For Immediate Release
April 30, 2003
L. Kim Smith
Alexandria, VA -AHS International - The Vertical Flight Society Chairman Gilles Ouimet today announced the recipients of the Society's 2003 awards program. This prestigious awards program was initiated in 1944 and over the years has paid tribute to the outstanding leaders of the vertical flight industry. Each year the awards grow steadily in prestige and importance.
The Society's awards program recognizes extraordinary achievements and serves as a catalyst for stimulating technological advances in the vertical flight industry. The winners include:
The AHS Fellow Award recipients, who receive this honor because of their outstanding work towards the interests of the industry, are Jean-Francois Bigay, Chairman, Eurocopter; William G. Bousman, (Ret) U.S. Army Aerospace Engineer, U.S. Army Laboratory, Ames Research Center; Howard C. "Pat" Curtiss, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Princeton University; and Dr. David A. Peters, Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Washington University at St. Louis.
The AHS Honorary Fellow Awards are given to Society members who have made an outstanding contribution to the interests of the Society. Only two Honorary Fellowships are bestowed per year and this year's winners are John R. Murphey, Chairman and CEO, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. and Akira Sato, Consulting Engineer, Churyo Engineering Co., Ltd.
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 National Research Council of Canada's Flight Research Laboratory.
This year's honoree for the Howard Hughes Award is the S-92 Flaw Tolerance Design and Test Team. The Howard Hughes Award is given in recognition of an outstanding improvement in fundamental helicopter technology brought to fruition in the previous year.
Dean C. Borgman, president, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. 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. Dean Borgman is a well-known figure in the rotary-wing industry having contributed to significant advances in rotary-wing technology in his more than 35 years of service to the industry.
The NASA/Sikorsky/U.S. Army/ZFL Army UH-60 Black Hawk Individual Blade Control (IBC) Team is the winner of the Gruppo Agusta International Helicopter Fellowship . This award is presented to the individual or group who has made the most significant contribution to international vertical flight cooperation.
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 the combined team of the Army Research Laboratory Vehicle Technology Directorate (ARL-VTD); Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., NASA Langley Research Center; National Research Technology Center (NRTC); the Rotorcraft Industry Technology Association (RITA); Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and The Boeing Company for their efforts on the Multi-Terrain Impact Safety Program.
The Frederick L. Feinberg Award is presented to the helicopter pilot or pilots that have made the most outstanding achievement in the previous year. This year's award is given to the rescue crews of the Republic of China Air Force Blue Hawk (S-70) Rescue Crews for the SS Yuansheng No. 2 Barge Rescue. These heroic crews saved 133 of 134 Chinese fisherman from their foundering barge that was engulfed in flames during a tropical storm.
Harold J. Rosenstein, The Boeing Co. is the recipient of the Paul E. Haueter Award which is given to an individual or group who makes a significant contribution to the development of VTOL aircraft other than helicopters. Rosenstein is currently Boeing's Phantom Works Site Manager for Advanced Army Programs.
The Captain William J. Kossler, USCG Award , which is given to the individual or organization that demonstrates the greatest achievement in practical application of the helicopter, is given to the flight crew members of the U.S. Army's 101st Regiment, 101st Aiborne Division Air Assault ("Killerspades") for Operation Anaconda in Shah-e-Khot Valley in Afghanistan.
The Robert L. Pinckney Award honors the memory of an eminent manufacturing engineer from Boeing Helicopters. This award is given in recognition of notable achievement in manufacturing research and development for rotorcraft or rotorcraft components brought to fruition in recent years. This year's recipient is the NRTC/RITA Bell-Sikorsky High Speed Machining of Titanium Team which includes Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Kennametal Inc., Manufacturing Laboratories, Inc., the National Research Technology Center (NRTC), Remelle Engineering and the Rotorcraft Industry Technology Association (RITA).
The Alexander A. Nikolsky Lectureship is awarded to the individual who reflects the highest ideals, goals and achievements in the field of helicopter and V/STOL aircraft engineering and development. This year's recipient is Santino Pancotti, Vice President, New Products and Research Activities, Agusta. His lecture titled, "After 50 Years of Helicopter Design are Rotorcraft Mature Enough for the Commuter Role?" will be presented from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, 2003 in the Ballroom in the Phoenix Civic Plaza.
The Society's Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Award is given to Chad Sparks, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. This award, which was established in 1992, recognizes outstanding contributions to vertical flight technology by a Society member under the age of thirty. The award honors the memory of a young helicopter engineer, Swiss citizen, author and rescue pilot who founded the AHS student chapter at the University of Michigan.
The AHS Supplier Execellence Award , created in 1995, is given to a supplier which, through the quality, innovativeness and cost-effectiveness of its products, has made notable contributions within the vertical flight industry. This year the distinction is to the Rolls-Royce AE1107C Liberty Propulsion System Team.
The Robert L. Lichten Award is given to the author of the best technical paper presented at a regular meeting during the preceding calendar year. This year's winner is Cheng-Ho Tho of Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. His paper titled, "Efficient Helicopter Skid Landing Gear Dynamic Drop Simulation Using LS_DYNA" will be presented during Crash Safety I, Wednesday, May 7, 2003, from 3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
The AHS Individual Member Sponsor Contest Winner is Kenneth Lauck, the Northeast Region Vice President. The AHS Stratford Chapter is the winner of this year's AHS Chapter Member Increase Contest. The AHS Patuxent River Chapter is the winner of the AHS Chapter Member Percent Increase Contest. The AHS Every Member Get a Member Contest Winner is the AHS Philadelphia Chapter. We congratulate all of these vibrant, hard working members.
The 2003 Vertical Flight Foundation Scholarship winners include the following gifted individuals: in the B. S. Category, Emilia Speal, Penn State University; Alice Ryan, University of Maryland; Benjamin Berry, University of Maryland; and Jessica Dooley from the University of Arizona. The M.S. category winners include Derek Bridges, Penn State University; Stephen Repsher, Penn State University; Nicholas Rosenfeld, University of Maryland; Jason Petrie, Penn State University; and Jason Hines, Penn State University. The Ph.D. category includes Matthew Tarascio, University of Maryland; Geoffrey Jeram, Georgia Institute of Technology; Anubhav Datta, University of Maryland; and Marc Gervais, University of Maryland.
AHS International - The Vertical Flight 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.
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