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

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.