Aerospace airplane

Aerospace Short Courses

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 led numerous webinars on airplane design during his years teaching for the KU Aerospace Short Course program. Sadly, Dr. Roskam passed away in 2022, but recordings of his webinars are still available to view for free using the links below. 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.

Courses & Events

Developing Safety Requirements

Designing for safety is as important as designing for intended functionality. Together, we will explore the development of safety requirements, their various form and types, and how to manage them to ensure that our design approach will be compliant. Regardless of whether you are an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or a supplier, compliance to the safety rules (XX.1309 and 23.2510 ) cannot effectively be shown without an understanding of the relationship between parent and child requirement from Aircraft level down to the item level. This short webinar will introduce some key concepts and issues that can arise from poorly constructed or developed safety requirements. The last portion of the session will provide a brief overview of other subjects from the Advanced Topics in System Safety Training which came from numerous student suggestions and feedback from the original course work.

This webinar was held on February 28, 2025. 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://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

Human Factors Engineering in Flight Deck Design and Certification

This webinar offers an overview of the key factors influencing the design of modern civil flight decks, with a particular emphasis on the role of human factors practitioners. It will explore the capabilities and limitations of flight crews and flight deck systems, examining how these elements shape flight deck design. Additionally, participants will gain insights into the complex challenges surrounding certification and compliance demonstration. The discussion will highlight the diverse competencies required by flight deck human factors experts, which can be categorized into four essential domains: human factors, aeronautical engineering and flight operations, systems engineering, and certification. Furthermore, it will be highlighted that the aerospace industry is currently grappling with a shortage of skilled flight deck human actors practitioners, a situation exacerbated by an aging workforce and an increased global demand for human factors practitioners. Compounding this issue, universities are not adequately preparing graduates for a seamless transition into flight deck human factors roles. In response to these challenges, the University of Kansas is now offering a specialized short course that is open to the public and is designed specifically to meet the needs of flight deck human factors practitioners.

This webinar was held on February 26, 2025. 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://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

Active Flow Control on Commercial Transport Airplanes

In this presentation, active flow control (AFC) in the form of microjets are considered on the flaps of the high-lift version of the Common Research Model (CRM-HL). Microjets provide circulation control using small surface-normal pneumatic jets located near the trailing edge of a lifting surface such as a wing or flap. When located on the pressure side of the lifting surface they increase the lift, and when located on the suction side they decrease lift. Two different architectures to supply the air for the microjets are considered: (1) bleed air from the airplane's auxiliary power unit (APU) plus ram air, and (2) engine fan bleed air plus ram air. The results of this study are encouraging in that pressurized air from the APU or the engine fan can be used to entrain ram air and thereby increase the AFC mass flow rate to achieve effective lift control and airplane performance enhancement during takeoff and landing.

This webinar was held on September 25, 2024. 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://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

Airplane Design: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

This webinar talks about aircraft design and test flight projects what all could go wrong and did go wrong and how to avoid the same issues. Some of the stories are based on the presenter's own experience from his 34-year career working on aircraft design, flight dynamics and prototyping projects.

This webinar was held on August 14, 2024. 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://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

Stepping Into FAA Airworthiness Requirements

How many times have you been faced with questions about FAA Airworthiness approvals? Can you navigate the requirements of approving a product or article under the FAA regulations, directives, and guidance materials? This webinar will give you a glimpse into the regulatory aspects related certifying a product or article, the roles of the people involved, and determining that product or article is airworthy.

This webinar was held on March 6, 2024.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

U.S. Military Airworthiness Certification: The What's, Why's and How's

When you get on a commercial aircraft for a business or pleasure trip, you expect that the aircraft has gone through a process that ensures the aircraft is safe for that trip. Yes, it has, and that process is overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But what if you're in the U.S. Military and boarding a military aircraft? Has it been through a similar process and who oversees that process? This webinar provides an overview of the process: who the safety authorities in the military are, what testing may be required, and how long it may take to do that testing. The webinar also briefly lists other items that may be required to obtain the U.S. Military Airworthiness Certification for a new aircraft version or to modify an existing aircraft version. The official class, MIL-STD Qualification: Purpose, Testing and Design Considerations, delves into these topics and how to conduct these tests.

