AHS International — The Vertical Flight Technical Society — today announced the winners of its prestigious Robert L. Lichten technical awards. The overall winner and the runner-up will be recognized at the Grand Awards Banquet on Wednesday, May 18, 2016, during AHS International’s 72nd Annual Forum and Technology Display in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. The AHS Annual Forum is the world’s oldest and largest conference on vertical flight technology.

Carl Runco of Texas A&M University was selected as the overall Lichten Winner for his paper, “On the Development of the World’s Smallest Cyclocopter,” which will be presented on Tuesday morning, May 17.

Mark Kotwicz Herniczek of Carleton University was the international Lichten Runner-Up. Herniczek will present his paper, “Rotor Blade Optimization and Flight Testing of a Small UAV Rotorcraft” at Forum 72 on Wednesday afternoon, May 18.

The Robert L. Lichten Award was established in 1976 to encourage AHS members who have not previously presented the results of their work at a technical meeting to begin to do so through presentations at local and regional AHS meetings. Each of the 10 AHS regions around the world is eligible to select a regional winner, from which an overall international winner and runner up are selected. The overall Lichten Award Winner presents his/her technical paper at the Forum and receives complimentary travel to and lodging at the Forum, as well as a $500 honorarium from Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. The runner-up is also given the opportunity to present at the Forum and receives complimentary Forum registration. Each regional winner is listed below, with the two international winners noted; those with an asterisk are scheduled to present at Forum 72.

The Americas Regional Winner and International Runner-Up*
Mark Kotwicz Herniczek, Carleton University — “Rotor Blade Optimization and Flight Testing of a Small UAV Rotorcraft”

The Europe-Africa Regional Winner
Roland Feil, Technical University of Munich — “Interactional Aeromechanics Analysis of a Coaxial Rotor System in Hover and Forward Flight”

The US Northeast Regional Winner
Cody Fegely, Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company — “Advancement of the Sikorsky X2 Technology Demonstrator GenHel Model and Correlation with Flight Test Data”

The US Southeast Regional Winner*
Elizabeth Ward, University of Maryland — “Investigation of RPM Driven Extension-Torsion Coupled Self-Twisting Blades”

The US Southwest Regional Winner and Overall Winner*
Carl Runco, Texas A&M University — “On the Development of the World’s Smallest Cyclocopter”

The US Western Regional Winner
Eduardo Solis, Monterey Technologies, Inc. — “Photogrammetric Deflection Measurements for the Tiltrotor Test Rig (TTR) Multi-Component Rotor Balance Calibration”

The award was established in 1975 to honor the memory of Robert L. Lichten, an outstanding rotary-wing engineer and 22nd president of AHS. Robert Lichten was a skilled and dedicated innovator who spent much of his career championing early tiltwing and tiltrotor concepts until his unfortunate death in an automobile accident. Many who knew him called him the “Pioneer of TiltRotor Technology.”

Overall Lichten Winner Carl Runco and Lichten Runner-Up Mark Herniczek will both be honored at the Annual Award Banquet on Wednesday morning, May 18, and each will receive a plaque signifying their accomplishment. As previously announced, the prestigious AHS International Awards Program will also recognize the extraordinary achievements and contributions of the very best of the technical and operating communities at the 72nd Annual Grand Awards Banquet. More than two dozen awards will be presented.