2025 AIAA Durand Lectureship for Public Service Awarded to The Boeing Company’s Kevin G. Bowcutt

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lecture Set for 6 January During 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum

Kevin G. Bowcutt, Principal Senior Technical Fellow and Chief Scientist of Hypersonics for The Boeing Company

November 18, 2024 - Reston, Va. - The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the 2025 AIAA Durand Lectureship for Public Service is awarded to Kevin G. Bowcutt, Principal Senior Technical Fellow and Chief Scientist of Hypersonics for The Boeing Company, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Bowcutt will deliver his lecture, "The Evolution of Hypersonic Flight Over Seven Decades and the Technical Breakthroughs that Got Us Here," on Monday, 6 January, 3:30 p.m. ET, during the 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum, Orlando, Florida. 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum registration is available now. Journalists can request a Press Pass here.

Bowcutt is a Principal Senior Technical Fellow & Chief Scientist of Hypersonics for Boeing with 42 years of experience. He is an AIAA Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2021 he was selected by Texas A&M to be a Fellow of the Hagler Institute of Advanced Study. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. Bowcutt is an internationally recognized expert in hypersonic aerodynamics, propulsion integration, and vehicle design and optimization, and leads Boeing's hypersonic vehicle advanced design and technology development efforts.

Bowcutt's lecture will chronicle the major milestones that have enabled air-breathing hypersonic flight, bringing future promise to current capability, and leading to worldwide pursuit of hypersonic capabilities and leadership. Hypersonic flight has the potential to dramatically impact national defense, and significantly improve the speed of global travel and the frequency and cost of space access. For more than 50 years following the first hypersonic flight in 1949, expendable rocket propulsion was the only available means of accelerating vehicles to hypersonic speed, limiting applications to costly expendable spaceflight and military missiles. Although it took more than 40 years of dedicated R&D, the idea conceived in 1957 of a more efficient air-breathing engine employing supersonic combustion, the scramjet, was finally proven viable in 2004 by flying on NASA's X-43A. Almost 10 years later, in 2013, hypersonic air-breathing propulsion was proven practical by flying a dual-mode ramjet on the USAF/DARPA X-51 Scramjet Engine Demonstrator. These achievements were enabled by continuous advancements in high-temperature materials; test facilities, test techniques, and test campaigns; scramjet technologies, such as air intakes, isolators, injectors, mixers, flame holders, combustion chemistry, and nozzles; fluid dynamic and thermostructural simulation; and multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization.

The Durand Lectureship for Public Service, named in honor of William F. Durand, Ph.D., is presented for notable achievements by a scientific or technical leader whose contributions have led directly to the understanding and application of the science and technology of aeronautics and astronautics for the betterment of humanity. Durand was a United States naval officer and a pioneer in mechanical engineering. During his remarkable 99-year life, Durand contributed significantly to the development of aircraft propellers. He was the first civilian chair of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.

The Institute's Public Policy Committee takes pride in selecting accomplished leaders in aeronautics and astronautics for this honor who can share their knowledge through the Durand Lecture for Public Service. For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at [email protected].

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, APR, [email protected], 804.397.5270 (cell)

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world's largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

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