SciTech 2016
4-8 January 2016
Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego, CA
History Track
Helicopter Session - 1
Session Co-Chairs: Michael Hirschberg (phone: 571-499-1444, e-mail: hirschberg@vtol.org)
Executive Director of the American Helicopter Society; Erasmo Piñero, Jr., (phone: 817280 5588, e-mail: epinero@bh.com), Principal Engineer for Propulsion Analysis, Integration,
and Flight Test at Bell Helicopter Textron; and member of the AIAA V/STOL Systems
Technical Committee
Imperial Beach in the southwest corner of San Diego (the most southwest corner of the
continental United States) has been known as "The Helicopter Capital of the World." In 1917,
the United States Army established Aviation Field on the current site of Navy Outlying Field
Imperial Beach and in 1918, it was renamed in honor of Army Major William Roy Ream, the
first flying surgeon of the American Army and the first flight surgeon killed in an aircraft
accident. In 1951, Ream Field Imperial Beach became home to its first helicopter squadron
when HU-1 moved on board. HS-2 and HS-4 were also commissioned here in 1952. They was
followed by many others, HS-6 and HS-8 in 1956 and HS-10 was formed in 1960. In 1967, the
oldest of the helicopter squadrons, HC-1, commissioned in 1948 at NAS Lakehurst, was divided
into five different squadrons, HC-3, HC-5, HC-7, HAL-3 and HC-1 and brought on board at
Imperial Beach. This long record in military helicopter history makes SciTech 2016 the ideal
forum for this session on the history of vertical takeoff flight.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Michael Hirschberg – The AIAA/IAS and it role in establishing the American
Helicopter Society
Paper 2 – Chip Lancaster - Classic Rotors Museum
Paper 3 – Bill Personius - Naval Helicopter Association
Paper 4 – Boeing Historian (Mike Lombardi) contacted 19 Sept 2014
Paper 5 – AIAA VSTOL TC contacted 19 Sept 2014 (was promised at least one paper from the
committee)
San Diego Aerospace History Session - 2
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
San Diego has a history of aviation going back to the 1880s, was the birthplace of Naval
Aviation (and most of Army Aviation), a center of aviation manufacturing since the 1920s, and
the origination of Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St Louis.” It also has one of the largest
concentrations of aviation museums and research centers in the United States.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Alan Renga - San Diego Air and Space Museum
Paper 2 – Gary Fogel – John J. Montgomery
Paper 3 – Gary Fogel - Torrey Pines and the History of Gliding in San Diego
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Aerospace Archives - 3
Session Chair: Cam Martin, (phone: 661-276-3448, e-mail: cam.martin@nasa.gov) NASADryden Flight Research Center’s Director of External Affairs and Government Relations
Many of the West Coast organizations (Boeing, museums, etc) have vast holdings, but have not
been able to make East Coast conferences. This is a great opportunity to recruit these groups to
present papers on the archiving of aviation/space history, to tell about their current holdings, and
about their approach to gathering and preserving this history.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
History of Organizations and Institutions - 4
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
This is where the history of Companies, Schools, Government Agencies, and other organizations
and institutions can be presented. Across all of these organizations, they are hitting major
milestone anniversaries, and this is their opportunity to present those histories (even recent
companies such as Space X and Bigelow Aerospace).). There are a series of papers that have
been presented on the history of aerospace programs at educational institutions and these papers
have been edited into an AIAA publication. Each year we get one or two additional papers as
the staff update their histories, or as new programs come online.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
Centennial Events - 5
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
Every year we reach another centennial aviation milestone somewhere. Some of the major ones
we are approaching at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 are the Centennial of the NACA
(NASA), Centennial of the National Park Service (the Dayton Aviation Heritage National
Historical Park has a published Centennial Strategy), Centennial of Philippine Aviation, Boeing,
the progenitor of the modern U.S. aerospace and defense industry will mark its centennial in
2016, Aviation Week celebrates its centennial in 2016, the Coast Guard centennial of flight is in
2016, and many military aviation centennials related to the outbreak of World War I.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
Regional Histories - 6
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
As Tip O’Neal noted for politics, all politics are local. I believe the same is largely true for
history. Every small community across the United States has a local history association. The
same is true on every level above (county, state, and national). Furthermore, each country has an
aerospace history to be told (we have 21 country aviation histories published by the AIAA
[https://www.aiaa.org/Secondary.aspx?id=2910], there are 196 countries in the world today).
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
General Aviation History - 7
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
This session has traditionally been the catch-all for the aviation related papers that do not fit in
any of the other History Session categories. If there are not many general aviation or space
related papers, they may be merged into a single catch-all session called “General Aerospace
History.”
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
General Space History - 8
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
This session has traditionally been the catch-all for the space related papers that do not fit in any
of the other History Session categories. If there are not many general aviation or space related
papers, they may be merged into a single catch-all session called “General Aerospace History.”
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –
History of Aerospace Communications - 9
Session Chair: Name and Contact
Position
At the 2014 Space Conference, the AIAA Communications Systems Technical Committee
(CMSTC) expressed an interest in co-sponsoring a session on this topic with the History TC and
offered to help recruit papers for it. Furthermore, San Diego is a major center of airborne and
space-based communications with ViaSat, Qualcomm, L-3 Communications, Northrop
Grumman Information Systems Communications Division, and Cubic Corporation all based in
the area. Furthermore, Southern California is a center of CubeSat technology. A session cochair will be recruited from the CMSTC.
Possible Proposed Abstract Titles
Paper 1 – Author and title, or organization contacted to submit an abstract.
Paper 2 –
Paper 3 –
Paper 4 –
Paper 5 –