AHS International depends on the efforts of its 6,500 members to help it grow and advance the state of the art of vertical flight technology. Below are some near-term opportunities for you to get involved and help steer the future direction of our Society!

Seeking Volunteers for the ‘Next Decadal Challenge’ Committee
As you know, after 33 years the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter (HPH) competition was won by the AeroVelo team with their Atlas aircraft. This inspirational challenge generated excitement, innovation and frustration for over three decades, and was even thought by some to be impossible to achieve.

As the Technical Director of the Society, I have launched an Ad Hoc ‘Decadal Challenge’ committee to develop and establish a new vertical flight challenge, worthy of being called a follow-on to the HPH. We seek a challenge that, like the HPH, is simple to define yet perhaps impossible to achieve today. This challenge may be human powered, again, or perhaps not.

I invite all AHS members to consider participating as one of a small group that will debate, decide, define and implement this exciting new AHS undertaking in the next few months.

This is also a chance to support the Society at the international level. I have found it very rewarding and I am confident you will as well.

If you are interested, please contact me soon at daniel.i.newman@boeing.com, or contact our Deputy Director, Kay Brackins, at AHS headquarters at kbrackins@vtol.org.

Seeking Volunteers for the ‘AHS Generations’ Steering Committee
AHS International has begun an undertaking to document the development and progress over the past century of technologies important to vertical flight. Our goal is to identify the major innovations, and characterize the associated improvements made possible in metrics important to our customers. This will allow us to identify the technologies that have enabled ‘generational’ shifts in the capabilities, such as turbine engines or crashworthy fuel cells. (This can be considered the vertical flight parallel to characterizing the F-35 Lightning II as a ‘Fifth Generation Fighter’.)

AHS International is pursuing this initiative through our Technical Committees, and some have already provided very interesting initial summaries of the technologies relevant to their discipline. As the Technical Director of the Society, I have launched an Ad Hoc ‘Generations’ committee to solicit, collect, integrate and iterate the TC products.

I invite all AHS members to consider participating in this effort, whether serving on the Generations Committee, or supporting technology collection and characterization at the TC level.

I am very excited about this effort, and I believe it will provide valuable products for our Society and for our industry. If you are interested, please contact me soon atdaniel.i.newman@boeing.com, or contact our Deputy Director Kay Brackins at AHS headquarters at kbrackins@vtol.org.

Seeking Volunteers for Online ‘Fact Files’
As AHS International strives in its mission of being “the global resource for information on vertical flight technology,” we want to expand our online resources. We have initiated a “Who’s Who” of rotorcraft development (www.vtol-bios.org) and are now working on a Fact File of information on every rotorcraft, as well as profiles on company, countries, etc. Most of this data is readily available, but help is needed in collating and consolidating it into useable formats for the online database.

If you have at least moderate computer skills, a passion for researching and organizing data, and the willingness to help out, please contact the AHS Executive Director Mike Hirschberg at director@vtol.org.

Join an AHS Technical Committee! 
Ever Heard of win-win-win? Participating in an AHS International Technical Committee in your discipline provides a win for you, your employer and the Society!

You can get exposure across the industry, providing direct access to the most knowledgeable and renowned experts in the world. Your employer can have representation in the organizations that advance the technology and influence policy. And the Society benefits from your experience, enthusiasm, intellect and innovation.

If you are interested in joining an AHS Technical Committee or want more information, visit www.vtol.org/tech-committees. (Note that not all committees can take more volunteers.) After you log in at the top of the page, you should be able to click on the committee you are interested and you will see the committee roster. Contact the Committee Chair to express your interest or ask any questions.

We need your support!

Sincerely,
Dan Newman
Technical Director
AHS International