Howard Hughes Award

the SB>1 Defiant Main Rotor Gearbox Team, includes team members from Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, and the Boeing Company.

Exhaust gas reingestion (EGR) in low altitude hover operations for a three engine heavy lift helicopter is driven by complex aero-propulsion system interactions and their impact on EGR is not very well understood. EGR degrades engine performance, increases life-cycle costs and results in engine stalls. The extraordinary collaborative efforts by cross-functional experts in external aerodynamics, propulsion systems, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, design and test across Sikorsky, NAVAIR and General Electric resulted in unique insights into EGR root-cause, mitigation concept development and problem resolution proven through flight testing.

The team developed the new blade technology by creating a design that combined changes made to the twist schedule of the legacy blade with more modern, low-drag / high-lift airfoils, and the introduction of a dihedral/ anhedral, swept, tapered blade tip. The new blade design also improves maintainability and decreases life cycle costs.

This represents a truly outstanding and innovative improvement in the fundamental technology of the rotorcraft drive system.

This test also produced data that quantified the effect of QTR aerodynamic interaction on the rotor loads and vibration. In airplane mode the rotor loads and vibration between the front and rear rotor are similar. The test team consisted of five NASA engineers, eight Army engineers and 21 Bell personnel and the test spanned 59 days in the NASA Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel.

The Sikorsky Active Vibration Control Development Team which includes Dynamic Controls-Hamilton Sundstrand and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

The Team comprised of Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V(DLR), Duits-Nederlandse Windtunnel (DNW), Office National D'Etudes et de Rechersches Aerospatiales (ONERA), US Army Aeroflighdynamics Directorate (AFDD), and NASA Langley.

This year's winner - the Sikorsky/Honeywell S-76 Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System Team consisted of Honeywell, Sikorsky Aircraft and the FAA. Accepting the award from Roger Krone, Society chairman were Ron Doeppner and John Studer from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Andrew Cindrick, Jr., Honeywell Aerospace and Bill Wallace, FAA.

Accepting the award was Dr. Masahiro Yasue, Japan Defense Agency; Colonel Hitoshi Hirano; and Sun-Ichi Bandoh, Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Its heavier derivatives, the single-seat 331 and two-seated 496, with empty weights above the ultralight limit, are classed experimental and, therefore, may be flown legally only by properly licensed pilots. However, because the 331 and 496 are not restricted by ultralight regs, they otfer larger fuel tanks and higher airspeeds.

Col. John O. Benson, Commander, AATD accepted the award on stage.

Accepted by Robert J. Huston of NASA Langley

In photo, from left, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. President Bill Brown and VFS (then AHS) President Robert Zincone present the Hughes Trophy to Dennis R. Halwes.

Wood- Chief of Aerodynamics at Bell Helicopter, and Bloom - a Test Pilot for Bell.

The HHC system demonstrated the feasibility of a concept to reduce the vibration levels in a helicopter's airframe by as much as 80 percent.

As a result of this research by a small team led by Dr. Schmitz over the past four years, the scaling laws for the impulsive noise have been validated, the fundamental mechanisms have been identified, and predictive mathematical models have been developed. These new understandings, will result in the capability to design helicopter rotor blades for minimum impulsive noise without penalizing their performance.

He has been instrumental in stressing the industry's need to understand the fundamentals of rotarcraft dynamics by direct association with others on his staff and through challenging the entire industry as he did at the 1974 NASA/AHS Specialists Meeting on Rotorcraft Dynamics.

Dadone, an airfoil specialist with Boeing Vertol for more than ten years, was the principal researcher responsible for the definition of the VR-7 and VR-8 airfoils which are being used on the fiberglass rotor blades on the Boeing Vertol CH-47C and CH-47D, as well as on the Bell Cobra. In addition, Dadone has designed a new generation of airfoils, designated the VR-12 through VR-15, which have been successfully demonstrated in wind tunnel tests

Ward began his career with NACA (now NASA) in 1952 as an aerospace research scientist at Langley Research Center. From August 1957 to June 1958 he worked for the CAA in New York, then returned to Langley. Hie research work since has been related to rotary-wing aircraft. In 1972, Ward was named assistant chief of the Lengley Flight Research Branch and given the responsibiTity for developing a broad program in rotorcraft technology and for coordinating joint aerodynamic and structural activities with the Anny Air Mobility R&D Laboratory at Langley. In 1974, he was transferred to his present assignment.