Forum 70 Special Presentations & Winners

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AHS International Announces Forum 70 Special Presentations and Award Winners

Alexandria, Virginia, April 16, 2014 – AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society – today announced the line-up of special speakers for its 70th Annual Forum & Technology Display at the Palais des congrès de Montréal, Québec, Canada, May 20-22, 2014. The AHS Annual Forum is the world’s oldest and largest conference on vertical flight technology.

The Opening General Session, held on Tuesday, May 20 at 1:30 pm will feature a Keynote Address by Brigadier-General Christian Drouin, Deputy Commander Force Generation, Royal Canadian Air Force. This will be followed by the annual interactive CEO Panel addressing the theme of Forum 70: “Celebrating International Cooperation in Vertical Flight Technology.” This panel will be moderated by Kenneth Swartz of Vertical magazine and feature leaders of the world’s largest helicopter manufacturers:

Daniele Romiti, CEO – AgustaWestland
Jean-Brice Dumont, CTO – Airbus Helicopters
John Garrison, CEO – Bell Helicopter Textron
David Koopersmith, VP/GM Vertical Lift – Boeing Military Aircraft
Mark Miller, VP Engineering – Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation

The Opening General Session will then be concluded with the 34^th Annual Alexander A. Nikolsky Honorary Lecture, “Unified Approach for Accurate and Efficient Modeling of Composite Rotor Blade Dynamics,” given by Prof. Dewey Hodges of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

U.S. military leaders will provide updates and insights into the latest development, procurement and upgrade plans in two sessions (note: due to US government travel restrictions, most presenters will be speaking via video connection). A special session featuring US Army Aviation Program Manager Briefings will begin at 8:00 am on Tuesday, May 20 will be facilitated by Mr. Randy L. Robinson, S&T Program Manager, PEO Aviation:

Brig. Gen. Robert Marion, Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Aviation
Col. Jeffrey Hager, PM-Apache Attack
Col. Rob Barrie, PM-Cargo
Col. Thomas Todd, PM-Utility
Col. Tim Baxter, PM-Unmanned Air Systems (UAS)
Col. Jim Brashear, PM-Non-Standard Rotary Wing
Mr. Rod Bellows, Dep. PM-Aviation Systems
Mr. Dan Bailey, PD-Future Vertical Lift (FVL)

A special session featuring US Navy/Marine Corps Aviation Program Manager Briefings will begin at 8:00 am on Wednesday, May 21 and will be facilitated by Aerospace/Defense consultant and former AHS International Executive Director, M.E. Rhett Flater. The speakers are:

Rear Adm. Cindy “CJ” Jaynes, Navy PEO for Air ASW, Assault & Special Mission Programs
Col. Robert Pridgen, Program Manager, PMA-261, H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopters
Mr. Larry Pugh, Principal Deputy Program Manager, PMA-274, Presidential Helicopters
Col. Daniel B. Robinson, Program Manager, PMA-275, V-22 Joint Program
Col. Steven R. Girard, Program Manager, PMA-276, USMC Light and Attack Helicopters
Capt. Jim Glass, Program Manager, PMA-299, H-60 Multi-Mission Helicopters

A Suppliers & Subsystems Technology Panel beginning at 1:45 pm will be moderated by Raymond Leduc, VP Operations, Bell Helicopter Canada, and feature industry leaders including:

Walter Di Bartolomeo – VP Engineering, Pratt & Whitney Canada
Gilles Labbé – President & CEO, Héroux Devtek
Greg Yeldon – President, CMC Esterline Electronics

A special session entitled Canadian Rotorcraft: From Research to Operations on Thursday, May 22 at 10:15 am will feature the following leaders in vertical flight:

Barry Kohler – Chair, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada and President, Bell Helicopter Canada
Fred Jones – President & CEO, Helicopter Association of Canada
Jerzy Komorowski – Director General, NRC Institute for Aerospace Research
TBD – Transport Canada

A number of technical presentations of special award winners will also be given at Forum 70, as listed below:

The Ian Cheeseman Award, given to the best paper at the 2013 European Rotorcraft Forum, “Adverse Rotorcraft-Pilot Couplings – Modelling and Prediction of Rigid Body RPC,” by Marilena Pavel and Deniz Yilmaz, Delft University of Technology; Binh Dang Vu, ONERA; Michael Jump, Linghai Lu and Michael Jones, University of Liverpool, will be presented at 8:00 am on Thursday, May 22.
The Graduate Winners of the 2013 Student Design Competition, the team from the University of Maryland, will present their concept for a high speed vertical flight rescue aircraft dubbed “HeliX” at 8:30 am on Thursday, May 22.
The Undergraduate Winners of the 2013 Student Design Competition, the team from The Pennsylvania State University, will brief their concept, the “Griffin” at 9:00 am on Thursday, May 22.
Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition winners Dr. Todd Reichert, and Cameron Robertson, of AeroVelo Inc. will present their paper, “Design and Development of the Atlas HPH,” at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, May 22.
2014 Robert L. Lichten Award Runner-Up Eric Villeneuve of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi will present his paper, “Piezoelectric De-Icing Systems for Rotorcraft” at 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 22. The Lichten Award Competition is held annually among the 10 AHS International Regions and awarded to first-time presenters.
2014 Robert L. Lichten Award Winner Raymond Beale of Sikorsky Aircraft will present his paper, “Applications of Virtual Monitoring of Loads to Engineering Decision Making,” at 2:30 pm on Thursday, May 22.

In addition, the prestigious AHS International Awards Program will recognize the extraordinary achievements and contributions of the very best of the technical and operating communities at the 70^th Annual Grand Awards Banquet at 7:00 pm on Wednesday evening, May 21. More than two dozen awards will be presented.

Also presented at the Grand Awards Banquet are the AHS International Membership Awards:

Individual Sponsor Contest: The member who sponsors the greatest number of new members during the contest year wins free registration for the individual and a guest at the AHS Annual Forum. This year’s winner is Mick Maurer, President of Sikorsky Aircraft, who sponsored 21 new members over the past year.
Chapter Member Increase Contest: This awarded is given to the AHS Chapter with the greatest net growth at the end of the contest period. The Southwest Chapter, based in Ft. Worth, Texas, won with 150 new members.
Chapter Percent Increase Contest: First place is awarded to the AHS Chapter with the greatest percent increase at the end of the contest period. The East New England, based in Lynn, Massachusetts, won with a 65% member increase.
Every-Member-Get-A-Member Contest: First place is presented to the Chapter whose members sponsor the most new members during the contest period. The Chapter receives one credit for each Chapter member who sponsors a new member. The Philadelphia Chapter is the winner, with 18 of its members sponsoring new members.

These membership contests are an important way that AHS International members reach out to attract new members. AHS membership has increased by nearly 6% over the past year.

AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society – has 6,500 members in more than 40 countries and is the world’s leading technical society dedicated to the advancement of vertical flight technology and its applications. More information about the AHS International 70th Annual Forum & Technology Display is available at www.vtol.org/forum.

A PDF of this press release is also available here AHS Forum 70 Speakers press release.

AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society
217 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
phone: 1-703-684-6777; toll free: 1-855-AHS-INTL; fax: 1-703-739-9279
email: staff@vtol.org; web site: www.vtol.org