June 30, 2025 – Reston Va. – AIAA is pleased to award the 2025 AIAA Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics to Susan Ying, AMP2FLY. Ying will deliver her lecture, “Emergence of Hybrid Electric Aircraft,” Wednesday, 23 July, 11:45 a.m. PT, during the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, Las Vegas.

Ying’s lecture will provide an overview of past, present, and future Ampaire efforts to commercialize hybrid-electric aircraft. Prior work includes Ampaire’s flight of the first hybrid-electric test platform in 2019 (the Electric EEL), using both electric and traditional powertrains. Current work includes the Eco Caravan, which offers fuel savings over the original aircraft of up to 70% on short-hop routes and over 50% on long-haul flights, while still carrying nine passengers or cargo. Future work includes upgraded larger aircraft and clean sheet aircraft designs. She will highlight recent flight operations lending additional credibility to Ampaire’s plan for deploying hybrid-electric commercial service in the very near future.

Susan Ying, AMP2FLY, will deliver her lecture,“Emergence of Hybrid Electric Aircraft,”Wednesday, 23 July, 11:45 a.m. PT, during the 2025 AIAA AVIATION Forum, Las Vegas.

Ying was the senior vice president of Global Partnerships, responsible for strategy and international partnerships at Ampaire, a deep tech start-up for electric commercial aircraft. In 2017, she retired from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China as the chief integration officer. In 2013, she retired from The Boeing Company as director of Boeing Research and Technology. Demonstrating success both at individual and team levels, she has been the recipient of many honors, including the Chinese Government’s Friendship Award and NASA Group Achievement Award. Before joining Boeing, Ying taught at universities and directed research in the DOE Research Labs at ISU and FSU, as well as at NASA Ames Research Center.

Ying is currently a board member of ElFly, an electric amphibian aircraft start-up based in Norway, and the immediate past vice president, Aerospace, and board member of SAE International. Ying is an AIAA Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She is the former president of the International Council of Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS). Ying holds a commercial pilot license and is an FAA-Certified Flight Instructor. She received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

The AIAA Wright Brothers Lectureship in Aeronautics commemorates the accomplishment of the Wright Brothers in creating the first practical airplane and also recognizes the success of their approach to problem-solving – beginning with study of the literature and including innovative thinking, constructive debate, systematic testing, and teamwork. In particular, the Wright Brothers Lectureship is awarded for the recent accomplishment of a significant “First in Aeronautical Engineering.” The lecture will highlight the details of the accomplishment and the approaches to meeting both the technical and programmatic challenges involved.

Source:https://aiaa.org/2025/06/30/2025-wright-brothers-lectureship-in-aeronautics-awarded-to-susan-ying-amp2fly/