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:
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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
 

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