Vertical Flight Society announces the 2023 Winners of its Individual Awards
The Vertical Flight Society (VFS) has today announced the individual recipients of its 2023 awards, which has served as a catalyst for stimulating technological advances for nearly 80 years.
This year’s winners will be recognised at the 79th Annual Grand Awards Banquet on Thursday 18th May 2023 at the Society’s Forum & Technology Display in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“The Society’s first awards were granted in 1944, when Igor Sikorsky and Colonel Franklin Gregory were granted Honorary Fellowships,” said VFS Executive Director Mike Hirschberg.
The title of Honorary Fellow is granted to Robert Hood, Principal Consultant at QUARTEK Engineering Services, and Tomasz Krysinski, vice president of research and innovation at Airbus Helicopters.
Robert Hood has over nearly a half-century made countless contributions to the rotorcraft community and aerospace sector at large, from the VFS Australia Chapter to the education of next-generation rotorcraft engineers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and as technical chair for a number of VFS Australian-Pacific conferences.
Tomasz Krysinski has over 35 years’ experience in developing advanced rotorcraft, including today’s Racer compound helicopter, as well as authoring two books, 18 VFS and European Rotorcraft Forum technical papers and 12 patents, mentoring generations of new engineering leaders including 26 PhD students, and, most recently, leading the VFS Board of Directors.
The title of Technical Fellow is granted to Oliver Dieterich, senior expert on rotorcraft dynamics at Airbus Helicopters, for his contributions to the field of applied helicopter dynamics and vibrations, computational and experimental dynamics, and aeromechanics.
Similarly Joseph Horn, professor of aerospace engineering at The Pennsylvania State University is granted the title of Technical Fellow for 30 years of research in the areas of flight controls, simulation, handling qualities and aeromechanics.
Dr Rajneesh Singh, team lead at US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory is granted the title of Technical Fellow for research in computational aeromechanics, strategic leadership for expanding collaborations, assembling teams for transformative research, and mentoring the future workforce.
Dr Berend van der Wall, senior rotorcraft expert at the German Aerospace Centre is granted the title of Technical Fellow for comprehensive simulation code capabilities, while pushing forward the understanding of unsteady airfoil aerodynamics, blade vortex interaction (BVI), and the effect of higher harmonic control on BVI and vibration, using experimental and analytical approaches.
The John Schneider Historical Achievement Award is given to Arthur Linden, the former Boeing-Sikorsky Comanche Program Director. In addition to a long career at Sikorsky, was recognised for the historical book, ‘The RAH-66 Comanche Helicopter: Technical Accomplishments, Program Frustration’.
The annual François-Xavier Bagnoud Award is given to a Society member, who is 35 years old or younger, and this year goes to Dr Natasha Schatzman, research aerospace engineer for flight vehicle acoustics at NASA Ames Research Center. She was recognized for extensive contributions to the VFS technical community and local VFS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and for outstanding mentorship in the rotorcraft field.
The Society’s Paul Haueter Award is awarded to Alex Stoll, Joby Aviation’s first full-time employee, who was tragically killed in a car accident in February. A pioneer of electric flight and low-noise propulsion, Stoll developed a comprehensive system optimisation model that resulted in the Joby electric VTOL air taxi designs. Stoll was a co-inventor on 21 patents, a co-author of numerous technical papers, and an active officer of the VFS San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.