The AIAA Greater Huntsville Section honored Dr. Arloe W. Mayne for his 50-plus years of service during an Emeritus Ceremony on August 26, 2016. Dr. Mayne has had a distinguished career in the aerospace industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He also earned a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. His career included working at the Martin Company in Orlando, FL; at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) near Tullahoma, TN; and at TRW in Huntsville, AL, and Greenbelt, MD. He was a systems engineer with TRW, and worked in Computational Fluid Dynamics at AEDC.
Dr. Mayne’s involvement in AIAA spans six decades. In 1960, he joined the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (IAS) as a student member at the University of Kentucky and became a founding member of AIAA when IAS and the American Rocket Society merged in 1963. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow, and has served in various positions with the Greater Huntsville Section, including Section Chair. He was a member of the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee, and authored several papers in that field. As part of the Section’s Centennial of Flight activities, he researched and developed plans for Robert Goddard’s first successful liquid-fueled rocket. He was awarded an AIAA Special Service Citation for this work. In 2014, Dr. Mayne received AIAA’s Sustained Service Award for service to the Institute.
The ceremony was held at Huntsville Executive Airport, where Dr. Mayne first learned to fly and where he still flies today. Over 40 people packed the airport’s executive conference room conference room to honor Dr. Mayne’s years of service. The event opened with remarks from Emcee Ken Philippart and Section Chair Brandon Stiltner. Mr. Stiltner presented Dr. Mayne with his Certificate of Emeritus. Dr. Mayne has served on the Greater Huntsville Section Council for almost 20 years, including as Section Chair and his current position as Webmaster. After Dr. Mayne’s wife, Linda, pinned his Emeritus Pin on his lapel, Section Vice Chair Dr. Naveen Vetcha presented him with the Greater Huntsville Section coin to recognize his career of excellence. Six Young Professionals then presented Dr. Mayne with a print of the poem High Flight superimposed over a glorious sunset. Finally, former Council member Mrs. Sheree Gay, presented the Section’s gift to Arloe, an enamel sign of a Cessna-172 bearing the tail number of the aircraft that Arloe flies regularly and that was sitting on the ramp outside the conference room.
Dr. Mayne told several interesting stories about his flying and AIAA experiences. He concluded by presenting past Section Chair Ken Philippart with an AIAA Section Chair 25-year pin that Mayne had received many years before. The evening concluded with group photos including pictures of Dr. Mayne with the student members, to illustrate the continuation of AIAA across generations. Dr. Mayne’s ceremony was Greater Huntsville’s second Emeritus ceremony and part of the Section’s renewed efforts to publicly honor its long-serving, faithful members while passing on the Section’s proud legacy to younger generations.
Recognizing the importance of a representative and inclusive workforce to the aerospace community, AIAA established a Diversity Working Group (DWG) in 2015. Its mandate was to explore opportunities to better promote and encourage diversity and inclusion throughout the aerospace workforce and the Institute.
The group’s ongoing work has produced AIAA’s first-ever Diversity and Inclusion Plan. The plan’s recommendations for near-, mid-, and long-term actions lay out concrete steps that the Institute and our members can take to help support and retain professionals once they have entered the workforce, build a culture of inclusion and diversity throughout our Institute and workforce, and recognize individual and employer efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. As a “living document” the plan will grow as necessary to accommodate new needs, priorities, and the realities of an ever-changing workforce.
The DWG members will work with fellow Institute leaders to implement the plan’s goals to help create an environment where input is contributed across the breadth of the team, where all ideas are brought forward and vigorously discussed and debated, and that is truly supportive of the needs and voices of all individuals who wish to use their time and talents to shape the future of aerospace. To read the Diversity and Inclusion Plan, learn more about the DWG, and to get involved, please visit: aiaa.org/diversity.
AIAA Associate Fellow Dr. Randii Wessen visited Australia from 15–28 August, to discuss the robotic planetary missions currently in operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and those planned for the upcoming decades. The trip was sponsored by AIAA as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Program and was organized by the AIAA Adelaide Section with help from AIAA members around Australia. The itinerary included five public talks (Sydney – 250 attendees, Adelaide – 200, Melbourne – 250, Canberra – 350 and Brisbane – 350), one private lecture and tour (DSTG Melbourne – 100), three STEM outreach events (Adelaide, Sydney, and Canberra), two AIAA member-only events (Adelaide and Sydney) and two radio interviews (Radio National Science Program and Triple J Hack). Dr. Wessen was an engaging speaker and appealed to audience members of all ages. Overall the visit was extremely successful and was of enormous benefit to the Australian AIAA members and general public.
The winner of the 2016 AIAA Joseph Freitag Sr. Award was Thomas Gaenzle, Automotive Mechatronics Engineer. A reception was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Daimler Chrysler Ausbildung and Training School (which Mr. Freitag Sr. graduated from in 1922). This is the 10th year this award has been given.
