Ben Iannotta

Virginia

Editor of Aerospace America, the magazine of AIAA, fly fisherman, outdoorsman, aerospace tech nerd ... You can probably find me in the Florida Keys

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Articles

Human factors loom large in aftermath of deadly D.C. air collision

2 months ago | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta |Cat Hofacker

Why did the helicopter crew seem not to see the jet? The search for the cause of the deadly air collision over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., has gravitated to questions of why and how a U.S. Army helicopter pilot flew into the path of a single-aisle American Eagle jet as it was coming in to land. The collision just before 9 p.m. on a cold, glistening Wednesday evening in the U.S. capital region killed all 64 crew and passengers on the jet and the three crew members on the helicopter.
NASA wants to keep an unbroken American presence in low-Earth orbit

Jan 7, 2025 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

But it stops short of calling it a pledgeAIAA SCITECH FORUM, ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA today elaborated on its newly embraced determination to keep Americans in low-Earth orbit continuously beyond 2030, when the final crew members are scheduled to come home from the International Space Station before it’s deorbited in early 2031.
Chaos tamer

Dec 31, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

Q&ATim Arel, head of FAA's Air Traffic OrganizationPositions: 2022-present, chief operating officer of FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, the top job at ATO whose 30,000 employees constitute two-thirds of FAA. 2022-2024, chair of the Latin American and Caribbean CANSO CEO Committee (CANSO stands for Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation). 2017-2022, deputy chief operating officer in charge of domestic air traffic operations and manager of ATO Officers Group.
NASA concludes initial phase of video archive project for air taxis

Dec 16, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

Helicopter flights were a step toward training autonomous flight software to navigate real-world scenariosNASA aerospace engineer Nelson Brown watched a computer display at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as multiple video streams showed views from a pod slung beneath a helicopter flying over the center’s landscape. Brown is the lead researcher in NASA’s AIRVUE initiative, short for Airborne Instrumentation for Real-world Video of Urban Environments.
Issue: December 2024

Dec 2, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

December 2024 AIAA Bulletin Two possible space strategies for the Trump administration Welcoming Clay Mowry Missing the point of ISS Why Starlink must be reined in Step right up
Hurricane Milton

Nov 1, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

Hurricanes often spawn tornadoes, but Milton’s were particularly numerous and strong for a Florida storm. Images like this one from GOES-16, showing lightning flashing over Southwest Florida, helped forecasters issue tornado warnings with maximum lead time as the storm moved east. “The flash rates were very high with the tornado-bearing cells and thus confidence was increased,” forecasters from the National Weather Service’s Melbourne office explained by email.
Mission designer

Nov 1, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

Q&AStefano Campagnola, Europa Clipper mission design managerPositions: Since January 2022, mission design manager for Europa Clipper at the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, a role that ends on Nov. 24. 2021- 2022, deputy mission design manager. 2016-2021, various roles at JPL. 2012-2016, space mission analyst and fellow at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. 2011-2012, postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and JPL and contributor to the 2011 Europa Mission Study.
AI at work: mastering the airspace

Oct 31, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Aaron Karp |Ben Iannotta

U.K. researchers are in the midst of Project Bluebird, a multiyear effort to create competing versions of artificial intelligence agents to see if one could in theory be capable of autonomously controlling air traffic. Aaron Karp and Ben Iannotta spoke to researchers about their plans to conduct live trials in the safety of a digital twin of the airspace.
What the age of nuclear testing can teach us

Jul 1, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

We live in promising and sometimes frightening times, but the history pointed to in our cover story reminds me that we’ve been here before and survived. The late 1940s through the early ’60s were a time of scary nuclear experimentation, as you can see in our cover story. The device set off at the Trinity Site in New Mexico in 1945 had not set the entire atmosphere ablaze, as nuclear physicist Edward Teller warned colleagues it might.
Putting Artemis spending in perspective

Jun 1, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Ben Iannotta

A sizable chunk of this issue, 31%, is devoted to telling you about work funded under NASA’s Artemis moon program. If that sounds like a lot, it happens to be the same percentage of the NASA budget that will be spent on Artemis this fiscal year. Does NASA have its priorities right? Often, I have to put my personal opinion on a shelf in my role as editor-in-chief. On this one, that’s not necessary, because at this writing I have questions but no opinion yet. I’m conflicted — and perhaps I’m not alone.