Flutter in Commercial Aircraft
Featuring Alex Scalabrin, Boeing - Long Beach
Flutter is one of those aeroelastic gremlins that lives at the intersection of aerodynamics, structural flexibility, and inertia—get the mix wrong, and an aircraft can shake itself into serious trouble. This seminar breaks down what flutter really is, why it happens, and how engineers keep it away from real airplanes.
We’ll explore the fundamentals of flutter behavior, how it appears across different aerospace vehicles, and the key design principles that prevent it. The session then dives into how to assess flutter in commercial aircraft: building stiffness and mass models, incorporating unsteady aerodynamics, and running the analyses that keep wings and control surfaces in check. Real-world examples will show how flutter is mitigated, and we’ll wrap up with how ground and flight tests validate flutter-free performance.
About the Speaker
Alex Scalabrin brings more than two decades of deep experience in flutter and aeroelasticity. He is an aerospace engineer at Boeing in Long Beach, specializing in loads, flutter engineering, and advanced aeroelastic assessments—including work on NASA’s Subsonic Flight Demonstrator. His portfolio spans unsteady CFD-based flutter analysis, aeroelastic integration, and aeroservoelasticity on programs such as the 737 MAX, 747-8, and 787. Before Boeing, he worked at Embraer on the EMB-110 series and holds a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of Campinas and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Don’t miss this opportunity to see how modern flutter research and advanced aeroelastic thinking are redefining what’s possible in today’s aircraft design and testing.
Date & Time: Thursday, November 20th 2025, 7:00 pm
Location: GMCS 329 SDSU