During a meeting of the Aerospace States Association held at last month’s EAA AirVenture show, a group of aviation and aerospace companies pledged to join efforts to form an Aerospace Center of Excellence for Integrated Aerospace and Defense Technologies. The center will feature a research lab hosted by Astronautics at its Milwaukee, Wis. campus.
Participants will be able to use the lab to study security and cyber projects related to aerospace applications and for other aerospace-related activities. According to Astronautics, “The center will include advanced open source cockpit and navigational systems simulators, integration and verification stations and security penetration testing for the collaborative development of integrated and secure interfaces between life-critical and general systems controls.” Astronautics will provide flight displays, airborne systems and sensor inputs to replicate an aircraft environment, as well as a cybersecurity workstation.
The goal of the center is not only to develop solutions for key issues facing the aviation and aerospace industries but also to attract aerospace talent to Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin, which is participating in this effort, doesn’t have an aerospace engineering degree program, but there are plenty of aerospace companies in Wisconsin that need talented graduates from the university’s mechanical engineering and other programs. “A lot of what we do is life-critical applications around electronics,” said Astronautics president Chad Cundiff. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get students to understand that they could work in aerospace? This is a great opportunity. It allows us to take the conversation with the University of Wisconsin to a different level. People don’t know we’re here, and this can be an option for them, and it’s a chance to attract those students coming through so they can see what they can do in this area.”
The center’s first task is to obtain funding to build the research facility. “The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation indicated they’re willing to fund it,” he said, “but we need a detailed application, what it’s going to contain and how it’s going to hook together.” Center participants are planning a series of meetings and inviting new members to work together on the application and funding process. “Over the next few months companies and others are coming together, and we’re going to put this together and have something strong. This is different from what’s out there today, and it doesn’t exist in this form anywhere.”
Wisconsin Aerospace Partners has also been formed to promote, stimulate and facilitate aerospace-related education, economic opportunities, capabilities and activities in Wisconsin, according to Astronautics, and it will help support the new Aerospace Center of Excellence.
“This is a way to give back into the aerospace community,” Cundiff said. “We’re excited about that. We’ve had tremendous support from the governor and lieutenant governor, and they view Wisconsin as an emerging center for aerospace. We want to see that next generation get into this field. We work in aerospace all week long and on the weekend we go flying. We want them to experience the same joys that we feel.”