Dear San Diego Aerospace Community,

The AIAA San Diego section invites you to attend a great lecture organized by the San Diego State University student branch.  This talk will discuss how X-planes paved the way for modern autonomous aircraft.  We hope to see you there!

Date: Thursday, April 16th, 2026

Time: 6 PM

Location: SDSU, Professional Studies and Fine Arts (PSFA), Room 310

Cost: Free! 

Parking: 10 spots have been reserved on the top floor of Parking Structure 1.  They will be marked with A-frame signs

Abstract:

Autonomous capabilities have existed in aircraft since the beginning of heavier-than-air flight, and experimental vehicles known as X-planes have played a major role in advancing these technologies. This presentation explores several of these aircraft and how their autonomous features improved system safety, survivability, combat capability, and mission effectiveness.  Examples include the X-31 developed through the U.S.-German X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability Program, which demonstrated thrust-vectoring, helmet-mounted displays, and controlled flight at extremely high angles of attack. Additional examples come from the Unmanned Combat Air Systems Program, including the Boeing X-45A and Northrop Grumman X-47B, which demonstrated autonomous team operations, carrier landings, aerial refueling, and advanced damage-tolerant control technologies.

Speaker: 

Dr. Michael Francis is an aerospace executive and technologist with over 50 years of experience leading advanced research and technology programs across government, industry, and academia. He currently works as an independent consultant, author, and educator. He recently co-authored the textbook The Anatomy of Autonomy, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in September 2025, and an online short course based on the book will be presented in April 2026. He is widely known for pioneering work in unmanned air systems, including initiating the original Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle program while serving at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the early 1990s. During his Air Force career, he also directed the award-winning X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability Program through its flight test phase and later led the $4.5B Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems Program. After retiring from a 27-year career in the United States Air Force, he held executive and technical leadership roles in the aerospace industry with companies including Aurora Flight Sciences, Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, and United Technologies Corporation. Dr. Francis holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Engineering the Lunar Frontier: Mitigating risk for both hypervelocity impacts and cislunar PNT time lag

Dr. Jacob N. Yates, Principal and Founder Mintaka Space Systems LLC, USN Commander (RET)

10401 Roselle St, San Diego, CA 92121

Cross-collaboration event with IEEE.

This technical symposium highlights three cutting-edge graduate research projects from San Diego State University covering aerospace structures, experimental aerodynamics, and autonomous space guidance. Join AIAA members, industry professionals, and students for an engaging evening of presentations and discussion.

Featured Presentations

Modeling of Honeycomb Core Sandwich Composite Fillet Fracture Using XFEM – Austin MacGowan (M.S. Student)

Sandwich composites using aluminum honeycomb cores are widely used in aerospace structures due to their high stiffness-to-weight ratio. However, the structural strength of these materials is strongly influenced by fracture behavior in adhesive fillets located between the face-sheets and honeycomb cell walls. Because these fractures occur at extremely small scales, traditional experimental methods cannot fully characterize them. This research applies to the Extended Finite Element Method (XFEM) within ABAQUS to model crack initiation and propagation within adhesive fillets. By examining how fillet geometry, material properties, and porosity affect fracture behavior, the work aims to improve prediction of interface strength in honeycomb sandwich structures and reduce reliance on costly experimental testing and conservative knockdown factors.

Prandtl-D Flying Wing Wind Tunnel Aerodynamic Characterization – Yuichiro Tobita (M.S. Student)

The Prandtl-D flying wing concept applies Prandtl’s Bell-Shaped Lift Distribution to reduce induced drag and improve aerodynamic efficiency. Wind-tunnel testing conducted at SDSU measured aerodynamic forces and moments while oil-film visualization techniques revealed detailed surface-flow patterns. Results showed strong agreement with prior computational and experimental studies. Flow visualization identified a spanwise laminar separation bubble at low angles of attack that transitions to full-span separation beyond stall. Complementary computational analysis using the OVERFLOW CFD solver further validated the experimental results, providing insight into the unique aerodynamic behavior of the Prandtl-D configuration.

Fuel-Optimized Autonomous Guidance for Human Landings on the Moon and Mars – Christopher Davami (PhD Candidate)

Future human missions to the Moon and Mars will require landing vehicles far larger and more precise than today’s robotic missions. Early Mars landers may exceed 60,000 kg and must land within tens of meters of target sites while consuming large amounts of propellant during descent. This research develops computationally efficient onboard guidance algorithms that minimize propellant usage while maintaining landing accuracy and safety. Using optimal control methods designed for flight computers, the approach enables fuel-optimal trajectory generation and real-time tracking control. Simulation results demonstrate a significant reduction in propellant consumption—from approximately 20,000 kg to 8,000 kg—while maintaining precise landing capability for future crewed planetary missions.

Event Details

Date: Monday 3/23

Agenda:

5:30pm Registration, Social and Pizza
6:15 AIAA Announcements
6:30-7:45 Presentations
Post Social until 8:30pm.

Location: Helix Brewing Co., 8101 Commercial St, La Mesa, CA 91942

Hosted by: AIAA San Diego Section

Costs: Non Members: $15; AIAA Members: $10, Students: $5

Includes: Pizza and (1) drink ticket.

Who Should Attend: AIAA members, aerospace professionals, researchers, and students interested in emerging aerospace technologies.

Registration / RSVP: https://square.link/u/QMkuowo7

Technical Talk

Topic: From Shapes to Systems: Rethinking Design with Topology Optimization

Speaker: Alicia Kim, UCSD Professor

Date and Time: Friday March 20th, 6 PM

Location: UCSD EBU II, Room 305

Cost: Free!

Flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ELbvU3w-HcHG0_MY5YtSz9AfMa8YOOQO/view 

More Information: https://www.aiaa-sd.org/events/2026-03-lecture

This seminar will cover on-going research efforts on autonomous optical navigation for deep-space missions. Applications of interest include trajectories beyond Geostationary Earth Orbit, lunar transfers, lunar orbits, and missions to asteroids or comets. We explore the potential of techniques such as edge detection, centroiding, neural network-based feature detection (for lunar crater and Earth coastline detection), pattern recognition, etc. An overview of our simulation framework is provided, including image generation, image processing, characterization and modeling of measurement errors, filtering, uncertainty quantification, and validation through hardware-in-the-loop experiments. Autonomous optical navigation can enable lower cost, more flexible, independent, resilient, and sustainable space exploration, and its promise, technical challenges, expected performance, and limitations are discussed in this talk.

Bio:

Pablo Machuca is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at San Diego State University. Pablo completed his Ph.D. on “Mission Design for Asteroid Exploration Using Autonomous CubeSats” at Cranfield University (United Kingdom) in 2021. He then joined University of California San Diego as a postdoctoral researcher on “Cislunar Space Domain Awareness” in 2021, and completed a second postdoc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on “Space Debris Modeling and Propagation” in 2022. Pablo’s research interests include astrodynamics in dynamically complex environments and autonomous guidance, navigation and control, with applications to deep-space exploration, and small-spacecraft mission analysis and systems design.

San Diego Aerospace Jeopardy!