Webinars

Throughout the year, our industry-expert instructors create and present free, one-hour webinars on a variety of aerospace topics. These webinars are recorded and made available on our website.

History of Airplane Design Webinar Series

Dr. Jan Roskam presents the History of Airplane Design webinar series. Each one-hour webinar focuses on specific companies and their contributions to the commercial, military and transport aircraft industries. Learn from a legend in aircraft design how some of today's best known companies got started, persevered or went bankrupt, merged or made it on their own. History of Airplane Design webinars are also presented free.

Courses & Events

History of Airplane Design: Airplane Design Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Join Dr. Jan Roskam, founder of the KU Aerospace Short Course Program and Professor Emeritus of the KU School of Engineering, as he relates how airplane design history contains many examples of design mistakes which, sadly, resulted in fatalities. Examples to be discussed are: the Martin 202, De Havilland Comet I, Vickers Vanguard and several others.

This webinar was held on July 20, 2022. A recording of this webinar will be posted within 1 week of when it was held.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://lpe.ku.edu/aero-online

This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

History of Airplane Design: Airplane Designs that Did Not Make It and WHY

Join Dr. Jan Roskam, founder of the KU Aerospace Short Course Program and Professor Emeritus of the KU School of Engineering, as he discusses various airplanes he's worked on over the years that did not result in flying hardware despite the significant amount of work put into them. Examples include the Cessna 407, Boeing 909, Boeing Missileer, Boeing TFX, and Boeing SST with discussion on why they did not fly.

This webinar was held on June 15, 2022. A recording of this webinar will be posted within 1 week of when it was held.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://lpe.ku.edu/aero-online

This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

History of Airplane Design: Beginning, Rise and Decline of the Wichita, KS Aircraft Industry

Join Dr. Jan Roskam, founder of the KU Aerospace Short Course Program and Professor Emeritus of the KU School of Engineering, as he discusses how the Wichita aircraft industry began and blossomed into Cessna, Beech, Stearman/Boeing, Learjet and Bombardier. Wichita, correctly, called itself the Air Capitol of the world. Nothing lasts forever and in 2022 only Textron (with Cessna and Beech as brand names) and Spirit Aerosystems (which used to be Boeing) are left.

This webinar was held on May 18, 2022. A recording of this webinar will be posted within 1 week of when it was held.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://lpe.ku.edu/aero-online

This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

History of Airplane Design: Overview of Unusual Configurations, Part 2

Join Dr. Jan Roskam, founder of the KU Aerospace Short Course Program and Professor Emeritus of the KU School of Engineering, as he discusses how designers may select an unusual configuration to out-perform an existing configuration or to improve some aspect of handling qualities, thereby improving safety. Amongst these examples are: Blohm & Voss Bv-141, Piaggio P-180 Avanti, Cessna 337, Rutan VariViggen, Rutan Varieze, Rutan Defiant, Rutan Catbird, Rutan Boomerang and several others.

This webinar was held on April 20, 2022. A recording of this webinar will be posted within 1 week of when it was held.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://lpe.ku.edu/aero-online

This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

History of Airplane Design: Overview of Unusual Configurations, Part I

Join Dr. Jan Roskam, founder of the KU Aerospace Short Course Program and Professor Emeritus of the KU School of Engineering, as he discusses how designers may select an unusual configuration to meet a novel mission requirement. Amongst these examples are: McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, NASA AD-1, Rutan Solitaire, Rutan Voyager, Rutan Proteus, Rutan Whiteknight, Rutan Spaceship One and several others.

This webinar was held on March 16, 2022. A recording of this webinar will be posted within 1 week of when it was held.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://lpe.ku.edu/aero-online

This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.