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The Joe Sutter Black Tie Dinner Lecture Series
We have been very fortunate in being able to attract speakers that our guests really want to hear because of their prominent leadership and contribution to aerospace accomplishments. Our Black Tie Dinner Lectures have been given by Alan Mulally, former CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Joe Sutter, "Father of the 747", and Sir Ralph Robins, former CEO of Rolls-Royce. For 2010 RAeS Seattle Galla speaker Dr. Mark J. Lewis lectured on "Taking the Hype out of Hypersonics: The Future of Practical High Speed Flight".
The Quest for the First (Operational) Supersonic V/STOL Fighter: A Look Back at 60 Years of VSTOL Flight Research ..covered over six decades of research and no less than 45 distinct research aircraft that were developed and flight tested, all in a pioneering effort to advance the science of Vertical and Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) flight. Each held the promise of leading to the first truly operational V/STOL design. Sadly, only a handful experienced success, and even then to a limited degree with only three having seen operational service. A wide variety of unconventional propulsion systems powered these vehicles, and included such innovative concepts as the tailsitter, tilt-wing, tilt-rotor, fan-in-wing, deflected slipstream, tilt-jet, ejector-augmenter, and tip-jet. In all, 15 different propulsion system concepts were developed and demonstrated in flight. Of these, three propulsion system concepts emerged as having the potential to power a supersonic V/STOL fighter aircraft: 1) Vectored Thrust, 2) Lift + Lift/Crusie, and 3) Lift-Fan. The "Vectored Thrust" concept ultimately led to the Harrier, the world's first operational subsonic V/STOL fighter. The "Lift+Lift/Crusie" concept led to the only other successful subsonic VSTOL fighter aircraft, the Russian Yak-38. The "Lift-Fan" concept led to the yet-to-be-fulfilled promise of the Lockheed F-35B, the world's first operational supersonic V/STOL fighter. Through video, pictures, stories and the personal recollections of a test pilot who participated extensively in V/STOL flight research, the presentation took an informative and entertaining look back at six decades of V/STOL flight research. Dennis O'Donoghue is an experimental test pilot who has logged over 1,700 hours in all models of the Harrier, the world's first operational V/STOL tactical jet aircraft. As a Marine Corps test pilot, he conducted numerous flight tests on the AV-8B Harrier II, the most modern version of the famed Harrier series of aircraft. In 1992, he left the Marine Corps and joined NASA as a Research Test Pilot, where he engaged in extensive flight research projects involving the V/STOL Systems Research Aircraft, a highly modified Harrier jet, outfitted with a variable stability flight control system to explore advanced flight control concepts for future V/STOL fighter designs. In 1996, he came to Boeing and was the chief test pilot of the X-32B, a supersonic V/STOL design then in competition with Lockheed's X-35B. In 2001, he flew the first flight, first hover, first vertical landing, and first short takeoff of the X-32B program. The competition, which has become known as "the battle of the X-planes", has been featured on the PBS Documentary series "NOVA" and has been the subject of numerous articles and books. Mr. O'Donoghue is currently the Vice President of Boeing Test & Evaluation.
Galla Photographs:
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| © 2005-
2012
Royal Aeronautical Society, Seattle
Branch All rights reserved |
16 Jan 2012 |
The
RAeS Seattle Branch premier annual event is the Black Tie Dinner Lecture named
in honor of Joe Sutter and it takes place in the Museum of Flight's Great Gallery,
in or around the third week in November.