AE285 Undergraduate Seminar Series - The Drones are Coming

Edward L. Burnett, Former Senior Fellow for Modeling, Simulation and Controls, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

“The Drones are Coming” is a unique look at some of the strange and little know history of UAVs. The presentation traces the history of Unmanned Aircraft and their ties to Hollywood. The talk also presents some of the possible future uses of UAVs to support multiple industries and what technology improvements will make them possible.

About the Speaker...
Edward L. Burnett was the Senior Fellow for Modeling, Simulation and Controls at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Palmdale, CA (the Skunk Works) until his retirement in August after 37 years. His principal duty was to develop real-time Man-In-The-Loop and Hardware-In-The-Loop simulations for the Skunk Works. He has a B.S. and an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Ed’s career started with Lockheed Martin in 1981, and since then he has worked a wide variety of projects including the F-117A, F-22A the JSF X-35 and F-35, the X-56, and many others. Mr. Burnett was a member of the class of 2018 AIAA Fellows, he is on its Academic Affairs Committee and is a past chair of the Modeling and Simulation Technical Committee. Ed is the Chair of the Cal Poly Aerospace Departments Industrial Advisory Board and serves of several other university boards. He is also a member of the SAE, SFTE, and AOPA. Ed enjoys flying, sailing, skiing (snow and water), scuba diving and traveling.

Ed has also worked as a consultant on several aircraft simulation computer games, movie special effects, and theatrical props.