MIT International Center for Air Transportation
Mission:
To improve the safety, efficiency, capacity and environmental performance of domestic and international air transportation and its infrastructure.
Photos by Tamas Kolos-Lakatos:
Recent News
Solar-electric High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) aircraft are uniquely equipped to fill some of the major lapses in our current understanding of rapid and irreversible climate change. ICAT researchers are identifying missions of interest and the technical limits of this class of aircraft using computational design optimization. To inform the mathematical models used here, ICAT has built and experimentally tested a variety of key subsystems, including batteries, solar cells, and ultra-lightweight wing structures. Check out the related publication, An Optimization Approach to Mapping the Feasible Mission Space of a High-Altitude Long-Endurance Solar Aircraft.
Check out MIT Industrial Liasion Program’s Faculty Feature on Professor Hansman here!
Jacqueline Thomas PhD ’20 recounted her final academic year at MIT, from testing her “delayed deceleration approach” for landing aircraft in the real world to the scramble to move her thesis defense online in the wake of the global pandemic. Her story and video were featured on the MIT homepage Spotlight!
On April 3, 2020, Jacqueline Thomas defend her doctoral thesis, titled “Systems Analysis of Community Noise Impacts of Advanced Flight Procedures for Conventional and Hybrid Electric Aircraft.”
On March 20, 2020, Matt Vernacchia defended his doctoral thesis, titled “Development of low-thrust solid rocket motors for small, fast aircraft propulsion.”
On November 12, 2019, Parker Vascik defended his doctoral thesis, titled “Systems Analysis of Urban Air Mobility Operational Scaling.”
On September 18, 2019, Christopher Bryce Courtin defended his master’s thesis, titled “An Assessment of Electric STOL Aircraft.”
Congratulations to all!
Recent Papers
Feasibility Analysis and Fuel Burn Benefits of Relaxing Constraints in High Altitude Cruise
Mina Cezairli and R. John Hansman
Acceleration Practical Engineering Design Optimization with Computational Graph Transformations
Peter D. Sharpe and R. John Hansman
Performance, Stability and Control of Electric Short Takeoff and Landing Aircraft
Christopher B. Courtin and R. John Hansman
Increasing Flexibility in the Design and Operation of Instrument Flight Procedures
Sandro Salgueiro and R. John Hansman
Hierarchical Behavior Models for Characterizing Trajectories within Terminal Airspace
Clement Li and R. John Hansman
Task 2 Technical Report
Cecilia Perez Gago and R. John Hansman
An Annotated Bibliography
Cecilia Perez Gago and R. John Hansman
Analysis of the Correlation of Aircraft Overflight Noise Metrics and Aircraft Visibility from the Surface
Z. Juju Wang and R. John Hansman
Design and Development of Stability and Control Systems for Small, Deployable Aircraft
Julia C. Gaubatz and R. John Hansman
Integrated Design of Solid Rocket Powered Vehicles Including Exhaust Plume Radiant Emission
Kelly J. Mathesius and R. John Hansman
A Data-Driven Approach for Predicting and Understanding Braking Conditions of Aircraft Landings
Marek Trávník and R. John Hansman
A Data-Driven Approach to Departure and Arrival Noise Abatement Flight Procedure Development
Ara Mahseredjian, Jacqueline L. Huynh and R. John Hansman
Development of a Fast Method to Analyze Patterns in Airport Noise
Madeleine Jansson and R. John Hansman
AeroSandbox: A Differentiable Framework for Aircraft Design Optimization
Peter D. Sharpe and R. John Hansman
A Performance Comparison of eSTOL and eVTOL Aircraft
Christopher B. Courtin, Ara Mahseredjian, Annick J. Dewald, Mark Drela and R. John Hansman
Block 2 Procedure Recommendations for Boston Logan Airport Community Noise Reduction
R. John Hansman, Sandro Salgueiro, Jacqueline Thomas, Clement Li, Madeleine Jansson, Ara Mahseredjian and
Kevin Zimmer
Operational Design Domain (ODD) Framework for Driver-Automation Systems
HongSeok Cho and R. John Hansman
Allocation of Airspace Cutouts to Enable Procedurally Separated Small Aircraft Operations in Terminal Areas
Parker D. Vascik and R. John Hansman
Systems Analysis of Community Noise Impacts of Advanced Flight Procedures for Conventional and Hybrid Electric Aircraft
Jacqueline Thomas
Motor case configuration options for Firefly-class rocket propelled UAVs
Matthew T. Vernacchia
Development of low-thrust solid rocket motors for small, fast aircraft propulsion
Matthew T. Vernacchia and R. John Hansman
Evaluation of the Impact of Transport Jet Aircraft Approach and Departure Speed on Community Noise
Jacqueline Thomas and R. John Hansman