Vertical Flight Technology Leaders Head to Montreal for 
80th Annual Forum & Technology Display

Latest technologies featured at the world's oldest and largest vertical flight technical event

Fairfax, Virginia, April 18, 2024 — The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) is holding its 80th Annual Forum & Technology Display (Forum 80) on May 7–9, 2024, at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Québec, Canada, focused on the theme, “The Future of Vertical Flight.” This is the world’s largest and longest running technical event dedicated to advancing vertical flight, including helicopters, advanced rotorcraft, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS or drones), electric VTOL aircraft, advanced air mobility (AAM) platforms, and other types of VTOL aircraft. 

“The Annual Forum is the premier technical event for engineers, scientists, researchers, academics and aerospace experts developing innovative technology for VTOL aircraft,” said Angelo Collins, Executive Director of the Vertical Flight Society. “Anyone engaged in vertical flight technology — whether a new student or a world expert — will benefit from attending.”

Some 1,200 attendees are expected, with nearly 300 technical paper presentations from industry, academia and government agencies around the world. The Forum also includes 65 exhibitors and more than 40 invited VIP speakers from industry and government. 

The Forum 80 opening general session is being held on Tuesday, May 7. The keynote address will be delivered by MGen Jamie Speiser-Blanchet, Deputy Commander, Royal Canadian Air Force. Senior executives from the top largest western helicopter manufacturers — Airbus, Bell, Boeing, Leonardo and Sikorsky (the five platinum-level corporate members of VFS — are part of a special panel, “Straight Talk from the Top.” In addition, the 44th Annual Alexander A. Nikolsky will be presented by Boeing Technical Fellow Dr. Brahmananda Panda, “Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Methodology and its Application to Rotor Dynamics, Loads, Vibration and Aeroelastic Stability.”

Special sessions are being held on military VTOL aircraft developments with program managers and experts from the US Navy, US Army, Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy, and the National Research Council of Canada, as well as a dedicated special session on the NATO Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) program with representatives from NATO, the UK Ministry of Defense and the aerospace industry. 

A session on Government Civil VTOL Research features the leaders of rotorcraft research at the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT), ONERA — The French Aerospace Lab, and DLR — German Aerospace Center. A session on Canadian Civil VTOL Developments features leaders from the Helicopter Association of Canada (HAC), Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM), Cougar Helicopters Inc., Canadian Helicopters Ltd. and University of Sherbrooke.

Three sessions on electric VTOL/AAM features the CEOs of CycloTech, GoAERO, Horizon, Jaunt Air Mobility, Limosa, Piasecki Aircraft Corp. and Rotor Technologies, as well as top executives from Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies, Daedalean AG, Unither Bioelectonics, Vertical Aerospace and Wisk Aero. VFS helped launch what it calls the “Electric VTOL Revolution” in 2014 when it held the world’s first technical meeting on the subject. At Forum 80, VFS is holding a 1-day Short Course on Electric VTOL Technology on Monday, May 6; the Society has been holding two or three such courses every year since 2018, and hosts the definitive website on subject, www.eVTOL.news/news. 

At the Society’s Grand Awards Banquet Breakfast on Thursday, May 9, some 20 individual and group awards will be presented to recognize the vertical flight community’s greatest accomplishments. At the Banquet, the Society is presenting 29 scholarships — totaling a record $120,000 — as part of its educational mission; in addition, some 150 university students are attending the Forum at no charge to learn from experts in the field.

For more information on the Annual Forum or to register to attend, go to www.vtol.org/forum. Complementary press passes are available in advance to credentialed media. 

The Vertical Flight Society — founded in 1943 as the American Helicopter Society — is the global professional society for engineers, scientists and others working on vertical flight technology. VFS brings together industry, academia and government organizations to tackle the toughest challenges in vertical flight. For more than 80 years, VFS has led technology, safety, advocacy, and other important initiatives, and has been the primary forum for interchange of information on vertical flight technology.

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