March 23, 2012
AHS ANNOUNCES 2012 AWARD RECIPIENTS
Alexandria, VA — Philip
J. Dunford, the Chair of the Board of AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society announced the recipients of
the Society’s 2012 awards program. This prestigious program was initiated in
1944 and over the years has paid tribute to the outstanding leaders of the vertical
flight industry. Each year we recognize new individuals who further the
relevance and importance behind each of these awards.
The
Society's awards program recognizes extraordinary achievements and serves as a
catalyst for stimulating technological advances in the vertical flight
industry. Following are this year’s winners to be recognized at the 68th
Annual Forum.
The title of Honorary Fellow is granted to Society members whose career-based leadership and innovation have
advanced significantly the interests of the vertical flight community. Only two
Honorary Fellowships are bestowed per year and recipients receive lifetime
membership in the Society. This year the winners are Arthur Linden, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Joint Program Office (JPO)
Manager (Ret.), and Akira Azuma, Professor
Emeritus, University of Tokyo (Ret.).
The title of Technical Fellow is granted to Society members whose career-based
accomplishments towards the goals and objectives of the vertical flight
industry constitute an outstanding technical achievement. This year’s
recipients are Prof. Lakshmi N. Sankar,
Regents Professor & Associate Chair, Georgia Institute of Technology; Wayne R. Mantay, Supervisory Aerospace
Engineer/Chief Joint Research Programs, U.S. Army (Ret.); Martin Peryea, Vice President of Commercial Engineering, Canada,
Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc; and Robert
Blackwell, Aeromechanics Technical Fellow, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.
Steve
D. Weiner, Director of Engineering Sciences, and Chief Engineer for the X2 Technology
Demonstrator, Sikorsky
Aircraft Corporation is this year's honored recipient of the Dr. Alexander Klemin Award. This
prestigious award is presented for recognition of notable achievement in the
advancement of rotary wing aeronautics. He is recognized for his more than 33 year
career of designing, building and flight testing aircraft. His leadership on
numerous platforms such as the RAH-66 Comanche program, the S-76 and the X2 has
been exemplary.
The
Society’s Captain William J. Kossler
Award is given for the greatest achievement in practical application or
operation of rotary wing aircraft, the value of which has been demonstrated by
actual service during the preceding year. This year, the Kossler Award will be
presented to the C Company 1-52nd
Aviation Regiment, US
Army. The regiment was
responsible for providing aerial medical evacuation across Regional Command-South
in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During the 12 month deployment the company
logged 4,130 hours and evacuated 3,536 patients.
Garmin
International, Inc. based
in Olathe, Kansas, is this year’s recipient of the AHS Supplier Excellence Award. This award is given to a supplier who, through
the quality, innovativeness and cost-effective technology of its products, has made a
notable contribution to advance the state-of-the-art of vertical flight aircraft. The G1000H integrated
flight deck was the first Garmin integrated avionics system to be modified,
installed and certified to meet the helicopter environment and vibration requirements.
The Grover E. Bell Award is given to the individual or organization that
has fostered and encouraged research and experimentation in helicopter
development. This year's honored recipient is the Apache Block III Technology Development Team, consisting of the U.S.Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD); Aviation & Missile
Research, Development & Engineering Center (AMRDEC); Northstar Aerospace;
Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman Longbow Limited; Elbit Systems and The Boeing Company. The formal
delivery ceremony of the first AH-64D Apache Longbow Block III helicopter to
the U.S. Army was November 2, 2011. The team’s efforts produced the Block III technical
improvements, including Level IV Manned Unmanned Teaming, Open System Avionics architecture
based on the highly advanced Block III Mission Processor, and significantly improved
air vehicle operating performance due to the new Split Torque, Face Gear main
transmission design and the new Composite Main Rotor Blades (CMRB).
The Harry T. Jensen Award is given in recognition of an outstanding
contribution to the improvement of helicopter reliability, maintainability,
safety or logistics support through improved design or technical achievement
brought to fruition during the preceding year. This year the award is presented
to Col. Greg Masiello, V-22 Program
Manager, Naval Air System Command, U.S. Marine Corps. Col. Masiello is
recognized for his efforts leading to outstanding reductions in operating costs,
significant improvements in safety records and the exceedingly low mishap rate
of a complex rotorcraft system.
This year’s honoree for the Howard
Hughes Award, given in recognition of an outstanding improvement
in fundamental helicopter technology brought to fruition in the previous year,
is the X3 Team lead by Jean-Jacques Ferrier, Innovation
Vice President, Eurocopter. On May 12, 2011, the X3 surpassed its goal of
220 knots and reached a speed milestone. During stable, level flight, the
hybrid demonstrator maintained a true airspeed of 232 kts or 430 km/hr for
several minutes.
The AgustaWestland International
Helicopter Fellowship Award
recognizes the most significant contribution to international
vertical flight cooperation by an individual or group. Established in 1989, the award
honors the memory of Paolo Bellavita, whose career at Gruppo Agusta was marked by
his dedication to furthering international cooperation in the world of vertical flight.
This year’s winner is the HART II
International Workshop Team. Team
members include Berend van der Wall, DLR; Joon Lim, U.S. Army, AFDD; Prof.
