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Alfred Gessow Award Winners

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The Alfred Gessow Award is given each year for the best technical paper at the VFS Annual Forum. The award consists of a plaque and transportation for one author to the European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF). Download a PDF of the Alfred Gessow Guidelines.

This best paper award honors Prof. Alfred Gessow (1922 – 2002), a pioneer in the helicopter field and co-author of the famous classic, “Aerodynamics of the Helicopter.” Gessow was the founding editor of the Journal of the American Helicopter Society and was recognized with the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1977), AHS Honorary Fellow (1978), Nikolsky Honorary Lectureship (1985) and Alexander Klemin Award (1996), and was a Fellow of AIAA (1986). In addition to a long career at NASA, he was a lecturer at several universities and founded the rotorcraft center at the University of Maryland.

Alfred Gessow in Office

 

Past Winners:

  • Forum 82 – West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, May 5-7, 2026
    From Simulation to Flight: Validation of the Racer Low-Drag Rotor Hub
    Damien Desvigne, Paul Eglin, Martin Embacher, Raphaël Fukari, Damien Piger, Airbus Helicopters

  • Forum 81 – Virginia Beach, USA, May 20-22, 2025
    EASA Helicopter Vortex-Ring-State Experimental Research Project
    Laurent Binet (ONERA), Philippe Gasquez (DGA-EV), and Raffaele Di Caprio (EASA)

  • Forum 80 – Montréal, Canada, May 7-9, 2024
    Scenario-Based Helicopter Flight Simulation of Accident-Prone Vortex Ring State (VRS) Encounters
    Eleni Sotiropoulos-Georgiopoulos, Alexia Payan, Charles Johnson, Dimitri Mavris, Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Forum 79 – West Palm Beach, USA, May 16-18, 2023
    Validation of a Motion Sickness Prediction Model via Flight Tests on DLR's Bo-105 Helicopter
    Philippe Petit, German Aerospace Center (DLR)

  • Forum 78 – Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 10-12, 2022
    Toward a UAS Handling Qualities Specification: Development of UAS-Specific MTEs
    Dr. Christina Ivler and Kate Russell of the University of Portland; and Drs. Anthony Gong, Tom Berger and Mark J.S. Lopez of US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC)

  • Forum 77 – Virtual, USA, May 10-14, 2021
    Does Scatter Matter? Improved Understanding of UH-60A Wind Tunnel Rotor Measurements Using Data-Driven Clustering and CREATE™-AV Helios
    Manikandan Ramasamy and Rohit Jain, US Army DEVCOM AvMC; and Thomas R. Norman, NASA Ames Research Center

  • Forum 76 – Virtual, USA, October 5-8, 2020
    Development and Validation of Generic Maneuvering Flight Noise Abatement Guidance for Helicopters
    James H. Stephenson, US Army CCDC AvMC; Michael E. Watts, Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc.; Eric Greenwood, Pennsylvania State Univresity; Kyle A. Pascioni, NASA Langley Research Center

  • Forum 75 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, May 13-16, 2019
    Helicopter Rotor Boundary Layer Transition Measurement in Forward Flight using an Infrared Camera
    Anthony Gardner, Christian Wolf, Miles Barnett, Markus Raffel, DLR; JT Heineck, NASA

  • Forum 74 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA, May 14-17, 2018
    Avoiding Obstacles during Approach: DVE-Mitigation Flight Trials and Beyond
    Michael Zimmermann, DLR (German Aerospace Center); Stephanus Klasen, HENSOLDT Sensors GmbH; Martin Gestwa, DLR (German Aerospace Center); Andreas Lederle, HENSOLDT Sensors GmbH

  • Forum 73 – Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 9-11, 2017
    Analysis and Testing of a Boundary-Layer-Ingesting Pusher Propeller for High Speed Rotorcraft
    Blake Moffitt, Patrick Bowles, Jongwook Joo, Brian Wake, Byung-Young Min, United Technologies Research Center

  • Forum 72 – West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, May 17-19, 2016
    Adjoint-based Aeroacoustic Design-Optimization of Flexible Rotors in Forward Flight
    Enrico Fabiano and Dimitri Mavriplis, University of Wyoming

  • Forum 71 – Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, May 5-7, 2015
    A Smart Position Sensor for Articulated Rotors
    Troy Shank, Bell Helicopter; Kynn Schulte, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

  • Forum 70 – Montréal, Québec, Canada, May 20-22, 2014
    Design and Development of the Atlas Human-Powered Helicopter
    Cameron Robertson and Todd Reichert, AeroVelo Inc.

