We are pleased to announce the newly elected officers of the Aerospace Systems Technical Group (ASTG). This leadership team brings a wealth of experience across human factors, flight deck design, certification, automation, and safety-critical systems. Together, they represent a strong balance of academic research, industry practice, and technical leadership that will guide ASTG's work in the coming term.

Chair – Nayara Faria, Boeing
Nayara Faria holds a Ph.D. in Human Factors from Virginia Tech, where she investigated a safety-centric evaluation framework for augmented-reality head-up displays. She has previously interned at Google as a UX and Human Factors Researcher. Currently, Nayara is a Human Factors Engineer at Boeing, supporting flight deck certification activities aligned with FAA regulations 25.1302, 25.1309, and 25.1322. Her work integrates research rigor, certification requirements, and human-centered design to enhance safety in aerospace systems.

Program Chair – Rodrigo Lopes Rose, BETA Technologies
Rodrigo Lopes Rose is a Safety Systems Engineer at BETA Technologies, where he supports the development and integration of safety-critical systems for next-generation aerospace platforms. His professional background brings a strong systems-engineering and operational safety perspective to ASTG's technical programming.

Program Vice-Chair – Steve Cauffman, Ph.D., Boeing
Steve Cauffman serves as the Autoflight Human Factors Technical Lead at Boeing. His work includes generative evaluations for new takeoff alerts, task analyses of pilot interactions with automated systems, and cross-functional collaboration to support human-centered design and testing. Steve has authored human factors process improvements for error analysis, developed human-centered design principles for flight deck automation, and provides mentorship and technical leadership to early-career human factors engineers.

We congratulate our new officers and look forward to a productive and impactful term under their leadership as ASTG continues to advance human-centered approaches to aerospace systems.

Membership Renewal - Last chance

If you haven't renewed, this is your last chance to renew your ASTG and HFES memberships. After January 31, you will lose access to the ASTG user forum, our information-packed monthly newsletter and all the benefits of active HFES members. We hope you've found value in the Aerospace Systems Technical Group's activities over the past year and that you'll continue to be part of our community in the year ahead.

Check your membership status: https://my.hfes.org/my-account/my-profile

Please note that ASTG and HFES memberships are managed independently. You may be a member of ASTG without being an HFES member, and vice versa.

The next HFES conference will be held in Reno, NV on October 19 – 23, 2026.

The call for papers is now open and you can submit your extended abstract up to February 16.

• Lecture (research paper that describes recent empirical, theoretical, or practitioner work)

• Poster (unique opportunity to interact one-on-one with attendees in an open, dynamic setting)

• Panel (talk with up to six panelists followed by discussion involving the audience and panel members)

• Case Study (real-world applications, experiences, and lessons learned from the industry)

• Demonstration (brief oral presentation followed by a live demonstration of a tool or product)

• Workshop (3h or 6h training session on Monday)

• Alternative Format (ex. debates, on-site experiments, simulations, and other innovative approaches)

ASPIRE adopts a 2-step submission process for presentation at the conference and then publication in the conference proceedings. The first step requires a 2-page extended abstract for most submission types. Acceptance at this stage grants authors the opportunity to present at ASPIRE. Then, authors may decide to optionally submit either a revised extended abstract or a 5-page paper for consideration for publication in the proceedings. Acceptance for presentation does not automatically grant acceptance for publication in the proceedings.

To present as part of the Aerospace track, make sure to select Aerospace Systems as your primary technical area in the list.

Recent publications

Mitigating inadvertent transitions from visual flight rules to instrument meteorological conditions in general aviation: decision-making strategies, cognitive challenges, and training Implications from an applied cognitive task analysis

Jiwon W. Kim, Michael C. Dorneich, Eliot Winer, Lori J. Brown & Geoff Whitehurst
Ergonomics

The evolutionary de-crewing of airline cockpits: a historical and analytical perspective

Konstantinos Pechlivanis & Dimitrios Ziakkas

Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science

Training effectiveness and validation of a VR HMD-based simulator for air force pilots

Ramy Kirollos, Wasim Merchant, Blake C.W. Martin, Jerzy Jarmasz & John Jong-Jin Kim

Ergonomics

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the flight deck: Enhancing human-AI teamwork in aviation

Jenna Korentsides, Elizabeth R. Merwin, Lila Berger, Lana Laskey, Scott R. Winter, Briana Sobel, Joseph R. Keebler

Journal of the Air Transport Research Society

Using heuristics to glide an Airbus A320 following all-engine failure in cruise: a simulator-based experimental study

Cristian Mandu, Anthony Smoker, Petru Lucian Curșeu

Ergonomics

Pilot response to somatogravic illusion in a simulated environment: Implications for early instrument flight training

Vladimir Socha, Lenka Hanakova, Boris Oniscenko, Robert O. Walton

Applied Ergonomics

Goal trade-offs in air traffic control

Donald Gyles & Chris Bearman

Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science

A Comparative Study of Cognitive Abilities of Generation Y and Generation Z Pilot Candidates

Aldona Radzeviciene, Darius Rudinskas & Vytautas Rimsa

The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology

Exploration of interaction modality for civil aircraft flying task: A laboratory study

Rourou Yu, Youchao Sun, Chaochao Guo

International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

U.S. DOT Advanced Air Mobility Roadmap

By Philippe Doyon-Poulin, from Polytechnique Montréal

Just before the holidays, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled the first Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) roadmap to accelerate aerospace transformation. This roadmap is the outcome of nearly three years of work, following a Congressional mandate for the DOT to convene an Interagency Working Group (IWG) to define a national AAM strategy for the coming decade. The IWG brought together more than 100 experts from 25 federal agencies, and the roadmap represents a consolidated view of their collective efforts. The roadmap also provides a high-level timeline for AAM deployment: initial operations around 2027, expanded urban and rural eVTOL operations by 2030, and the introduction of fully autonomous operations by approximately 2035.

