The SFTE EC Jesualdo Martinez Award In Flight Testing has been created to commemorate our colleague and board member Jesualdo Martines Rodanes, who tragically deceased in the accident of A400M MSN 23, in Seville in May 2015.
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Society of Flight Test Engineers
The Society is a fraternity of engineers, whose principal professional interest is the flight testing of aircraft, with the purpose of advancing flight test engineering throughout the industry by providing technical and fraternal communication among individuals, both domestic and international, in the allied engineering fields of test operations, analysis, instrumentation and data systems.
Background
The Society of Flight Test Engineers started at the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle, Washington, in 1968. The individuals who founded the Society saw a need for improved communication in the field of flight test engineering and stated their thoughts extremely well in the SFTE Constitution.
The Society's about 1000 members are affiliated with aviation interests ranging from home-built airplanes to air transport and military aircraft.
Although for more than ten years mainly a U.S.A. organisation, the Society now consists of many more overseas members partly due to a shrinking U.S. industry and partly due to some growth in other countries.
This change has been reflected in both the individual and the corporate membership. While the number of individual and corporate members has decreased in the U.S., there has been again a corresponding increase in the members and companies from Europe and Asia. Members are also represented from around twenty different countries. This has been a reflection of the current trends within the industry, and we can expect to see more members and companies from outside of the U.S. in the future.
The international Headquarters moved into new offices in September 1991. This move out of the Society of Experimental Test Pilot's (SETP) building in Lancaster was needed due to growing storage and office area problems. The relationship with SETP began in 1968, and it continues to be a co-operative one with their collaboration on the Technical Notebook started by SFTE Technical Council. The International Headquarters is now housed in efficient-sized offices in nearby Palmdale, California.
Previous Presidents
| 1969 - 1970 | Bruce Inman |
| 1970 - 1971 | George Clarke |
| 1971 - 1972 | Bernard Stuber |
| 1972 - 1975 | Robert Johnstone |
| 1975 - 1978 | Charles Adolph |
| 1978 - 1980 | John Somsel |
| 1980 - 1982 | Gerald Jones |
| 1982 - 1984 | John Ligon |
| 1984 - 1986 | Ronald Hart |
| 1986 - 1988 | Roger Jones |
| 1988 - 1990 | James Upton |
| 1990 - 1992 | David Houle |
| 1992 - 1994 | Mark K. Miller |
| 1994 - 1998 | Allan T. Webb |
| 1998 - 2000 | James Sergeant |
| 2000 - 2002 | Joe Dagata |
| 2002 - 2004 | Franz-Josef Enzinger |
| 2004 - 2006 | John L. Minor |
| 2006 - | George Ka'iliwai |
Corporate Members
Corporations and companies whose business or interests are related to flight-testing are encouraged to be "Corporate members" in the Society; at present they are (European in bold type):
| Aermacchi S.p.A. Italy | Merlin Engineering Works, Inc. U.S.A. |
| Aeronautical Development Agency India | Metrum-Datatape U.S.A. |
| Alenia Aeronautica Italy | National Aerospace Laboratory NLR The Netherlands |
| Bombardier Flight Test Center Canada | National Test Pilot School U.S.A. |
| British Aerospace PLC U.K. | Northrop Grumman Corporation U.S.A. |
| Computer Sciences Corporation U.S.A. | Photo-Sonics International Ltd. U.K. |
| Data General Corporation U.S.A. | QinetiQ U.K. |
| Defence Materiel Administration Sweden | S.T. SPARTA, Inc. U.S.A. |
| EADS Airbus, GMBH Germany | Saab Scania AB Sweden |
| Embraer-Emprsea Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. | Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) U.S.A. |
| Endevco U.S.A. | The Boeing Company U.S.A. |
| Hughes Electronic Commerce U.S.A. | University of Kansas U.S.A. |
| Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. Israel. | University of Tennessee Space Institute U.S.A. |
Chapters
The Society is subdivided into ten local main groups named "Chapters", as follows:
Antelope Valley, Lancaster, California
Patuxent River, Patuxent River, Maryland
European
Seattle, Seattle, Washington
Long Island, Shoreham, New York
Southeastern, Marietta, Georgia
Los Angeles, Long Beach, California
St.Louis, St. Ann, Missouri
North Texas, Ft. Worth, Texas
Wichita, Wichita, Kansas.
Contrarily to what applies to most chapters the European members are distributed among many different
Countries.
Technical Council
The Technical Council (TC) was established in 1987 after it received the approval by the SFTE Board.
The concept was developed by George Gayes and the Long Island Chapter in 1984; working group meetings began in April 1986.
Gene Zehr was the first Chairman and the European Chapter joined the TC in 1989.
The charter to be fulfilled is:
- Promote society technical exchange activities
- Produce the SFTE technology notebook
- Provide leadership for SFTE member professional development
- Promote open discussion of technical issues
- Represent the society in co-ordination with other professional
institutions.
To perform the task the TC consists of a Chairman, a Steering Group, a Secretary and four sections, namely Publications and Technology Notebook - Workshop and Symposium (Techn. Exchange) - Telecommunications - Finance.
The TC originally met quarterly but for quite some time has been using video and telecon facilities for meetings. This has led to more frequent meetings and reduced travel costs.
The TC reports to the SFTE Board of Directors and presents a report at the business meeting preceding the Annual Symposium.
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