Marilyn Smith, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Jean Prieur, ONERA (Ret.) The Team opened up data on higher harmonic control of
rotors to a large community, encouraging analysis. The analysis was a world
wide effort leading to numerous achievements such as validation of solvers and
a deep understanding of BVI mechanisms and their impact on rotor noise and
vibrations.
The
Frederick L. Feinberg Award is
presented to the helicopter pilot or pilots who have made the most outstanding
achievement in the previous year. This year’s award is given to LT Scott F. Chirgwin, U.S. Navy. LT
Chirgwin is being recognized for his actions during Operation Tomodachi, the
disaster relief mission after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Despite the unknown radiological risks, LT Chirgwin assisted in delivering
440,500 pounds of materials such as food, water and medical supplies to over 34,000
people. On March 17, 2011, after a 7.8 hour disaster mission, he executed an
unplanned medical emergency rescue through hazardous flying conditions such as
below freezing temperatures and degraded visibility. Despite the severe weather
and low fuel levels, the patient was safely transported to a Japanese warship
with the necessary medical facilities.
The
Robert L. Pinckney Award is
given in recognition of notable achievement in manufacturing research and
development for rotorcraft or rotorcraft components brought to fruition in
recent years. The award was created by The Boeing Company in 1995 to honor the
memory of Robert L. Pinckney, an eminent manufacturing engineer. This year’s
recipient is the CH-53K Virtual Design Team for its use of virtual
design tools to improve design and manufacturing efficiencies. The team
successfully implemented and used the system to vastly reduce design and
manufacturing costs during preliminary and critical design phases.
The
Society’s Paul E. Haueter Award is presented each year to an individual
or company that has made significant contributions to the development of
vertical take-off and landing aircraft other than helicopters. This year, the
Haueter Award will be given to Ross Menger, 609 Program Director, Bell
Helicopter Textron, Inc. His leadership was instrumental in implementing
aerodynamic and performance solutions to the V-22 and development of the 609.
He is recognized for his work to develop and implement technology into the
rotorcraft industry.
The
University of Maryland’s Gamera Team won the Society’s Igor I. Sikorsky
International Trophy, which is given to the company or consortium which is
the designer and builder of a pure helicopter establishing an official world
record during the preceding calendar year in the official class E-1 categories
established by the rules of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for
maximum speed, altitude, distance or payload, speed over a closed circuit
distance and/or around the world. On
July 13, 2011, the human powered helicopter Gamera achieved lift-off and
hovered for 11.4 seconds, setting a new U.S.
National duration record. Additionally the flight was also a record for
duration of a human powered helicopter flown by a woman. Both records were
certified by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) on August 18, 2011 and
have been submitted to the Fédération Aéronautique International for
consideration as a world record.
The
Society's François-Xavier Bagnoud Award
is given to Dr. Jose Palacios, Research
Associate, Pennsylvania State University. This award, which was established in 1992, recognizes outstanding
contributions to vertical flight technology by a Society member under the age
of 35. Dr. Palacios’s reception of this award stems from his research
specialized in rotorcraft icing, smart structures and experimental mechanics. He
has secured approximately $2.5 million for research work from a wide variety of
sponsors such as the US Army, US Navy and industry. By the conclusion of Forum
67, Dr. Palacios had contributed to 12 technical papers and two Journal papers
with more pending.
The
John J. Schneider Historical Achievement Award was established in 2003
in memory of vertical flight historian John J. Schneider. The award is given in
recognition of distinguished achievement by an individual in encouraging
appreciation of, and enhancing access to, the history and legacy of vertical
flight aircraft. This year’s recipient is Sergei
I. Sikorsky, Consultant, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Mr. Sikorsky has
written a number of books specializing on the helicopter pioneers, and has
traveled the world giving a series of lectures on the subject, and has appeared
on documentaries aired by the Discovery and History channels. From a young age,
Mr. Sikorsky’s lineage allowed him very unique experiences and opportunities to
meet many key persons in the aviation industry. His experiences during World
War II and later through employment by United Aircraft in foreign locations further
developed his broad knowledge of the industry and its past.
The
winner of the Robert L. Lichten Award is Erez
Eller, Staff Engineer, Loads and Survivability, Sikorsky Aircraft
Corporation, for his paper, “X2 Load Alleviating Controls.” The runner-up in
this competition is Anand Karpatne,
The University of Texas at Austin, “Investigation of Tip Vortex Aperiodicity in
Hover.” The Lichten Award was established to encourage AHS members – who had
not previously presented the results of their work at a technical forum – to begin
presenting their work at local and regional AHS meetings.
As
was previously announced, the Forum will also feature the Alexander A. Nikolsky
Honorary Lectureship by Professor Gareth Padfield, Chief Scientific Officer, Virtual Engineering Centre, the University of Liverpool – and the
first place winners of the annual AHS Student Design Competition: the
University of Maryland in the graduate category and the Georgia Institute of
Technology in the undergraduate category.
AHS
International – The Vertical Flight Technical
Society, which has more than 6,000 members, is the world's leading
technical, professional society dedicated to the advancement of vertical flight
technology and its applications.
For
further information on the Society and its Award Programs, as well as past
award recipients, please visit the Society’s home page at http://www.vtol.org/awards.
Liz Malleck
Director of Membership
(703) 684-6777 Ext. 107