AIAA Leadership 2017 Board of Trustees and Council of Directors Election Results

AIAA is pleased to announce the results of its 2017 Board of Trustees and Council of Directors election. The newly elected board and council members are:

• President–Elect
  John Langford, Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation
• Director–Technical, Aircraft and
  Atmospheric Systems Group
  Dimitri Mavris, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Director–Technical, Engineering and Technology Management Group
  Nancy Andersen, Johns Hopkins University Applied
  Physics Laboratory
• Director–Technical, Space and Missiles Group
  Mark Whorton, University of Tennessee Space Institute
• Director–Region I
  Steven Bauer, NASA Langley Research Center
• Director–Region II
  Kurt Polzin, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

“I look forward to working with President-Elect John Langford, and the rest of the winners of this year’s AIAA Board of Trustees and Council of Directors election,” said AIAA President Jim Maser. “I congratulate each of them and am confident that they will represent the membership and the strategy of the Institute well.” The newly elected board and council members will begin their terms of office on May 2017.

Award Announcements 2017 AIAA/ACC/AAAE Speas Award Presented in February

Left to right: T. J. Schultz, president of the Airport Consultants Council; Jaap van der Salm, landscape architect, H+N+S Landscape Architects, and Dirk Speas. Credit: ACC/AAAE

On 22 February, the AIAA/ACC/AAAE Jay Hollingsworth Speas Award was presented at the 2017 ACC/AAAE Airport Planning, Design and Contruction Symposium. Jaap van der Salm accepted the award on behalf of Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze, advisor, H+N+S Landscape Architectures, and Frans Schenk, project leader, Amsterdam Airport, Schiphol. van Nieuwenhuijze and Schenk were recognized for “vision, strategy, and development of the Buitenschot Land Art Park near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, which features a “labyrinth of noise-deflecting landscape architecture, land art, and innovative technology which protects the surrounding communities from noise pollution as well as providing breathtaking views and recreation green space.” The artist Paul de Kort who executed several large-scale land art works in The Netherlands and abroad, collaborated with van Nieuwenhuijze for the spatial design.

Section News AIAA Orange County Section Is Keeping Busy!

By Dr. Amir S. Gohardani, Chair-Elect, AIAA Orange County Section

Here are some recent activities from the AIAA Orange County (OC) Section.

STEM

The section is committed to supporting STEM outreach activities, many of which are spearheaded by Jann and Bob Koepke. The section has created a STEM education through rocketry program that has continued with the 2nd annual SPARC (Student Payload and Rocketry Challenge) as a follow-on to TARC (Team America Rocketry Challenge) to encourage students to do more complex projects. SPARC is open to 7th–12th grades and runs across the summer months. It places the emphasis on an electronic scientific or engineering payload as well as the rocket. Last year CanSats were added to the SPARC challenge. CanSats are an electronic payload where teams fit their payload and experiment into a 12-ounce soda can (their “Satellite”) and the section provides launch services. SPARC not only inspires students and AIAA members, it also educates and inspires teachers and schools in regard to the value of STEM education and AIAA. Many activities of the OC Section’s rocketry activities can be followed on: http://aiaaocrocketry.org.

Outreach and Collaboration with Other Societies

The AIAA OC Section consistently supports engineering endeavors with a specific focus on aerospace engineering. Three examples are presented.

Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

To reach out to women engineers, Dr. Amir S. Gohardani, Section Chair-Elect, gave a presentation at the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE’s) Sonora Region Conference (9–12 February) on “Overcoming Challenges against All Odds,” addressing various challenges and the hurdles that girls and women face in the aerospace sector and tools that can help in facing these challenges.

Orange County Engineering Council (OCEC)

Dr. Gohardani served as a panel member on the Leaders’ Forum presented by the OCEC on 12 October to address potential opportunities in Aerospace, Biomedical, Civil, Electrical/Electronic, Energy and Mechanical Engineering; and to explore related collaboration avenues within Southern California for local companies, universities, professional societies, government agencies, and the OCEC.

Springs of Dreams Corporation (SODC)

The Orange County Section also collaborates with the Springs of Dreams Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicated to enlightening society and enriching human lives through knowledge and education. The SODC sponsors the Gohardani Presentation in Aeronautics and Aerospace during the AIAA OC Section’s annual ASAT Conference. 

ASAT 2017

The section is excited about the upcoming ASAT 2017. The conference will bring together seasoned and new engineers, researchers, leaders, managers, academia, and students and provide a forum to exchange new ideas, review achievements, and chart a new course for aerospace in the area. This year we look forward to hearing about “Beyond the Black Box,” “Preparing for the Final Mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour,” and “Perspectives from Saturn.” More details about the conference, led by conference chairs Dino Roman and John Rose, can be found at: https://info.aiaa.org/Regions/Western/Orange_County/default.aspx.

