The RCOE has operated under different names since its creation in 1982. Presently known as the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE), the current “center of excellence” designation was made by a panel of government and industry experts who comprise the government’s National Rotorcraft Technology Center. The VLRCOE carries out multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and education, focusing on advancing vertical lift technology, and works in close collaboration with the U.S. rotorcraft industry.

During the past decade, the RCOE has produced 82 PhD graduates. Students in the RCOE have a track record of excellence, winning first or second place in every graduate and undergraduate rotorcraft design competition sponsored by the American Helicopter Society International and the rotorcraft industry for the past 27 years.

“The impact and contributions of the center to our School of Aerospace Engineering and to Georgia Tech in general extends far beyond the more than $35 million in direct government funding provided over the past three decades,” said Daniel P. Schrage, rotorcraft design professor who has been the director of Georgia Tech RCOEs since 1986. “The center has served as a catalyst for expanding a number of our academic and research focus areas and has served as a positive force in the Georgia Tech’s distinction as one of the world’s leading aerospace engineering universities.”

The RCOE was Georgia Tech’s first externally designated center of excellence in 1982. Since that time, it has partnered with other world-famous vertical flight researchers from respected universities, such as the University of Michigan and University of Washington at St. Louis.