This webinar was held on February 28, 2024.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-online

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

Advances in Composite Aircraft Manufacturing

There are many innovations in composites manufacturing and design that are needed to accelerate and improve the fabrication and assembly of composite aircraft. Commercial single aisle jets like the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 737 require production rates that are 5-10 times faster than the wide body jets. Simply scaling today's technology, processes, and designs would require massive amounts of infrastructure (machines, tooling, equipment, buildings) to meet the higher rates, which is not ideal. This presentation talks about some of the work being done to improve the speed and quality of composite commercial jet manufacturing to enable future single aisle programs.

This webinar was held on September 27, 2023.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

Sobering Stories of Aircraft Structural Inadequacy

This webinar will present several "case studies" of aircraft structural failures which have changed aircraft structural design-and airworthiness requirements-for the better over the past century. The problems, now solved, range from inadequate stiffness to inadequate strength to failure to understand a fundamental misunderstanding of material properties. The discussion will also cover some basic principles of analysis and design used today in the aircraft industry.

This webinar was held on July 12, 2023.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

Will Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Drive Changes to Avionics Systems Flight Testing?

Modern aircraft and air vehicles of the future will have a plethora of avionics systems that must be integrated into various types of air vehicles and must be thoroughly tested to provide for safe operation in multiple environments. Manned, unmanned, and autonomous aircraft will consist of everything from small package delivery drones to passenger-carrying air vehicles operating above populated areas or remote areas. Military and public use aircraft will also make use of newly designed and sophisticated avionics systems. This webinar will review the basics of current avionics flight test procedures and discuss challenges coming as a result of what may be considered the next revolution in aviation.

This webinar was held on May 24, 2023.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

eVTOL - Loads and Dynamics Criteria and Considerations

eVTOL configurations are currently in development at multiple companies in the US and around the world. These configurations do not necessarily fit well into existing aircraft / rotorcraft categorizations. This webinar presentation will review the current proposed EASA criteria, as well as relevant Part 27 Rotorcraft and ASTM/Part 23 Aircraft applicable regulations which are appropriate to consider in developing a safe configuration.

This webinar was held on November 16, 2022.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

Taking the Pilot out of the Cockpit is a Big Deal!

In the world of Unmanned Aerial Systems (including pilotless air taxi "drones"), not having a pilot physically on board the aircraft is problematic at best, and could be hazardous.

This webinar was held on August 21, 2019.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

Systems Safety for Urban Air Mobility

EVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft and the urban air mobility concept of operation pose a unique set of challenges. Nevertheless, the opportunity exists - using electric and hybrid-electric technologies - to create novel fault tolerant and redundant architectures. This webinar provides a quick introduction to the safety continuum, systems safety and its application within this new space.

This webinar was held on July 24, 2019.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

Developing an EWIS Safety Analysis: Methodology and Requirements

In today's modern aircraft there is a greater reliance on highly integrated electrical systems in performing critical airplane functions. The Electrical Wiring Interconnection System (EWIS) is now seen as an essential component to the overall safety of the airplane. Join Thomas Taylor as he presents a free webinar on the requirements and methodology used in developing the EWIS safety analysis.

This webinar was held on September 26, 2018.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

The History of Rotorcraft: Development of an Industry

From the earliest simplistic attempts to figure out vertical flight to the modern age of tiltrotor transport configuration, composite fuselages and rotors and fly-by-wire control systems, join Harold Rosenstein as he presents a free webinar on rotorcraft history and development.

This webinar was held on August 8, 2018.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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

EWIS: Demonstrating Compliance for Aircraft Certification

Safety concerns associated with aging electrical wiring on commercial aircraft and the increased reliance on electrical systems on new aircraft have highlighted the need for greater regulatory control over the electrical wiring and components. Join Thomas Taylor as he presents a free webinar on the history of Electrical Wiring Interconnection System (EWIS), along with an overview of the FAA regulations and advisory material used in demonstrating compliance for aircraft certification.

This webinar was held on May 23, 2018.
To view the recording of this webinar, visit: https://jayhawkglobal.ku.edu/aero-webinars

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