Section News National Capital Section Presents Future City Special Award

The Warwick Middle School Future City Team. Credit: AIAA

By Bruce Cranford

From 19 to 21 February, regional Future City winners from 43 middle schools nationwide, Canada, Egypt and China participated in the Future City National Finals in Washington, DC. Regional winning teams received an all-expense-paid trip to the National Finals.

Future City, in its 25th year, asks middle school students to create cities of the future, first on a computer and then in large tabletop models. Working in teams with a teacher and volunteer engineer mentor, students create their cities using the SimCity 3000 TM video game donated to all participating schools by Electronic Arts, Inc. of Redwood City, CA. They write an abstract and an essay on using engineering to solve an important social issue. Then they present and defend their cities before engineer judges at the competition. More than 40,000 students from more than 1,350 schools participated in 2016–2017.

The students created detailed – often fantastic – cities of tomorrow that give intriguing insight to how young minds envision their future. At the same time, their bold designs and innovative concepts provide a refreshingly optimistic appreciation of how our nation can realistically deal with the many challenges facing its cities, including the power of public spaces.

As part of the Future City’s program, the AIAA National Capital Section (NCS) presented a Special Award for the Best Use of Aerospace Technology to the team from Warwick Middle School (Future City Region: Pennsylvania Central, Future City Name: Pompeii, student team members: Gavin Troop, Shaddy Makhlouf, Amber Houser, Adam Ciampaglia, Maxwell Davis, Aaron Dickinson, Nolan Rucci, Bobby Schroeder, Katy Kramer, Lauren Reinhart, Ben DuBosq, Ethan Enteria, Katie Jeanes, Christian Kegel, Theo Lance, Will Wickenheiser, Kendall Morgan, Alexa Wenger, Educator: Michael Smith, and engineering mentor: Michael Makhlouf). The AIAA NCS congratulates the team for their outstanding efforts in winning this award.

Martin Frederick, NCS chair, and Bruce Cranford presented the award on 21 February. The award consisted of a savings bond for each student team member, and a plaque highlighting the award for each member of the team. The AIAA NCS also wishes to thank the NCS judges for the Best Use of Aerospace Engineering: Sri Ayyalasomayajula, (Research Scientist at Intelligent Automation, Inc.) and Bernie Collins.

For more information and a list of all the winners, visit http://www.futurecity.org.

Section News AIAA Clarkson University Student Branch

Credit: AIAA

The AIAA Clarkson University Student Branch recently welcomed AIAA Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Paul Bevilaqua. Several hundred students attended Dr. Bevilaqua’s lecture on “Inventing the Joint Strike Fighter.” After the lecture, senior class members and several professors joined Dr. Bevilaqua for dinner at the Clarkson Alumni Club.

Section News AIAA Sections Organize a Drone Race

Credit: AIAA

The AIAA Northern New Jersey, Southern New Jersey, and Greater Philadelphia Sections planned and coordinated a drone race event and display at the 2017 New Jersey Wing/Northeast Region Combined Conference for the Civil Air Patrol in Atlantic City, NJ, on 11 March.

The conference had 125 cadets and 350 attendees. In addition to the display, the team setup two practice tracks and two race tracks, approximately 10’x10’ with archways for the participants to fly the supplied mini-drone.

There were 44 participants in the official races, and many more participants that practiced but did not participate in the official races. There were three 50-minute sessions, and the top two race times were awarded a free drone. The winners had times between 9 and 17 seconds.

STEM Activities Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

AIAA Northern New Jersey Section. Credit: AIAA

AIAA Northern New Jersey Section

On 23 February, the AIAA Northern New Jersey Section (AIAA NNJ) hosted a booth at the Introduce a Girl to Engineering event held at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. This is the event’s fifth year and AIAA-NNJ has been a part of this event every year. There were over 70 students (over 150 attendees) from 23 schools in eight counties in Northern New Jersey. The AIAA-NNJ had a table display, engineers who engaged in conversations with the students and mini-drones for students to demonstrate their ability to land on a target.

AIAA University of Texas (UT) at Austin Student Branch

Every year, the AIAA UT Austin Student Branch hosts an activity for UT’s Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. The purpose is to engage young elementary and middle school level students in hands-on activities that can teach them valuable lessons in basic engineering concepts. The students get to participate in activities from over 150 student organizations, learning basic applications of STEM topics as well as problem solving skills. The main emphasis is for the kids to have fun and have a positive opinion of the engineering field.

