During the fall of 2019, a trio of free webinars were presented by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and the National Space Grant Program. They were produced by Old Dominion University at their studio in Norfolk, Virginia.
Each of the sessions featured conversations with NASA researchers who are working on key areas of interest that will help reinvent aviation for the rest of the 21st century. In addition to the technical aspects of their work, they also discussed their educational and career paths.
Students and faculty at universities in the United States and around the world watched the webinars live online and were able to ask questions of the participants.
In this webinar, NASA’s exploration of different ways to power the propulsion systems that move aircraft through the skies with the goal of making aviation more sustainable and lessening its impact on the environment is discussed. Chief among these ways is the use of electrified aircraft, especially as demonstrated by NASA’s X-57 Maxwell airplane. Claudia Herrera from NASA Armstrong and Dave Avanesian from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland led this discussion, which was moderated by Steve Ruffin, director of the Georgia Space Grant Consortium.
