Apr 4, 2019   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Vertical Flight Society Announces 2019 Lichten Award Winners

FAIRFAX, Va., April 04, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Vertical Flight Society today announced the winners of its prestigious Robert L. Lichten technical award. The overall winner will be recognized at the Grand Awards Banquet on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, during the Society's 75th Annual Forum & Technology Display in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Mr. Benjamin León of Georgia Institute of Technology was selected as the overall Lichten Winner. His winning paper, "Ground and Flight Tests of a Cable-Driven Four-Bar Linkage Robotic Landing Gear for Rotorcraft," will be presented at Forum 75 on Thurs. morning, May 16, during the Advanced Vertical Flight III session. Mr. León was also the winner of the VFS Southern US Region Lichten Competition.

Mr. Farid Saemi from Texas A&M University was selected as the Lichten Runner-up for his paper, "Semi-Empirical Modeling of Group 1 UAS Electric Powertrains." His paper will be presented during the Propulsion II technical session on Wed. May 15 and Farid will receive a runner-up certificate. He was the VFS Southwest US Region Lichten winner.

The other regional winners, who were finalists for the international competition, were as follows: 

    --  Ms. Emily Fisler of University of Maryland, was the winner of the
        Southeast US Region with her paper, "Fundamental Characterization of
        Lithium Sulfur Batteries for eVTOL Aircraft." Her paper will be
        presented during the Propulsion II session on Wed., May 15.
    --  Ms. Brenda Natalia Perez Perez of Science and Technology Corporation,
        NASA Ames Research Center, was the Western US Region winner for her
        paper, "Forward Flight Rotor Performance at Martian Atmospheric
        Densities."
    --  Mr. Patrick Reilly of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin
        Company, was the Northeast US Region winner for his paper, "Automated
        Helicopter Main Rotor Track and Balance." The Robert L. Lichten Award
        was established in 1976 to encourage VFS 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 VFS meetings. Each of
        the ten regions around the world is eligible to select a regional winner
        to enter into the international competition, from which an overall
        winner and runner up are selected. The overall Lichten Award Winner is
        invited to present his/her technical paper at the Forum and receives
        complimentary travel to and lodging at the Forum, as well as a $500
        honorarium, sponsored by Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. The runner-up is
        also invited to present at the Forum and receives a certificate and
        complimentary Forum registration.

The Lichten Award honors the memory of Robert L. Lichten, an outstanding rotary wing engineer and 22nd President of the Vertical Flight Society. Lichten was a skilled and dedicated innovator who spent much of his career championing early tiltwing and tiltrotor concepts. He was considered the "Pioneer of Tilt Rotor Technology" for his work at Bell Helicopter, where he became the director of advanced technology.

More information about VFS's 75th Annual Forum & Technology Display is available at http://www.vtol.org/forum.

Founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943, the Vertical Flight Society is the global non-profit society for engineers, scientists and others working on vertical flight technology. For 75 years, the Society has led technical, safety, advocacy and other important initiatives, and has been the primary forum for interchange of information on vertical flight technology.

The Vertical Flight Society
2701 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 210
Fairfax, VA 22031 USA
phone: 1-703-684-6777
fax: 1-703-739-9279
web site: http://www.vtol.org

SOURCE Vertical Flight Society