The AAM roadmap actually consists of two documents: the strategy and the plan. The Strategy sets the policy vision of the United States and formulated 40 recommendations. The Plan details how federal agencies will execute those recommendations over time. Both documents are well worth reading for anyone interested in anticipating how the National Airspace System may evolve over the next several years.

The strategy frames the AAM integration around six pillars (Airspace, Infrastructure, Security, Community planning, Workforce and Automation) and identifies policy and research priorities to make it happen.

From a human factors perspective, the most note-worthy recommendations are:

Airspace

• Airspace management is expected to evolve towards "cooperative areas" where multiple service providers will be able to operate within defined portions of airspace under shared rules and responsibilities.

• Develop new surveillance solutions for low-altitude, high-density operations, along with new communication protocols that move beyond traditional voice radio exchanges.

Infrastructure

• Strong emphasis is placed on adapting existing infrastructure and regulations to accommodate new AAM entrants, while investing in technologies that overcome the limitations of decades-old aviation systems.

• Identify facility and equipment requirements at airports for remotely piloted, supervised, and autonomous AAM aircraft, recognizing that current guidance was never designed for these operational concepts.

Workforce

• Develop new educational and training programs to prepare for the new jobs expected by AAM. Previous UAS workforce studies identified: 35 occupations related to pre-operations/design, 17 related to operations, and 31 occupations in which UAS are utilized as a tool on the job.

Automation

• Federal agencies will research human–machine interaction and role allocation in highly automated and autonomous aviation systems, including performance during off-nominal and degraded conditions.

• Assess the risks and implications of coexisting pilot training models (e.g., hours-based and competency-based), including challenges associated with transitioning between them.

The AAM roadmap was well received by the industry, with AIN reporting that the major eVTOL players applaud the U.S. government for taking a strong position on AAM in the country.

The AAM strategy and implementation plan lay out a strong vision for research and infrastructure development over the next decade. We will continue to monitor progress and report on key developments as they emerge.

In the news

ATM

FAA Selects Collins Aerospace and Indra for Radar and Radio Replacements. One of the first major announcements made by Peraton that is managing the US ATM system overhaul is the replacement of 612 ground-based radars by June 2028. The FAA awarded $438 million to Collins to install the Condor Mk3, a cooperative surveillance radar using the aircraft transponders, along with the ASR-XM, a non-cooperative radar that detects aircraft using reflected signals. Indra Group USA also received $342 million as part of the FAA's Radar System Replacement program, although the press release does not mention the technology it will deploy. In November, Indra got $244.3 million to install 46,000 new radios.

Electric

Wisk flies first Gen 6 eVTOL, bringing autonomous air taxis closer to launch. During its first flight in Hollister, CA, the aircraft performed its initial vertical takeoff, hover, and stable flight maneuvers. Wisk Gen 6 is a fully electric and autonomous vehicle (no pilot), with specialized human supervision from a ground-based Multi-Vehicle Supervisor. Wisk aims to become the first autonomous passenger aircraft to achieve FAA certification for commercial operations in the United States, with planned launch cities such as Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Boeing-backed EVIO launches hybrid-electric regional airliner with 450 orders. On December 11, EVIO launched its EVIO 810 regional airliner: a clean-sheet design, hybrid-electric power with 76 seats. Entry into service is planned in the early 2030s. The startup can count on heavy players in the aviation industry to give itself a leg up: Boeing offers engineering support, and Pratt & Whitney leads the propulsion system development and plans to use the PT6E engine as the core of the hybrid architecture. EVIO says it has received 250 orders and another 200 options from two undisclosed "major carriers". The company also plans for military and cargo variants of the aircraft.

UAM

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) plans to award up to $499 million in counter-small unmanned aircraft system (C-sUAS) research contracts over the next five years. Their goal is to develop cyberspace countermeasures that disrupt sUAS operations, particularly command and control links. This includes improving system resiliency in contested environments and prioritizing low-collateral damage solutions. Command and control advancements aim to automate and optimize responses to sUAS threats, especially swarm attacks. The contract opportunity is available online.

Space

Space Force Association unveils virtual National Spacepower Center. The Space Force Association, a nonprofit organization, unveiled a decision theater for education and analysis designed to strengthen U.S. leaders' understanding of space as an operational military domain. The technology is developed by Sedaro, a company specializing in simulation and visualization capabilities. Sedaro demoed the platform on Dec. 11 at the Spacepower conference to an audience that included senior leaders from the U.S. Space Force. The platform is intended to enable interactive exploration of spacepower concepts, facilitate strategic wargaming, deliver immersive learning experiences, and provide a testbed for evaluating new approaches to space strategy and policy.