Propulsion Systems: 
Fans 
Rotors
Ejectors
Lift Fans
Lift Engines
Inlets
Nozzles / Exhaust Systems
Electric propulsion
Powered Lift Aerodynamics: 
Hover and Suckdown 
Ground effects and Fountain Jets
Conversion and the Jet Flap effect
Short Takeoff vs. VTO
Environmental Effects: 
Outwash and ground vortices
Near-field and far-field Hot Gas Ingestion
Ground erosion and spalling
Shipboard operations and challenges
Acoustics and Noise
Flight testing, ground testing: 
Instrumentation, equipment
Stands, tethers, hover pits
Wind tunnel, Thrust measuring rigs 
Integrated Flight/Propulsion Controls: 
Stability & Control / Control Power
Propulsion Controls
Flying Qualities / Handling Qualities
Use of Simulation
Pilot Vehicle Interface – How to design for the Human, Reduce Costs and Transform Safety:
Control Inceptors 
Pilot-vehicle interface
Automation and the minimization of human error
Rotorcraft and Tiltrotors: 
Early tilt rotors
Tilt-rotor research and progress
Tilt rotor ground and flight testing
Tilt rotor aerodynamics and flight mechanics
Operational challenges of tilt rotors
The future of tilt rotors
Case Studies: 
Hunting H.126, YC-14, YC-15, C-17, and Ball-Bartoe JW-1 Jetwing
Electra Goldfinch and EL9
Soviet V/STOL Aircraft - Yakovlev Yak-36, Yak-38 and Yak-141
German V/STOL Aircraft - Dornier Do-31, VFW VAK191, EWR VJ101
Hawker Siddeley P.1127, Kestrel and Harrier
Lockheed Martin X-35B and F-35B
Bell X-22A

LECTURE SCHEDULE


 

 

 
Lecture
 #
 
 

 
Instructor
 
 

 
Lecture
 Title
 
 

 
Format
 

 

 

 
1a
 
 

 
Mike
 Hirschberg
 
 

 
Propulsion
 Systems and the V/STOL Wheel, including Electric
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
1b
 
 

 
Paul
 Bevilaqua
 
 

 
Powered
 Lift Aerodynamics: Part I
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
2a
 
 

 
Paul
 Bevilaqua
 
 

 
Powered
 Lift Aerodynamics: Part II
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
2b
 
 

 
Bill
 Norton
 
 

 
STOL
 Transports: YC-14, YC-15, and C-17
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
3a
 
 

 
Chris
 Courtin
 
 

 
Electric
 Blown Lift and Electra EL2
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
3b
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
Vought
 XC-142
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
4a
 
 

 
Francesco
 Giannini,

 Erasmo Pinero
 
 

 
Environmental
 Effects
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
4b
 
 

 
Mike
 Hirschberg
 
 

 
German
 and Soviet V/STOL
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
5a
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero,

 Tom Arledge

 

 
 
 

 
Ground
 Testing and Flight Testing
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
5b
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
Hawker-Siddeley
 Harrier
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
6a
 
 

 
Greg
 Walker
 
 

 
Integrated
 Flight Controls
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
6b
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
Lockheed
 F-35B
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
7a
 
 

 
Justin
 Paines
 
 

 
Control
 Inceptors, Pilot Interface
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
7b
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
Bell
 X-22A
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 

 

 

 
8a
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
Rotorcraft
 and Tilt Rotors
 
 

 
Lecture
 

 

 

 
8b
 
 

 
Erasmo
 Pinero
 
 

 
XV-15,
 V-22, BA609, and V-280
 
 

 
Case
 Study
 



INSTRUCTORS

Paul Bevilaqua
Dr. Paul Bevilaqua is a retired Lockheed Martin engineer who played a leading role in creating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. He invented the propulsion system that enabled the building of a supersonic STOVL fighter and showed that conventional and naval variants could be developed to create a common, affordable aircraft for all three services. As Chief Engineer of the Skunk Works, he led the engineering team that proved the feasibility of building this aircraft. Before joining Lockheed Martin, he was Manager of Advanced Programs at Rockwell International’s Navy aircraft plant, where he led the design of VSTOL interceptor and transport aircraft. He began his career as an Air Force officer at Wright Patterson AFB, where he developed a powered lift system for VSTOL Search and Rescue Aircraft. He is an AIAA Fellow and a Member of the NAE. He was awarded the Guggenheim Medal, the Collier Trophy, AIAA and SAE Aircraft Design Awards, and AIAA and VFS VSTOL Awards. He earned a BSc in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Cranfield in Britain.

Erasmo Piñero Jr.
Mr. Piñero has over 35 years of aircraft operations, systems integration, and flight test experience. After graduating from the University of Florida as an Aerospace Engineer, he joined the United States Navy, as a Naval Flight Officer. Mr. Piñero is also a Space Defense Specialist and served in the U.S. Naval Space Command. At the completion of his military service, he joined Sikorsky Aircraft where he worked on the S-76, Blackhawk, Comanche, and S-92 helicopters. Early in the X-35 Joint Strike Fighter demonstration program, he served as a Test Engineer on the X-35’s engine ground test development. He officially joined Lockheed Martin in 2002, to continue working on the F-35 JSF program. He has been associated with Bell Textron since 2012 and he is currently the R & D Chief Engineer at Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), another Textron company. Between 2012 and 2022, he was a subject matter expert on the propulsion systems of the Bell V-22, V-280 tilt-rotors and other Bell rotorcraft products. Mr. Piñero completed his postgraduate studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. His professional affiliations include the Vertical Flight Society, AIAA V/STOL Systems Technical Committee, and the Society of Flight Test Engineers. He is currently an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.

