VFS Southwest Chapter

The Vertical Flight Society Southwest Chapter presents

An Introduction to the Zeppelin NT 07 – Passenger Rated Tiltrotor Airship

a presentation by Francis Govers, Associate Technical Fellow for Autonomy at Bell Helicopter

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

This presentation provides an introduction to airships in general and the Zeppelin NT 07 in particular. The Zeppelin NT is a 13-passenger airship with vectored thrust motors and a unique tail rotor that allows function as a VTOL aircraft, and was selected in 2011 by Goodyear to replace the iconic “Goodyear Blimp”. Normal blimps and airships can’t hover and require a large 20 person groundcrew for takeoff and landing but the NT has infinite hover time and needs only 3 ground crew. Airships have by far the best safety record of any flying vehicle with only two fatalities in the last 60 years. We will discuss how airships work, how to live with helium, how they fly with a balance of static lift (buoyancy), dynamic lift and vectored thrust. We will see how an airship is controlled, balanced, and trimmed, and even go through some pilot training.

Francis Govers has contributed to the design of over 30 manned and unmanned land, sea, air and space vehicles. He currently is the Associate Technical Fellow for Autonomy at Bell Textron, and is the founder of the Bell Autonomy Department. He is an Air Force veteran, was head of command and control for the International Space Station, Deputy Chief Engineer for Unmanned Systems at the US Army Future Combat Systems, Chief Engineer of Elbit Systems of America, CTO of Gamma 2 Robotics, participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge, managed a Zeppelin airship, and is a factory-trained Zeppelin ground school instructor. He was responsible for maintaining the “Yellow Line” for NFL football and designed the onboard telemetry systems for NASCAR and IndyCar. He has published 48 articles and papers and authored the book “Artificial Intelligence for Robotics”. He received five outstanding achievement awards from NASA, and recognition from Scientific American for “World Changing Ideas”. Francis earned his Master of Science degree from Brandeis University.

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Welcome back to the 2022 dinner meeting season! Our goal this year is to host 3-4 hybrid dinner meetings throughout the year to engage with our membership. All dinner meetings will be available to join via a webinar platform as well as in person.

We are also introducing student presentations! Every meeting we will invite a student from the Southwest Region to give us a brief presentation on the research they are doing in the world of VTOL.

And with all that, we are excited to announce our first dinner meeting of the year! Please mark your calendars for WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2. We will be hearing a talk by Erasmo Pinero on the X-22. Erasmo’s presentation will cover the overall design of the Bell Aerosystems X-22A tilt-duct V/STOL research aircraft, its importance to V/STOL research, lessons learned, and contributions to the science of V/STOL flight. The presentation will include the road leading up to the X-22A from concept to contractual hurdles, to flying test bed; and how the program overcame unforeseen technical challenges to become one of the most successful X-planes in the history of V/STOL flight research. The pioneering contributions of the X-22A to more recent powered lift aircraft and vehicles of the future will be explored.

We would love to see you in person, but welcome all our virtual attendees as well! See the attached flyer for more information

For virtual tickets, student tickets, or to use Bell Payroll Deduct, please fill out THIS FORM.

March 2022 Dinner Meeting – PayPal Option Now Available!

Register for this FREE webinar here.

Prepayment is required to register for this event. Cancellations must be received by the registration deadline to receive a refund.

Bell payroll deduct: 

Use this link to register for this event.

Credit Card or Paypal:

1. Select number of tickets and click “Register”
2. Input registration information
3. Select “PayPal Express Checkout” as payment method (only option)
4. Once you are directed to the PayPal site, you can either pay by credit card as a guest or through your PayPal login

Prepayment is required to register for this event. Cancellations must be received by the registration deadline to receive a refund.

Bell payroll deduct: 

Use this link to register for this event.

Credit Card or Paypal:

1. Select number of tickets and click “Register”
2. Input registration information
3. Select “PayPal Express Checkout” as payment method (only option)
4. Once you are directed to the PayPal site, you can either pay by credit card as a guest or through your PayPal login

The Southwest Region of the Vertical Flight Society will hold its annual Robert L. Lichten Award regional competition on Thursday, December 5^th, 2019 in Bell’s Fort Worth Headquarters Tech Auditorium from 4:00-6:30 pm.

The purpose of the Lichten competition is to promote the exchange of technical information by encouraging VFS members to write and present papers dealing with all areas of rotorcraft technologies. This competition is especially tailored to provide new presenters an opportunity to be recognized for their contributions to the field. All VFS members who have not previously presented a paper at a national or regional meeting of the VFS or other technical societies are eligible. Please refer to the Procedures and Eligibility Statement for the official rules.

Candidates for the regional competition will make a 20-minute presentation in front of judges and other VFS members. The winner of the regional competition will receive a $250 honorarium from the VFS Southwest Region and will be nominated to the international competition. A $100 and $50 honorarium will be presented to 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively from the VFS Southwest Region.

The winner of the regional competition will write a paper due no later than February 29, 2020 to be judged at the international level. The winner of the international Lichten Award will be invited to present his/her paper at the Vertical Flight Society’s 76^th Annual Forum & Technology Display, May 19-21, 2020 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and receive a travel reimbursement stipend of up to $1500 to attend the Forum, complimentary registration and lodging, and a $500 honorarium.  The international Lichten Award first runner-up will also be invited to present his/her paper, and will receive complimentary registration.

If you are interested in competing for the VFS Southwest Region Lichten Award, submit an approved* abstract/outline of your presentation and the Lichten Eligibility Checklist by C.O.B. Thursday, November 14, 2019, to Southwest Region Lichten Award Coordinator Nathan Wu at email nwu@bellflight.com .  The Lichten Eligibility Statement and guideline is available for download at: Lichten Eligibility Checklist.

*All abstracts and presentations must go through company/institution management approvals for public release. Authors are solely responsible for obtaining these approvals.

The award was established in 1975 to honor the memory of Robert L. Lichten, an outstanding rotary–wing engineer and the Society’s 22nd president. Robert Lichten was a skilled and dedicated worker who spent much of his career championing early tilt–wing and tiltrotor concepts until his unfortunate death in an automobile accident. Many who knew him called him the “Pioneer of Tilt Rotor Technology.”

Check  out the Rotary Wing Technology Short Course offered by Penn State on August 5-9, 2019!  Information about the program can be found here.

The student chapter of the Vertical Flight Society at the University of Texas at Arlington is raffling off a signed copy of Franklin D. Harris’ 3 volume set,  “Autogyros, Helicopters, and Other V/STOL Aircraft.”

Tickets are $5 each and the proceeds will benefit the student organization by allowing them to continue hosting presentations from vertical flight industry professionals. These interactions teach students about the exciting challenges rotorcraft exhibit, a perspective they are not currently exposed to in core curriculum classes.

Please visit the June 20th Networking Event registration page to purchase raffle tickets.