Today, in the real 2001, humans remain intricately involved in all aspects of flight operations. However, many of Clarke's predictions regarding the future of flight have been realized, and the day when a computer like Hal will control most of flight operations may not be far away. The field of digital avionics plays a key role in this evolution of flight, and many technologies developed for space travel have potential applications for other forms of air travel. Projecting current accident rates onto aviation growth estimates yields a potential frequency of accidents that is clearly unacceptable.
Flight delays remain at an all-time high.
There is an urgent need to address the problems of cost and accessibility of space flight to bring the commercial potential of space to the general public. Military organizations around the world are working to do more with less and leverage commercial architectures and civilian infrastructure. Internationally, industry and governmental organizations continue to debate the best ways to introduce new technologies to improve efficiencies and performance so that they are not outdated before they are implemented. Join us at the 20th DASC to discuss these challenging topics and explore solutions to the problems that confront us. As with previous conferences, we will address these issues across all engineering disciplines.