Autonomous Aircraft Systems (AAS) have existed for decades, with the primary market drivers being military requirements. While the value of the UAS as a military asset is well known, civilian use of AAS has seen a dramatic increase in activity in recent years. This talk will present some of the research and development in the area of Sustainable Aviation at the Center for Aerospace Research at the University of Victoria in partnership with Bombardier. The computational and experimental research program aims to improve the performance of complex aerospace engineering systems through advances in mathematical and computational models, and experimental methods that incorporate multidisciplinary analysis, design optimization and subscale models flight testing for the synthesis of sustainable aircraft designs. The presentation will outline some of the experimental scaled flight test programs for evaluation of a BWB configuration. The AAS based flight test programs enable designers to retrieve quantifiable data and to provide a qualitative assessment of the aircraft handling qualities. It provides new perspectives that may lead to identification of design issues early in the development process thus avoiding expensive re-designs at the detailed design phase of the full-scale transport aircraft.

Afzal Suleman (P.Eng) is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria whose areas of expertise lies in aerospace systems. He has an BSc (Honours) and MSc in Aeronautical Engineering (Imperial College, London), and a PhD in Space Dynamics (UBC), Dr. Suleman is using advanced computational tools to develop state-of-the-art sustainable designs for the next generation of aerospace transportation systems. He is the founding director of UVic’s Centre for Aerospace Research (CfAR), which works closely with industry and academic partners on the design of unmanned air vehicles. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers, Royal Aeronautical Society and a recipient of the NATO Von Karman Medal (2021).