The 2016 AIAA Aerospace Communications Award was recently presented to Christopher Hoeber, Satellite Industry Consultant, during the 34th AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC) at NASA Glenn Research Center. Hoeber was recognized for communications satellite industry and engineering leadership and for advancing technologies ranging from electronic propulsion to reliable high-power communications satellites.
In August, members of Beihang University’s AIAA Student Branch (BASA) visited Korea and toured several universities to see their science programs and labs. Members of the AIAA student branch at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) gave a brief introduction of the school and showed key projects from the School of Aerospace Engineering and activities held by KAIST-AIAA. The creativity of the students and the lively academic atmosphere earned applause from the Beihang students. Jing Pu, chairman of Beihang AIAA Student Branch, also shared some information about the School of Aeronautical Science and Engineering at Beihang. Students were able to tour KAIST’s base of aeromodeling and the Photoelectric Structure Integration laboratory, the Space System and Control Lab, and the Hypersonics Lab, where they were given a detailed introduction to the equipment that produces hypersonic airflow.
The school’s director, Professor Jae-Hung Jay Han, and Professor Jiyun Lee from KAIST-AIAA welcomed the students. Professor Han said that he hoped that students from the two universities continue to share their ideas and knowledge through conversations and lectures to build a bridge between the two schools. Professor Lee spoke of KAIST-AIAA’s activities, and shared other advice with the students. BASA presented Beihang University-featured fans and some delicate postcards as gifts to their hosts.
The students also visited the Aerospace Museum on Jeju Island, and the National Palace Museum (Gyeongbok Palace).
Siegfried R. Hoh died on 14 October 2015. He was 100 years old. He had been a member of AIAA for over 50 years, since 1961.
Mr. Hoh study began his career in Germany, and was part of the development team for the V-2 rocket. Because he was a physicist, he was assigned to the German Rocket Development Center in Peenemunde, Germany. After the British Royal Air Force conducted a surprise attack on the facility, Hoh and other scientists were moved to Bavaria.
After the war ended Hoh was one of the scientists brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. Initially the scientists sorted through captured documents about the V-2 rocket. But a few months after arriving in the United States, Hoh was assigned to work with the Air Force on wind tunnel technology. His name can be found in the “Objective List of German and Austrian Scientists” from January 1947, where it states that he was at Wright Field, OH.
Mr. Hoh later worked with ITT in New Jersey from 1958 to 1965. In 1965, he moved to Florida to help calibrate instruments aboard the Apollo spacecraft. He received a letter from former NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Kurt Debus thanking him for his contributions to the Apollo program. Mr. Hoh retired in 1975.
In 2003, Mr. Hoh travelled back to Peenemunde to see the museum there. He always marveled how quickly progress was made on rockets and spacecraft between World War II and the Apollo era.
Henry R. Sebesta died on 30 June 2016.
Dr. Sebesta went to the University of Texas in Austin where he earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering. He joined the National Guard in high school, serving two terms.
In 1967, Dr. Sebesta joined the faculty of the Oklahoma State University Engineering Department. He was later appointed as the chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas, Arlington. In 1979, he left academia and joined the aerospace and technology firm Applied Technology Associates, Inc. (ATA) in Albuquerque, NM, where he served as president/CEO and, ultimately, as chief scientist. Under Dr. Sebesta’s leadership, ATA was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts from U.S. government agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, and NASA and partnered with private sector companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Ball Aerospace.
He retired from ATA in 2012.
Norman Stanley died on 22 October 2016, at the age of 100.
He began working at Algin Corporation in his twenties. An amateur chemist, the job allowed Mr. Stanley the chance to be a real chemist. He had read about a material called carrageenan, and he convinced his boss he should be allowed to find a way to extract it from seaweed. He was successful and was awarded a patent for it along with a payment from the company for $1. Carrageenan proved to be a very popular product for the company and they changed their name from The Algin Corp to Marine Colloids to cover their expanded product line. Mr. Stanley continued to enjoy his work in the research lab for the next 55 years.
His many interests including being a Hall of Fame member of the “First Fandom” group that started the science fiction craze back in the 1930s. He was a member of the British Interplanetary Society as well as AIAA.
Hernando Jimenezpassed away on 23 October 2016, at the age of 36.
Dr. Jimenez was a three-time graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, earning his Bachelor of Science (2003), Master of Science (2006), and Doctorate of Philosophy (2009) in Aerospace Engineering. A Research Engineer II working in Georgia Tech’s Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory, he led a number of major research projects in the areas of systems analysis of UAS, environmentally responsible aviation, and next-generation technologies.
His many achievements include the 2010 Tower Award, the 2010 ASDL service award, the 2007–2008 Sam Nunn fellowship, chapters in two books and multiple research publications contributing to civil aviation. Dr. Jimenez served as the chair of the AIAA Aircraft Design Technical Committee from 2014 to 2016. He also served on the AIAA Green Engineering Program Committee for a short time. He was also a 2018 AIAA AVIATION Forum Deputy Technical Chair for the A/C and Atmospheric Systems Group.
