Building on our Progress in 2024

By Dan Dumbacher|January 2024

As we enter 2024, we expect to see much excitement, growth, and innovation across the three AIAA Domains of Aeronautics, Aerospace Research and Development (R&D), and Space. The efforts in aeronautics building sustainable air travel, enabling autonomous air mobility, and furthering hypersonics are continuing the advances made since the early 20th century to take us farther, faster, safer, and cleaner. Our community is embracing leading-edge technologies in the next generation systems and missions, including digital engineering, artificial intelligence, autonomy, advanced manufacturing, and cybersecurity. Space is an essential part of everyday life on Earth as we keep building our off-world future by addressing space traffic coordination and creating the cislunar ecosystem. AIAA is enabling this type of future progress that will address generational-scale challenges by creating and fostering the all-important atmosphere inspiring innovation.

Expanding on our Accomplishments

We have witnessed our community’s strength in the past year to prepare us for this next one. The list of remarkable accomplishments is long across the three Domains, as evidenced by the dozens of pages of year-in-review stories from AIAA Technical Committees and Integration Committees in the December issue of Aerospace America. Please read these excellent summaries that are a tribute to our community’s incessant drive toward a purpose larger than ourselves, ultimately improving life on Earth and extending the human neighborhood to the moon and beyond.

These accomplishments are helping AIAA gain momentum advocating for the aerospace community across all of our stakeholders, including public policy, adjacent markets, and technologies. By providing technically informed input to key stakeholders, AIAA has been influential in Domain topic areas. We have been hosting focused events on Capitol Hill and around Washington, DC, to facilitate these technical exchanges. It was an honor to host NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and AIAA President-Elect Dan Hastings during our Aviation Reception in November. This type of policy advocacy will carry on in the coming year, with additional opportunities for AIAA professional and corporate members to be involved.

AIAA continues developing international connections and being visible on the global stage. Visits to Australia, Europe, and India during 2023 gave us the opportunity to deepen our relationships with aerospace professionals, as well as with AIAA members, local sections, and student branches. Sharing the AIAA vision, our Domain focus, and the ways to connect and participate in AIAA are delivering benefits. AIAA also has joined scores of companies and individuals as a signatory to “The Washington Compact on Norms of Behavior for Commercial Space Operations,” an effort championed by The Hague Institute for Global Justice.

With the global challenges of rapidly evolving capabilities and competition, our community needs a workforce that is well-versed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To realize this potential, AIAA continues to be a welcoming community, cultivating the needed diversity of thought by including everyone, especially those who have not typically been exposed to aerospace in the past. This is a vital element to a culture of inclusion.

All our efforts must be at the pace of innovation and the speed of the marketplace. The ability to adapt quickly is crucial. We understand the need for agility and responsiveness to emerging trends and technologies. AIAA facilitates an environment for our members to stay informed and connected to help meet the challenge of time to market.

Onward this Year

2024 should see new vehicles flying, innovative systems launched, and creative solutions implemented across the aerospace community. The Technical Committees, Integration Committees, local sections, student branches, and Domain task forces are essential to making these strides. AIAA remains steadfast in our commitment to a bright future helping our members and their organizations succeed. AIAA will be navigating the fast-paced global environment to help ensure a prosperous future for the aerospace community. We encourage you to leverage all the resources available to AIAA members to fuel your accomplishments throughout the coming year.

Together, we will tackle the challenges, seize the opportunities, and shape the future of aerospace.