piasecki Heliplex

We had a great dinner meeting on Tuesday October 24th, hosted by Piasecki Aircraft Corporation, at their new facility, the Piasecki Heliplex! It was a packed house for John Piasecki’s presentation and tours of the new facility!

“Seeing the Unseen: A Smart Image-Based Framework for In-Flight Long-Range Atmospheric Visibility Estimation” and “The FAA Perspective on eVTOL”

VFS Philly hosted another great dinner meeting near Rowan University in Glassboro New Jersey on September 19th, 2023 with two impressive presentations! We were very excited to host the dinner meeting at a new location, as well as had the opportunity to interact with one of our newest student chapters of Rowan University.

Both presenters gave impressive discussions, with Dr. Giuseppina Carannante’s topic of “Seeing the Unseen: A Smart Image-Based Framework for In-Flight Long-Range Atmospheric Visibility Estimation”, and Cliff Johnson presenting on “The FAA Perspective on eVTOL”.

VFS Philly at Wings N’ Wheels!

Wings ‘N Wheels is a long-running outdoor, family focused community event which attracts adults and children for a lively display of vintage and antique cars and aircraft. The Wings N’ Wheels community event benefits Angel Flight East, whose mission is to provide free flights for children and adults in need of medical treatment far from their home. To read more about their mission please check out their website (https://angelflighteast.org/who-we-are/).
The event was held on Saturday, September 9th, 2023 in Blue Bell, PA! 

On Saturday, September 9th, 2023, Philly VFS set up a booth to engage the community, taught them about Vertical Flight, and promoted VFS.

“A New Taxonomy for Vertical Lift Aircraft: Reinventing the VSTOL Wheel” with Dan Newman, Boeing

VFS Philly hosted a virtual Lunch N’ Learn presentation featuring a talk by Boeing Senior Technical Fellow and VFS Philadelphia Board Member Dan Newman!

Description:
Since the successful fielding of Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, there has been a strong desire for such runway independent aircraft that are also capable of very high speed cruising flight.  There has been a lot of time and treasure invested in developing and demonstrating these VSTOL aircraft, and several attempts to characterize them culminating in the VSTOL Wheel, but each exhibits specific drawbacks in practice. The current approach is inadvertently limiting the capability for regulatory agencies to review and approve new concepts. A new, simple taxonomy has been developed by the presenter and is proposed that is suitably broad to characterize every VSTOL concept suggested, and sufficiently robust to include any in the future. And the approach offers a means to leverage each new aircraft certification, to reduce the subsequent workload and uncertainty.