Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Honeywell Aerospace and Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts have established a partnership to study hydrogen storage and power generation for all forms of air travel, including unmanned aerial vehicles, passenger airliners, and cargo aircraft. Honeywell already has what it calls a significant presence on WPI’s campus, where it supplies hydrogen equipment and technology expertise.
A group of roughly 25 Honeywell team members now work with WPI experts and students under a multiyear contract to develop hydrogen storage and fuel cell technologies. Honeywell uses such technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles, and the Honeywell-WPI team has begun investigating hydrogen solutions for UAVs, cargo drones, air taxis, and larger aircraft that could one day power commuter and regional flights without petroleum fuels. 
“The aviation industry has recognized an imperative to de-carbonize, which is extremely challenging in the weight and volume-constrained environment of an aircraft,” said Andrew Teixeira, assistant professor of chemical engineering and project lead on the WPI team. “Hydrogen, along with sustainable aviation fuels and aircraft electrification, represents a huge opportunity for the aerospace industry to meet the UN’s 2050 climate targets. The collaboration with Honeywell will accelerate the process because the partnership permits WPI researchers to focus on the scientific bottlenecks, while Honeywell provides leading expertise on aerospace productization and certification.” 
The collaboration allows WPI students to work alongside the Honeywell team in the same lab space. The agreement funds three Ph.D. students over several years and multiple undergraduate major-qualifying&nbsp;projects&nbsp;each year. Principal investigators include Teixeira and Anthony Dixon in chemical engineering&nbsp;and Ronald Grimm and Shawn Burdette in chemistry.
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Gregory Polek

Andrew Teixeira, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (left), and WPI PhD student Januario da Costa, study textural properties of next-generation hydrogen storage materials for aviation. (Photo: WPI)

Honeywell Partnering with Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Hydrogen Studies

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

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