The Board of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Vertical Flight Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 Chapter Awards, covering the award periods of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Recipients of the awards are selected annually, from nominations submitted by SFBAC VFS members, by a special advisory board. These awards are an opportunity for the local VFS Chapter to recognize the outstanding work and significant accomplishments achieved by the VTOL technical community. Winners will be honored at an Awards Banquet to be held on August 18, 2022 in Mountain View, CA. The winners are as follows (team award leads in parentheses):
Velkoff Award for Outstanding Technical Paper
2020 – Beatrice Roget, Jay Sitaraman, Ryan Blumenstein, Hossein Saberi, and Mina Taheri – for their paper titled “Advanced Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Simulations Using HPCMP CREATE (TM)-AV Helios” presented at the VFS 75th Annual Forum
2021 – Tom Berger, Mark Tischler, and Joe Horn – for their paper titled “Outer-Loop Control Design and Simulation Handling Qualities Assessment for a Coaxial Compound Helicopter and Tiltrotor” presented at the VFS 76th Annual Forum
2022 – Mani Ramasamy, Rohit Jain, and Tom Norman – for their paper titled “Does Scatter Matter? Improved Understanding of UH-60A Wind Tunnel Rotor measurements Using Data-Driven Clustering and CREATETM-AV Helios” presented at the VFS 77th Annual Forum
Schroers Award for Outstanding Rotorcraft Research
2020 – Mars Helicopter Development Team (Larry Young) – for the significant contributions of the NASA Ames Aeromechanics team to the Mars 2020 Mission Mars Helicopter
2021 – Alex Stoll – for his many contributions to the successful development of the Joby eVTOL air taxi
2022 – ARTIC VMS Simulation Test Team (Tom Berger and Emily Lewis) – for successful planning and execution of two full-motion rotorcraft air vehicle simulations in the NASA Vertical Motion Simulator to evaluate the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) and Future Attack and Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) for reduced pilot workload
Franklin Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Powered-Lift Field:
2020 – NASA/Army Multirotor Testbed Wind Tunnel Test Team (Carl Russell) – for the successful 2019 MTB test program in the 7- by 10-Foot Wind Tunnel
2021 – NFAC Aerodynamic & Acoustic Rotoprop Test Team (Joe Sacco and Natasha Schatzman) – for the successful completion of the AART test in the 40- by 80-ft Wind Tunnel in Fall 2020
2022 – UAM Quadcopter Handling Qualities VMS Test Team (Carlos Malpica) – for the successful completion of the UAM Quadcopter Handling Qualities Test in the Vertical Motion Simulator in 2021
Award for Outstanding Technical Support:
2020 – Catherine Dow – for technical editing of numerous NASA Special Publications, Technical Memoranda, and Contractor Reports published over the past 10 years by NASA and Army rotorcraft researchers
2021 – TDD-A/DSE Automation Team (Sukhdev Sandhu), and Meridith Segall – for their outstanding IT support enabling continued productivity during mandatory telework for Army and NASA employees
2022 – Farid Haddad – for his significant contributions to the Rotor Optimization for the Advancement of Mars eXploration (ROAMX) team and decades of support of Air Force, Army, and NASA rotorcraft research at NASA Ames.
Award for Outstanding Contribution to the VFS Local Chapter
2020 – Natasha Schatzman – for her service to the SF Bay Area Chapter in every possible role, including the president. She has exemplified exceptional service to the Chapter and to the community it serves.
2021 – Kenneth Mort – for his NASA SP titled “The World’s Largest Wind Tunnels: Their History, Contributions to Aeronautics, and Importance to Flight – A History of the NASA Ames 40- by 80-Foot and 80- by 120-Foot Wind Tunnels,” which documented the research milestones of many past and current VFS SFBAC members
2022 –SFBAC Transformative Vertical Flight 2022 Leadership Team (Colin Theodore, Buvana Jayaraman, Carl Russell, Meredith Segall) – for the successful execution of the Transformative Vertical Flight 2022 Conference in January 2022
Lifetime Achievement Award
2020 – Chris Blanken – Mr. Blanken served the nation as an Army rotorcraft researcher leading the Army to be at the forefront of rotary wing control system development.
2021 – Mark Potsdam – Mr. Potsdam served the nation as an Army rotorcraft researcher with a long history of applying high-fidelity computational aeromechanics modeling and simulation tools to complex, moving body, aeroelastic rotorcraft configurations.
2022 – Mark Tischler – Dr. Tischler served the nation as an Army rotorcraft researcher for over 40 years. He is the world recognized expert in aircraft and rotorcraft handling qualities and flight control research.