Aerodynamics. Propulsion. Structures. "Heh. I know this stuff." We all know this stuff, we pilots... right?

Well, maybe not so right. A look at the agenda for the upcoming AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting & Exhibit (9-12 January, Reno Hilton, Reno NV) usually trips my MEGO-mode breaker about midway through the lecture title.

MEGO? It's an acronym... for "My Eyes Glaze Over," like they do in utter incomprehension when I read something like, "A Continuous Adjoint Method for the Minimization of Losses in Cascade Viscous Flows," which is all Greek to me. And that's not because it's being presented by two scientists from the National Technical University of Athens (which it is). It's obvious that these Greeks know English words that I don't -- and so do the other presenters at this important conference, who are top aeronautical or astronautical researchers from Finland, Saudi Arabia, China, France... everywhere.

The meeting is organized into Sessions where like-minded researchers expose their results on different segments of similar subjects. I can see at a glance that "Hybrid RANS/LES and Other Unsteady Methods" doesn't mean what it suggests to me (that crossing one of Randy Schlitter's kit planes with an Army Leave and Earnings Statement would be a rum idea); and all I can figure out about "Discontinuous Galerkin Methods" is that if I went to that session, I would sit there like a hog looking at a wristwatch.

But while many of the subjects might overtax my propeller-powered brain, others are intriguing. What's this: "Wind Driven Rovers for Mars Exploration"? Well, the rovers there now have sure recorded a lot of winds... several of the papers refer to a "Tumbleweed Rover," which makes perfect sense.

There's a session on the first year's results from NASA's Columbia supercomputer, which went live in late 2004.

A session on Air Safety focuses on icing, and highlights the research that NASA Glenn Research Center has been doing (we recently wrote up their first-rate icing training modules). A session on modeling, observing, understanding and predicting turbulence raises the possibility that some day, "fishing" for a less bumpy altitude will be unnecessary. 

There's a whole session on "Aeromechanics of Natural Flight" which is to say, the flight of insects and birds -- and what we can learn from it.

There's a session on jet noise, and many on high-speed flight. A session on "Supersonic Aircraft Design" makes it clear from both its subjects and its presenters that the supersonic business jet is back on the drawing board with a vengeance. Turbines, vortexes, rotor blades; if it's worth studying, somebody smart is going to be presenting a new angle on it here.

And here's one I'd love to sit in on: "Aerodynamic Shape Optimization for the World's Fastest P-51."

Registration for the Meeting is still open; the cost is on a "from each according to his ability" scale, with students and retiree members getting a hefty break. Non-members can register (the higher price they are charged makes them members, just like that). And the proceedings of the Meeting will be available on CD-ROM (and on CD *only* -- this is AIAA's first paperless conference) for an additional fee. The proceedings have been available online to registered attendees since Dec. 23.

FMI: www.aiaa.org