17. Constant Innovation in Aviation - Mark Cousin, CEO of Acubed

As the innovation center for Airbus, Acubed is bringing the Silicon Valley approach to advancement to the aerospace industry. Mark Cousin, CEO of Acubed, joins host Grayson Brulte for an in-depth conversation on the aviation innovations that Acubed is working on to improve efficiency and safety.   Mark shares with us the important developments that Acubed and Airbus have made over the past 10-15 years to help the organization achieve year-over-year efficiencies; how Acubed has evolved over the past five years to become a more targeted innovation center; and some of the specific innovations, including Fly by Wire, Project Wayfinder and ATOL, that demonstrate the importance of machine learning and AI to enable autonomy that will improve safety of commercial aviation, reduce costs and address the pilot shortage. He also gives a sneak peek at some of the current and future projects in the works at Acubed that will advance Airbus’ vision for innovation, including unmanned traffic management, advanced digital manufacturing, and aerial imaging.   Grayson and Mark look at why Airbus has made such a significant investment in Silicon Valley as the area’s strong concentration of talent allows the organization to be agile to changes. They look at the differences in approach and philosophy in Silicon Valley versus other aerospace hubs, like France, and how the Valley’s culture of risk taking can be applied elsewhere.   The conversation shifts to the importance of modernizing the air traffic management system to meet the demands of the new forms of mobility occupying airspace and what Acubed is doing to address this problem.   Grayson closes out the conversation by asking Mark to share his insight into the future of aviation over the next decade-plus. How will improvements in autonomy be one of the biggest contributions to the future of flight? What importance will the commercial aviation industry place on being more environmentally conscious? How quickly will demand grow for urban air mobility, especially coming out of the pandemic, to allow the services to become economically viable? What role will machine learning and AI play in making this future a reality? And how to build public trust in autonomy?   Learn more about Acubed at https://acubed.airbus.com/.   Subscribe to SAE Tomorrow Today or visit www.sae.org/podcasts to stay up to date on all the latest information from SAE. If you like what you’re hearing, please review and comment on your podcast app. Follow SAE on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.