American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Central Florida Section
Previous Events
SUNnFUN Aerospace Expo
Saturday, April 18⋅12:00 – 4:00pm
Click for Performers, including the USAF Thunderbirds. We met around noon at the Florida Air Museum. AIAA provided a free box lunch. It couldn't have been a better Florida day.
The Brighter Side of Civilisation (sic) and the Universe
Thursday, April 16, 2026 ⋅6:00 – 8:00pm
Dinner meeting with speaker Elisaveta Lachina, author of “The Brighter Side of Civilisation and the Universe: Where do we come from and what brings us forward”. Her book traces the evolution of civilization and culminates in a deep scientific exploration of the origins of the universe and the nature of time from a physics perspective, April 16.
Junior Achievement INSPIRE
Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 8:30AM – 2:00PM
JA Inspire is a forward-thinking, career exploration event that focuses on the development of our local youth and workforce.
This event allows us to introduce us to over 15,000 8th grade students in the Orange County School District. We set up interactive (static models of rockets/spacecrafts) and informational (promotional items like paper handouts and handicrafts) booth to teach students about potential career opportunities in aerospace engineering and the educational paths to get there.
Interest in aerospace invariably began with paper airplanes
Our Section Chair and Secretary, respectively
Interest in aerospace invariably began with paper airplanes
SECME Glider Competition
Saturday, February 21, 2026 6:30am – 12:00pm
Saturday, February 21st, AIAA member volunteers were at the UCF Student Union, setting up the course, doing check-ins, measuring/judging flights, and guiding people for safety. As always, it was a fun event with competitors enjoying a mixed bag of success and learning experiences.
SECME Glider 2026
Questioning the Surface of Mars as the 21st Century’s Ultimate Pioneering Destination in Space
Daniel Adamo, AIAA Distinguished Speaker
Thursday, February 19, 2026 6-8PM
This 1.5-hour presentation reviewed historic earthly distinctions between exploring and pioneering before applying these distinctions to destinations in space. Although a case can be made for human and robotic exploration in space, there is as yet no compelling rationale for "putting down roots" to pioneer anywhere off Earth. Why then is the surface of Mars widely accepted as humanity's future "home away from home" to the extent some 200,000 people are willing to attempt forming a permanent colony there? There is no evidence suggesting humans can survive on the surface of Mars long-term, let alone thrive there to produce viable offspring.
Cape Canaveral Lighthouse & Space Force Museum
Saturday, January 17th, 2025 9am-1pm
Since opening to the public in 1966, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum (formerly known as the Air Force Space and Missile Museum) has introduced millions of visitors to the history of rocketry and space flight. Facilities include a visit to Hangar C and the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse
AIAA SciTech Conference
January 12, 2026
Professor Matthew J. Traum, University of Florida, gave a talk at the national AIAA SciTech conference with a group of transfer students from College of Central Florida and Santa Fe College who he worked with in a summer bridge program. They built and flew an altimeter for an Estes Alpha III hobby-scale rocket in support of some upcoming middle school and high school STEM programming being done with Alachua County Public Schools. They also got a paper published in the proceedings on the bridge program.
Presentation re cross-border bridge program between transfer students
Built and flew an altimeter for an Estes Alpha III hobby-scale rocket
Presentation re cross-border bridge program between transfer students
Keys for Career Success
Thursday, November 20th, 2025 7-8pm (Virtual)
Our guest speaker, Dr. Jefferies (Rhett), is a world-class scholar in his field of research and a distinguished entrepreneur. This highly informative meeting covered all aspects of a successful professional aerospace career. We hope you joined Rhett's talk!
SmallSat Education Conference
October 25 – 26, 2025
Hours were 1000-1700 Saturday, 1000-1415 Sunday at the Center for Space Education, M6-306 405 State Road, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899. There were presentations, speakers, and workshops during these hours. Saturday morning featured speaker was Dr. Norman G. Fitz-Coy, Associate professor in the M&AE Department at UF. Saturday afternoon's speaker wass Astronaut and Former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Principle Speaker (center) with Section Chair Hammond (right)
Inventing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 7:00 – 8:30pm
Drinks and pizza was furnished by AIAA Central Florida Section
This presentation by Paul Bevilaqua, the Chief Engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works, described the technical and program challenges involved in developing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and showed how an innovative idea became an international program with engineers from half a dozen countries developing a single replacement aircraft for multiple aircraft types.
Annual Awards Banquet
Friday, May 30th, 2025, 5:30-9:00PM @ Courtyard Cocoa Beach by Marriott
Playing with Fire: Adventures in Space Entrepreneurship
Dr. Tom Markusic describes his personal journey from an Ohio farm to landing on the moon. He highlights incremental accomplishments and lessons learned from academics, government civil service, and the commercial sector – culminating in starting his own “newspace” companies
