Rising Star Awards: Women in Engineering Aerospace Winner - Heather Cummings

October 1, 2024

Heather Cummings, a 27-year old senior flight controls and autonomy engineer at Sikorsky, is the winner of the Aerospace/Defense category for SAE Media Group’s inaugural Women in Engineering: Rising Star Awards program. In addition to her role developing flight control software and improving Sikorsky’s Innovations department’s processes for software and model-based systems engineering, she is also a pilot. Among her career accomplishments at Sikorsky include leading the flight controls software development and flight testing program on a technology demonstrator aircraft for autonomy and reduced crew operations. The project involved Heather dividing up sub-tasks for the project and working with each individual on the team to mentor them on the engineering skills necessary for completion. She also served as the onboard flight test engineer for the project. One of her career goals is to serve as the lead engineer on new technologies that form the next generation of semi and fully autonomous aircraft.

In addition to her role as a lead flight controls engineer, she is a volunteer in Connecticut’s Tango Flight program, where she serves as a mentor for high school students. The Tango Flight program, hosted by Three Wing Aviation and First Aviation Services Inc., aims to inspire the next generation of engineers, pilots, aviation mechanics and technicians through hands on learning and mentoring including helping the students build an FAA-certified VANS RV-12 aircraft. Following her receipt of the Rising Star award, Aerospace and Defense Technology (ADT) caught up with Cummings to discuss her career and how the number of women working in aerospace engineering is growing.

Heather Cummings is a senior flight controls and autonomy engineer at Sikorsky, and the winner of the aerospace and defense category for SAE Media Group’s inaugural Rising Stars: Women in Engineering awards program.

Aerospace & Defense Technology (A&DT): How did you first become interested in working within the aerospace industry?

Heather Cummings: I knew for a long time that I wanted to be an engineer because both of my parents were engineers, and I thought it was cool when I was growing up. I did not necessarily know that I wanted to be in aviation until right before I started college. In high school, I was given an opportunity to take some college classes at a local community college. I was flipping through the course offerings, and at the very back there was an offering for a private pilot ground school course, and I thought that sounded interesting. It sounded like a fun opportunity and I basically chose the course on a whim. From there, I fell in love with flying and airplanes, and that led me to ultimately choose to go into aerospace engineering.

A&DT: What are some of your main day-to-day tasks as a senior flight controls engineer at Sikorsky?

Cummings: I work in the innovations department, where I primarily focus on developing new flight control software. That includes doing the top level architecture, design and systems engineering around some of the autonomous systems that are being integrated into helicopters and fixed wing aircraft that Sikorsky manufactures. Some of the work includes selecting sensors and computers and working closely with our mechanical and electrical teams to design aircraft wiring or select servos and handle kinematics. My team is responsible for the software implementation that ties it all together.

In February, Sikorsky unveiled its plan to build, test and fly a hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing demonstrator aircraft. Cummings has a major interest in the potential future innovation that the use of hybrid electric technology could bring to the aviation industry. (Image: Sikorsky)

A&DT: What has your experience been like as a woman in aerospace engineering?

Cummings: Sometimes it can be intimidating, especially at a company like Sikorsky that has a very rich legacy built on a lot of influential men including Igor Sikorsky himself. Sometimes I find that I am the only woman in the room, but that is changing. I have noticed an increasing presence of women slowly growing in the industry, including in higher visibility roles. For example, Marilyn Hewson was previously the CEO Lockheed Martin, the parent company of Sikorsky. I found that to be an inspiring reminder that the glass ceiling is breaking and it’s possible to get into these positions, especially when I was first starting out. So it’s a nice reminder when I’m seeing myself in a room of all men that there are other women who have done this and gone through this before me.

A&DT: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 the total estimated workforce for aerospace engineers in the U.S. was 145,019 people, of which about 13.6 percent were women. What can the industry do to attract more girls and women to careers as aerospace and defense engineers?

Cummings: I think the more that women’s voices are highlighted in the industry, with this award being a fantastic example, the more role models there are to look up to, then the more women and girls are likely to get involved in the industry. The earlier that young women can be exposed to engineering and to women to look up to, the better. There are a lot of programs we’re starting to see, especially at the high school and middle school levels that can introduce women to the different industries. Especially when you start talking about aviation, which is often seen as a little bit more niche, it’s really about finding the right place to introduce these different careers and introduce the different kinds of roles in aviation available and show case women that are in those positions.

A&DT: We understand that you have been involved in an initiative called the Tango Flight program. What is the Tango Flight program and how does it help inspire the next generation of engineers, pilots and aviation technicians?

Cummings: Tango Flight is a high school level program that can be offered as a class or an after school program where students get to build a certified RV-12 kit plane. So it’s a really great chance to gain some hands on skills with manufacturing and experience towards A&P certifications, which a lot of people are not aware of, especially at the high school level. There’s also opportunities to visit airports and hear from people working in the field, like air traffic controllers and pilots. Most of the mentors volunteering for this program are also working in the aviation industry. So it directly connects a lot of people who can talk to these students who might be at the point where they’re starting to think about what they want to do for a career. It shows them how many different types of positions are available.

A&DT: When you look at what you’re currently working on in terms of flight control and autonomy, what are some of the technologies that you see real potential in providing game changing capabilities for aircraft in the next 5-10 years?

Cummings: An area that’s particularly exciting and interesting to me is advancements in electrical and hybrid electric technology in aviation. We’ve seen plenty of electric aircraft specifically in smaller vehicles like quadcopters and drones. But then scaling that to larger aircraft, especially as battery technology continues to get better, it’s just going to keep improving the feasibility of these aircraft with these alternative fuel systems. I recently became involved in a program to implement a hybrid electric system on an aircraft which makes me very excited for the future of sustainable aviation.

This article was written by Woodrow Bellamy III, Senior Editor, SAE Media Group (New York, NY).