At the June 2017 Paris Airshow, Airbus entered into a five-year agreement with the University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering department to establish and fund, to the tune of $8.25 million, a new research center. Called the Airbus-University of Michigan Center for Aero-Servo-Elasticity of Very Flexible Aircraft, its purpose is to engage in fundamental research, focusing on advanced methodologies for designing and evaluating future aircraft. We recently caught up with the Center’s director, Dr. Carlos Cesnik, and asked him about the work being done there, the aircraft of the future, and the impact of the recent COVID-19 crisis on the aerospace industry.

The University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering Department’s Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory (PEPL) is developing the next-generation of Hall thruster technology that may one day propel the first human missions to Mars.