Mike Hirschberg
Mike Hirschberg is an aviation consultant, who served for 12 years as the Executive Director of the educational non-profit the Vertical Flight Society (2011-2023). Prior to this, he worked for 20 years in aerospace, primarily in vertical flight. Hiwas previously a principal aerospace engineer with CENTRA Technology (now part of Amentum), providing technical and program management support to DARPA and the Office of Naval Research on advanced aircraft and rotorcraft concepts. In 1994–2001, he worked in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program Office, supporting the development of the X-32 and X-35 vertical flight propulsion systems. Mike also served as Editor of the VFS Vertiflite magazine (1999-2025), and has been a contributing author since 1997; he is the author/co-author of hundreds of articles and technical papers, as well as two books. Mike holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia (1991), a Master of Mechanical Engineering from Catholic University of America (1996) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Virginia Tech (2013). He is a Fellow of AIAA, the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Vertical Flight Society.

Chris Courtin
Chris Courtin is Director of Technology Development at Electra, where he leads the development and ongoing flight test campaign of Electra’s EL2 Goldfinch hybrid-electric blown lift ultra short takeoff and landing demonstrator aircraft. He also leads the flight physics team developing the EL9 9-passenger aircraft. Chris earned a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focused on how distributed electric propulsion enables the development of super-short takeoff and landing aircraft with specific focus on blown lift aerodynamics, vehicle design optimization and flight controls. Prior to Electra and MIT, Chris was a research engineer at Aurora Flight Sciences working on advanced commercial transport design, eVTOL concepts, and small UAS.

Tom Arledge
Tom Arledge is an aerospace engineer with a background in aerodynamics, vehicle design, and testing. He has over 30 years of experience with aircraft conceptual design and optimization codes, wind tunnel testing, flight testing, and aircraft technology development. His experience in V/STOL includes small-, large-, and full-scale testing to investigate hover and transition aerodynamics, jet effects, ground environment, and acoustics. As part of NASA Ames’ Advanced Aircraft and Powered-Lift Branch, he supported various programs from concept through their test and evaluation phase. This work has included testing in the NASA Ames 80x120 ft. WT, 40x80 ft. WT, 11 ft. Transonic WT, and the 9x7 ft. Supersonic WT as well as testing with aircraft on the Multi-Axis Thrust Stand and at the NAS Patuxent River Hover Pit. He currently serves as a Senior Systems Engineer in the NASA Ames Chief Engineer’s Office. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio Northern University and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech.

Bill Norton
William J. Norton is retired from a flight test engineering career that spanned 40 years, including 20 as a US Air Force officer. He held numerous positions in many organizations on dozens of aerospace programs spanning all aircraft types. He led flight test teams on several programs across many years including modifications of existing designs and entirely new aircraft that included the V-22 Osprey. He has penned scores of technical papers, 20 books, and a multitude of magazine articles, many touching on STOL and VSTOL subjects. While an officer, Bill wrote the Structure Flight Test Handbook, the first book of its kind focusing on this subject. Bill taught at National Test Pilot School, where he served on staff, and the USAF Test Pilot School. Bill holds a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering and has taught courses at the graduate level. Bill is a civil pilot with numerous ratings and has held jobs as a professional pilot supporting flight test. Bill has been honored as a Fellow of the Society of Flight Test Engineers. He restored and operated a DHC-1 Chipmunk, and built and flight-tested a Rutan Long-EZ.

Justin Paines
Educated at Oxford and MIT, Justin Paines joined the RAF in 1988. After training, he was posted to No 1 (Fighter) Squadron, flying Harrier aircraft. He attended USAF TPS Class 95A, before starting his test flying career at Boscombe Down with principal responsibility for the VAAC experimental fly-by-wire aircraft. He flew all marks of X-35 throughout the JSF Concept Demonstration program, before returning to the VAAC Harrier program in 2004, to refine the Unified Flight Control concept for the F-35B and developing the Ship Rolling Vertical Landing. He served as an instructor at the Empire Test Pilot School, including 2 years as Chief Flying Instructor, and joined Joby Aviation as chief test pilot in 2018. In 2021 he returned to the UK as Chief Test Pilot and Assistant Chief Engineer at Vertical Aerospace in Bristol, before leaving Vertical in October 2024 to cofound his own engineering company, Flyer AI, to build and operate autonomous aircraft. Flyer is actively developing small package delivery aircraft.

Greg Walker
Gregory Walker is a distinguished aerospace engineer with a career rooted in groundbreaking advancements in flight control systems, propulsion integration, and aircraft simulation. As the former Senior Manager of Vehicle Systems for the F-35 program, Mr. Walker was instrumental in shaping the Integrated Flight Propulsion Controls, with a particular focus on STOVL (Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) control laws and propulsion system integration. A proud graduate of Purdue University, where he earned a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Mr. Walker later obtained his M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, specializing in control system design and analysis.

Francesco Giannini
Francesco Giannini has been an Aircraft Configurator for the past 18 years at Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing subsidiary. There, he worked on a variety advanced concepts including several V/STOL vehicles like the Pegasus eVTOL, and DARPA’s XV-24 and SPRINT. Francesco a BS and a MS in Aerospace Engineering from CalPoly San Luis Obispo (2006). He volunteers as a docent at the National Air and Space Museum annex in Chantilly, VA, and is currently an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.

CLASSROOM HOURS / CEUs: 16 classroom hours / 1.6 CEU/PDH

CANCELATION POLICY: On-demand course purchases are non-refundable.

CONTACT: Please contact Lisa Le or Customer Service if you have any questions about the course or group discounts (for 5+ individuals).

Frequently Asked Questions