AHS International – The Vertical Flight Technical Society – today announced the 2013 recipients of its prestigious awards program, which since its establishment in 1944 has paid tribute to the outstanding leaders of vertical flight and served as a catalyst for stimulating technological advances.

“As the global leader for scientific, technical, educational and legislative initiatives that advance the science and technology of vertical flight, AHS International is proud to recognize extraordinary achievements and serve as a catalyst for stimulating technological advances in vertical flight,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. (retired) Stephen Mundt, Chair of the Society’s Board of Directors. “This year’s awards recognize the most extraordinary recent vertical flight achievements as well as the most significant long-term contributions to this vital technology and its applications throughout the world.”

This year’s winners will be recognized at the Annual Grand Awards Banquet on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 during AHS International’s 69th Annual Forum & Technology Display at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

The AHS Honorary Fellow Awards are granted to Society members whose career-based leadership and innovation have advanced significantly the interests of the vertical flight community. Only two Honorary Fellowships are bestowed each year. Recipients receive lifetime membership in the Society. This year’s winners are Robert B. Bossler, Bossler Technical Service, Engineering Consultant, and Nicholas D. Lappos, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Senior Technical Fellow.

The AHS Technical Fellow Awards are granted to Society members whose career-based accomplishments towards the goals and objectives of the vertical flight technical community constitute an outstanding technical achievement. This year’s recipients are Prof. Farhan Gandhi, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rosalind and John J. Redfern Jr. ‘33 Endowed Chair in Aerospace Engineering; Kenneth H. Landis, The Boeing Company, Senior Manager, Flying Qualities; James C. Narramore, Bell Helicopter, Senior Staff Engineer (retired), and Prof. Omri Rand, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Society’s Captain William J. Kossler Award is given for the greatest achievement in practical application or operation of rotary wing aircraft, the value of which has been demonstrated by actual service during the preceding year. This year, the Kossler Award will be presented to U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina for its outstanding rescue efforts of the HMS Bounty on October 28, 2012 during Hurricane Sandy.

Aurora Flight Sciences, Manassas, Virginia, is this year’s recipient of the AHS Supplier Excellence Award. This award is given to a supplier who, through the quality, innovativeness and cost-effectiveness of its products, has made a notable contribution to improving the state-of-the-art of vertical flight aircraft. This year’s award is for flawless execution of main rotor pylon design and nacelle fabrication for the Sikorsky Aircraft/U.S. Marine Corps CH-53K. 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 recipient is theAerodynamics Improvement Team comprised of the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Command and Program Manager, Armed Scout Helicopter, NASA and Bell Helicopter. The team conceived, developed, tested and analyzed a powered scale model of the emerging OH-58F Kiowa Warrior configuration. Testing was completed in September 2012. The resulting model is perhaps the most detailed scale wind-tunnel helicopter with full aerodynamic simulation of external components ever tested.

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’s award is presented to the Apache AH-64E Composite Tailboom Development Team, composed of The Boeing Company and the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center and Army Research Laboratory organizations. The team was successful in bringing composite design and manufacturing technology to military rotorcraft through successful completion of a live-fire test at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. This new technology application greatly increases reliability, durability and maintainability with improved strength, lower weight and lower recurring cost than the current Apache metallic tailboom.

This year’s recipient of the Howard Hughes Award, given in recognition of an outstanding improvement in fundamental helicopter technology brought to fruition in the previous year, is Sikorsky Aircraft’s Active Ground Resonance Stability Augmentation Design and Test Team. The team is being recognized for successfully demonstrating the ability of full-authority control systems to enhance aeromechanical stability in a safe and effective manner.

The AgustaWestland International Helicopter Fellowship Award recognizes the most significant contribution to international vertical flight cooperation by an individual or group. This year’s winner is the Sikorsky/Tata S-92 Cabin International Transition Team. The team progressed from a true “green-field” start-up, built an assembly factory, hired and trained an aerospace workforce, established all supporting processes and procedures and successfully established a helicopter Cabin assembly line producing at the required rate to support operations.

The Robert L. Pinckney 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 V-22 Large Cell Composite Core Flaperon Team, including Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), GKN Aerospace and Ultracor, Inc., for its focus on cost-reduction initiatives, reliability and maintainability.

The Society’s Paul E. Haueter Award is presented each year to an individual or company that has made significant contributions to the development of vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) other than helicopters. This year, the Haueter Award will be given to Richard Spivey, former director, U.S. Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, for more than 50 years of tireless efforts that resulted in the fielding of tiltrotor aircraft and the advancement of other innovative VTOL technologies.

This year’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Award is given to Dr. Daniel Patt, Program Manager, U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This award, established in 1992 to recognize outstanding contributions to vertical flight technology by a Society member under the age of 35, honors Dr. Patt’s significant contributions in rotorcraft acoustics, vibration reduction, aerodynamics, structural dynamics, propulsion, rotorcraft design and integration, which have advanced the state of the art of vertical flight.

The John J. Schneider Historical Achievement Award is given in recognition of distinguished achievement by an individual in encouraging appreciation of, and enhancing access to, the history and legacy of vertical flight aircraft. This year’s recipient is Franklin D. Harris, Aeronautical Engineer, FD Harris and Associates. Mr. Harris has produced the most thorough exposition of the development of rotary-wing aircraft to date. He is currently completing the final volume of his “Autogyros, Helicopters and Other V/STOL Aircraft” trilogy. His rotary-wing research background has given him insight into the technical challenges faced and solved by pioneering engineers in the field. His monumental contribution is to have condensed and presented a highly technical and extremely important area of aeronautical development in an unassailably reliable and accessible manner.

The winner of the Robert L. Lichten Award is Brent Pafford, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Texas, Austin, for his paper, “Magnetohydrodynamic Plasma Actuators for Stall Alleviation.” The runner-up is JunSoo Hong, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Washington University in Saint Louis, for his paper “A Fully Nonlinear Version of the Pitt-Peters Dynamic Inflow Model in Axial Flow.” The Lichten Award was established to encourage AHS International members who had not previously presented the results of their work at a technical forum to begin doing so at local and regional Society meetings. Both of these papers will be presented at Forum 69.

No awards will be given this year for the Dr. Alexander Klemin Award, the Frederick L. Feinberg Award and the Igor I. Sikorsky International Trophy. The 69th Annual Forum & Technology Display will also feature the Alexander A. Nikolsky Honorary Lectureship, delivered by Peretz P. Friedmann, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Aerospace Engineering, the University of Michigan. The 33rd Annual Nikolsky Lecture is entitled, “On Blade Control of Rotor Vibration, Noise and Performance – Just Around the Corner?” The Lecture will be given at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21, 2013.

For more information on AHS International and its prestigious awards program, as well as past award recipients, please visit the Society’s webpage atwww.vtol.org/awards.