Aviation has historically been shaped by the emergence of new technologies. High capacity batteries and advances in computation hardware and algorithms have unlocked new ways of flying, such as electric vertical take off and landing aircraft. Electric aircraft are not only a path to sustainability of aviation, the confluence of technologies allows for design of configurations that have not been viable before. The advances in computation and algorithms do not only extend to the on-board avionics, but are becoming essential tools for design, analysis, and safety assurance of this novel class of vehicles.

Gregor Veble Mikić is head of Flight Research & Flight Physics at Joby Aviation. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and was Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Nova Gorica. Before joining Joby, he was Head of Research at Pipistrel, where he led the design of the Panthera general aviation aircraft, and was responsible for the aerodynamics and performance of the battery powered Taurus G4, the aircraft that won the NASA Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google competition in 2011. He worked on aerodynamic design of the Joby aircraft and its flight dynamics and systems modeling.