  • Forum 69 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA, May 21-23, 2013
    Flight Test Results for Autonomous Obstacle Field Navigation and Landing Site Selection on the RASCAL JUH-60A
    Matthew Whalley, Marc Takahashi, Jay Fletcher, Ernesto Moralez III, Carl Ott, and Michael Olmstead, US Army AFDD; Chad L. Goerzen and Gregory J. Schulein, San Jose State University; James C. Savage, AFRL; Hoyt N. Burns and Bill Conrad, H.N. Burns Engineering Corp.

  • Forum 68 – Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 1-3, 2012
    Blade Tip Pressure Measurements Using Pressure Sensitive Paint
    Oliver Wong, US Army AFDD; A. Neal Watkins and Kyle Goodman, NASA Langley Research Center; Jim Crafton, Alan Forlines and Larry Goss, Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc.; James Gregory and Thomas Juliano, The Ohio State University

  • Forum 67 – Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, May 3-5, 2011
    Experimental Investigation and Fundamental Understanding of a Slowed UH-60A Rotor at High Advance Ratios
    Dr. Anubhav Datta, Science and Technology Corporation; Dr. Hyeonsoo Yeo, U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate; Thomas R. Norman, NASA Ames Research Center

  • Forum 66 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA, May 11-13, 2010
    Landing an H-60 Helicopter in Brownout Conditions Using 3D-LZ Displays
    Zoltan P. Szoboszlay and LTC Steven R. Braddom, U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate; Dr. R. Andy McKinley; James C. Savage and Walter W. Harrington, Air Force Research Laboratory; H. N. “Buck” Burns, H.N. Burns Engineering Corp.

  • Forum 65 – Fort Worth, Texas, USA, May 27-29, 2009
    A High Fidelity Brownout Model for Real-Time Flight Simulations and Trainers
    Daniel A. Wachspress, Glen R. Whitehouse, Jeffrey D. Keller and Ke Yu , Continuum Dynamics, Inc.; Phillip Gilmore, Michael Dorsett, and Kevin McClure, SAIC

  • Forum 64 – Montreal, Canada, April 29 - May 1, 2008
    Accurate Bird Strike Simulation Methodology for BA609 Tiltrotor
    heng-Ho Tho and Michael Smith, Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.

  • Forum 63 – Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, May 1-3, 2007
    Application of CFD/CSD Coupling for Analysis of Rotorcraft Airloads and Blade Loads in Maneuvering Flight
    Mahendra J. Bhagwat, ELORET Corp.; Robert A. Ormiston, US Army AMRDEC and Hossein A. Saberi and Hong Xin, Advanced Rotorcraft Technology, Inc.

  • Forum 62 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA, May 9-11, 2006
    Trailing Edge Flaps for Active Rotor Control Aeroelastic Characteristics of the ADASYS Rotor System
    Oliver Dieterich, Bernhard Enenkl and Dieter Roth, Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH

  • Forum 61 – Grapevine, Texas, USA, June 1-3, 2005
    Experimental and Computational Study of the Interaction Between a Tandem-Rotor Helicopter and a Ship
    Ganesh Rajagopalan, Iowa State University; Saeid Niazi, Sukra Helitec, Inc.; Alan J. Wadcock, Aerospace Computing, Inc.; Gloria K. Yamauchi, NASA Ames Research Center; Mark J. Silva, Naval Air Warfare Center

  • Forum 60 – Baltimore Maryland, USA, June 7-10, 2004
    V-22 High Rate Of Descent (HROP) Test Procedures And Long Record Analysis
    Albert Brand, Ron Kisor, Robert Blyth, Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.; Dave Mason, Chris Host, The Boeing Company

  • Forum 59 – Phoenix, Arizona, USA, May 6-8, 2003

  • Forum 58 – Montreal, Canada, June 11-13, 2002

  • Forum 57 – Washington, D.C., USA, May 9-11, 2001