Dr. Panos A. Vitsas has over 20 years of experience in aero and flight test engineering. He holds a DiplEng in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics from University of Patras, an MSc in Human Factors and Safety Assessment in Aeronautics from Cranfield University, and a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics from University of Patras. He is a Graduate of the ITPS 2012A Flight Test Engineer Course, later upgraded to EASA CAT-1 FTE.

Panos has served as an A-7 Corsair engineer in the Hellenic Air Force and has participated as a researcher in European aerospace projects on aerodynamics. He has been a lecturer in aerodynamics and aircraft design and has provided freelance engineering services on UAV design, computational aerodynamics, and flight testing.

Panos joined ITPS Canada in 2013 as the first full-time FTE Instructor and since then has delivered Instruction on FW aircraft performance, flying qualities, Digital FCS and avionics systems while significantly contributing to course development over the whole range of the flight test curriculum including more advanced topics like NDI, RCS testing and STPA. He has tested the complete fleet of ITPS FW aircraft specializing in military specifications. In 2020 he was appointed Chief Academic Officer and led the application and approval of the MSc in Flight Test Engineering and MSc in Flight Testing programs.

While at ITPS, he has led various flight simulation projects, including development of the ITPS F-16 Engineering flight simulator and has worked closely with the Advanced Aircraft Simulation Center in modifying simulator flight dynamics and creating customized simulator scenarios for a range of flight test training exercises.

Panos has authored more than 15 technical papers in international journals and conferences and serves as a reviewer and member of multiple technical committees.

He holds an ATPL(A) having flown over 1,500 hours on over 30 types as pilot or FTE and currently flies operationally the ATR 72-600 and 42-500.

Panos is a Fellow of the Society of Flight Test Engineers (SFTE), an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the recipient of the 2023 SFTE Director’s Award for Exceptional Dedication and Service to the Society.