To allow more creativity in the student designs, AIAA opted for straw planes, basically a straw with a thin loop of paper at each end. While we had a few example designs, we encouraged the students to try something outside of the box. Through this activity, the students were able to build and fly their own straw plane through some target hoops, and also get a cursory overview of simple aerodynamics. The most important takeaway was the trial-and-error design process for kids who went back and forth between the design table and flight testing. While simple, it was a great way to expose them to some important aspects of engineering.

STEM Activities Greater Huntsville Section Commemorates Black History Month

Credit: AIAA

by Ken Philippart

The Greater Huntsville Section commemorated Black History Month 2017 throughout February with a full slate of activities to honor the contributions of African-American citizens to our nation and profession. Section Chair Brandon Stiltner stated that the month was “a time to celebrate the achievements of our African American colleagues, forebears and fellow citizens and their indispensable contributions to our institute, industry and nation.” The events included a Section viewing of the movie Hidden Figures, a presentation on the Tuskegee Airman, promotion of the Southern Museum of Flight’s student art contest honoring the first African American military pilot, a meeting of the section book club to discuss Hidden Figures, and a section trip to Tuskegee to tour the Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site, Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington’s house and to visit with the section’s Tuskegee University Student Branch.

There was a great turnout for the viewing of Hidden Figures on 7 February with sixteen section members and guests attending. This was followed on 14 February by the Section’s monthly lecture luncheon featuring NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Don Harris. Mr. Harris’ talk, “The Tuskegee Airmen and Me: Their Impact on My Life,” provided a brief history of the Tuskegee Airmen. The attendees included fellow professionals from the North Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. Mr. Harris spoke about how individual Tuskegee Airmen guided him and served as role models from his high school in Detroit to earning his degree at Tuskegee University to his career as an engineer at NASA.

On 25 February, members of the Section visited Tuskegee, where they met with 18 AIAA Tuskegee University Student Branch members for a full day of tours and networking. The group visited the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field, and toured the museum and the flying field where Tuskegee Airmen trained. This was followed by a tour of Tuskegee University given by AIAA Tuskegee Student Branch Vice President and Tuskegee Ambassador Jessica Dedeaux.

The group was also given a tour of the Aerospace Engineering Department’s facilities, followed by a presentation by student branch members on their branch’s activities. The presentation conveyed the students’ enthusiasm and commitment to engineering.

Finally, the section capped its Black History Month activities with a meeting of the Greater Huntsville Section Book Club for an in-depth discussion of the best-selling book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Obituary AIAA Fellow Thibodaux Died in April 2016

Joseph G. Thibodaux Jr. died on 26 April 2016. Mr. Thibodaux received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1942. Upon graduation, he served as an Officer in the Army Corps of Engineers and was stationed in Burma during World War II, where he played a role in the construction of the Ledo and Burma Roads.

After the war, Thibodaux began his career as an Aeronautical Research Scientist in the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. In 1964, he moved to Houston, TX, where he assumed the role of Chief of the Propulsion and Power Division at the Johnson Space Center until his retirement in 1980.

Thibodaux held five patents on solid rockets and solid rocket manufacturing techniques. He specialized in the fields of vehicle propulsion, liquid rockets, thermal protection, high temperature materials, meteoroid and impact phenomena, thermal arc technology, flight test technology and pyrotechnics. He received many accolades, including the Wyld Propulsion Award in 1970, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and induction into the LSU Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2005.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Pollard Died in November 2016

Colonel Ben Pollard died on 11 November 2016. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Purdue University and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant before completing flight training in 1956. He was an Interceptor Weapons Instructor before receiving an Air Force Institute of Technology assignment to Purdue University to complete his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then served as an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy (June 1961–August 1966).

Maj. Pollard completed F-105 Thunderchief Combat Crew Training and was assigned to the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron in February 1967. He was forced to eject over North Vietnam on 15 May 1967, and was taken as a Prisoner of War. After spending 2,120 days in captivity, he was released during Operation Homecoming on 4 March 1973. Col. Pollard returned to the Air Force Academy as an aeronautical engineering instructor in August 1973, later becoming the Deputy Commandant of Military Instruction and the Commander of the Air Force Academy Preparatory School before retiring from the Air Force in 1981.

