Background:

Fred Lisy is the president of Orbital Research Inc., Cleveland, where he oversees the development and commercialization of core technologies that focus on micro/miniature actuators and sensors with advanced control systems for the automotive, aircraft, renewable energy and medical products industries.  Under his leadership, Orbital has received the Inc. 500 Award and has made the Top 100 list of Case Western Reserve University ’s Weatherhead School of Management fast growing companies for eight consecutive years.  Prior to joining Orbital, Lisy was the program manager and senior researcher for the Center on Materials for Space Structures (CMSS), a NASA Center for Commercial Development of Space (CCDS) at Case, where he was instrumental in developing nine space shuttle experiments.

He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from CWRU. He has been recognized as young engineer of the year by the Cleveland Engineering Society, recognized for outstanding technical achievement by the Cleveland Technical Societies Council and honored as one of Cleveland’s top 40 engineers by Crain's Cleveland Business magazine.

Elected a Fellow of ASM in recognition of his expertise in sensors, Lisy has been an ASM member for more than 25 years. He has served as a member of the Cleveland Chapter Executive Committee and the ASM Chapter Council.  He chaired and now serves on the ASM New Products and Services Committee where he has been active in developing content for ASM’s on-line materials information system as well as new products for the medical devices and alternative energy communitie

Abstract:

Aerodynamic flow control systems have progressed slowly since the invention of ailerons in the early 1900’s.  In the 1990’s, significant technological advances and breakthroughs in enabling material systems have resulted in a new generation of flight control systems which create micro/mini-scale actuators to produce large scale flow control over a variety of aerodynamic surfaces.  These enabling material systems along with advanced sensors, electronics and software have the potential to revolutionize the performance of aero structures such as airplanes, weapon systems, cars, wind turbines, and more. These enabling material systems and flow control concepts have been realized because of breakthroughs in the field of, plasma solid state generators, Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and other novel devices and controller designs.

This presentation will highlight enabling material systems used for various flow control applications to augment or replace conventional movable fluid control surfaces such as ailerons, flaps, canards winglets, etc.  The enabling systems are envisioned as a fundamental transformation in the design of future aerodynamic surfaces and the accompanying flight control systems.