After leaving the Air Force, Pollard served as vice president of STARNET Corporation, as well as president of the NAMPOW Vietnam POW organization. He received the Distinguished Engineering Award from Purdue University in 1979 and was the recipient of an Honorary Ph.D. in 2012 from Purdue University. During his Air Force career, he also received two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merits, two Bronze Star Medals with the “V” Device to signify combat heroism, and two Purple Hearts. He also received the 1974 AIAA J. Leland Atwood Award.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Holtz Died November 2016

Tobenette (Toby) Holtz died 25 November 2016 at the age of 86. She had been a member of AIAA for over 60 years.

Dr. Holtz earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Wayne State University (1958), her Master of Science degree in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering from Ohio State University (1964), and her Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University Southern California, Los Angeles (1974).

Dr. Holtz retired as a manager from TRW in 2000. During her, she was responsible for research and development of ICBM reentry systems and hypersonics, including ground test simulation and flight test. Previously she was a project engineer and staff engineer at The Aerospace Corporation, the Acurex Corporation, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Northrop Corporation, and at North American Aviation where she started her career in 1954.

She served on the AIAA Orange County Council for many years and received a Special Service Citation award from the Council in 2014 for extensive contributions and leadership of the Council activities. At the AIAA national level, she served as a technical committee member (on the Weapon System Effectiveness and Ground Testing Technical Committees) and an organizer of national conferences. Dr. Holtz received the AIAA Distinguished Service award in 1983.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Layton Died in February

Professor Emeritus Donald M. (Red) Layton died on 26 February. He attended Wooster (Ohio) College and The Ohio State University prior to entering the U.S. Naval Academy where he graduated in 1945. His 23 years of service as a naval officer included the command of two ships and 20 years as a naval aviator qualified in single and multi-engine and sea planes. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), a Master of Science in Aeronautics from Princeton University, and a Master of Science Degree in Management from NPS. He received his doctor of science degree from Canterbury University of South Africa. He was the first director of the Navy Safety School in Monterey.

Professor Layton retired from active duty in 1968, and accepted an appointment as an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. He was later promoted to full professor and served three years as acting head of the Aeronautics Department. During his teaching career he received the Carl Mennecken Award of the Society of Sigma Xi for his research on Surface Effect Ships and was named Safety Educator of the Year by the System Safety Society. He retired in 1988 to teach overseas with the National Test Pilot School in South Africa, Taiwan, and Australia. He also taught for five terms in the Graduate School in Stellenbosch, South Africa. In 2006, he was named a Distinguished Alumni of the Naval Postgraduate School.

Professor Layton was the author of nine textbooks and numerous papers on airships, helicopters and system safety. He also conducted a course on Helicopter Conceptual Design for AIAA in 1991–1992.

Layton was a founder member of the AIAA Point Lobos Section and a member of the Lighter-Than-Air Technical Committee. As well as being a member of both the System Safety and Effectiveness and the Marine Vehicles Technical Committees, he also served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hydronautics and was an associate editor of the Journal of Aircraft. He served as a general chair, technical chair, and session chair for several AIAA meetings as well as presenting numerous papers at these meetings.

Obituary Honorary Fellow Mar Died in March

James W. Mar, a former of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), passed away on 4 March. He was 96.

Mar received his B.S., M.S., and Sc.D. from MIT, all in civil engineering, in 1941, 1947, and 1949, respectively. Between 1941 and 1944, he was employed by Curtiss-Wright as an aeronautical engineer. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 until 1946.

Mar’s MIT career spanned 41 years. He was head of the AeroAstro department from 1981 to 1983. He retired in July 1990 as MIT’s Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aerospace Education.

Mar’s research focused on advanced filamentary composite materials and large structures in space. He headed the AeroAstro Division of Structures, Materials, and Aeroelasticity. Mar founded and directed both the Technology Laboratory for Advanced Composites, and, with Professor Rene Miller, the Space Systems Laboratory. Mar was instrumental in creating the Unified Engineering subjects, which formed the foundation of AeroAstro’s undergraduate education.

Following his retirement, Mar served as a member of NASA’s Space Systems and Technology Advisory Committee and the Air Force Studies Board, and chaired the FAA’s Technical Oversight Group for Aging Aircraft.

Mar also took part in advisory assignments that examined development of Air Force and Navy jet engines, and the operation of the Air Force Logistic Command and the Military Airlift Command. Between 1970 and 1972, he served as the U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist. He chaired a committee reporting to the NASA Associate Administrator Office of Space Flight on the design of the graphite/epoxy filament-wound solid rocket motor, and was vice-chairman of the National Academy of Engineering panel that provided oversight of the Space Shuttle’s solid rocket booster redesign following the 1986 Challenger disaster.
In 1987, he received the Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Award.