AEDC Commander announces 2016 Fellows Published May 20, 2016 By Raquel March AEDC/PA ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. -- Col. Rodney Todaro, Arnold Engineering Development Complex commander, recently announced four past and present personnel as AEDC Fellows, recognizing their accomplishments to the Complex. Tom Best and Dr. Rob McAmis will be inducted as AEDC Fellows, and Robert Lindeman and Claude Morse will be inducted as AEDC Lifetime Achievement Fellows. They will be recognized at the annual AEDC Fellows Banquet at the Arnold Lakeside Center on June 24, 2016. An AEDC Fellow is recognized for personally making sustained, notable and valuable contributions in aerospace ground testing at AEDC. Tom Best AEDC Fellow Best, an aerospace engineer, was selected as an AEDC Fellow due to his contributions toward captive trajectory technique and data delivery in testing, and project management for programs such as the space shuttle, the C-17 military transport aircraft, the Pershing Missile, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, Standard Missile, Peacekeeper, High-Altitude Supersonic Target missile, Global Positioning System Block II, Antisatellite Miniature Vehicle sensor, Strategic Defense Initiative Boost Phase discrimination, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-15 Strike Eagle and the Fixed Flow Ducted Rocket Development Program. His earlier work on the space shuttle led to the development of the orbiter aerodynamic database and the solid rocket booster separation database. By working with the customer and an AEDC contractor, he was able to develop a plan that added substantial automation and instrumentation in the C-17 model during tests in the Propulsion Wind Tunnel 16-foot transonic wind tunnel allowing the high speed aerodynamic database to be completed in one entry, which set a standing production record for the facility. Best, with a nationally recognized team of researchers, was also responsible for developing the Magnetohydrodynamic Accelerator Research into Advanced Hypersonics program, known as MARIAH II. The program brought about testing hypersonic propulsion systems at Mach 8 to 15. During his 39-year career at AEDC he became a leader and supervisor of engineering and technology advancements at the Complex to include, recruiting scientists and engineers as technology leaders and lending his expertise to organizations such as the National Aeronautics Research, Development, Test and Evaluation Infrastructure Plan. Best's involvement with NARDT&E led to an increase in funding for AEDC to maintain and modernize its current facilities and to build new facilities. His participation and sometimes leadership roles in other national and international aerospace organizations were also beneficial to AEDC. He was the technical project officer for Data Exchange Agreements on Wind Tunnels with Germany and the Netherlands. The role involved wind tunnel comparison studies between countries, joint studies of Reynolds number effects and sharing techniques for pressure sensitive paint ensuring technical collaboration. After Best retired in 2010, he joined the Arnold Community Council which is an organization of members who promote, protect and preserve the AEDC mission. Dr. Rob McAmis AEDC Fellow McAmis's 32-year AEDC career, in rocket and turbine engine testing, includes many contributions that led to his selection as a Fellow. As a mechanical engineer, he was instrumental in developing the Rocket Motor Dynamic Data Analysis Code, the Structural Ballistic Risk Assessment Methodology, the flight test thrust specific impulse (ISP) for liquid rockets and the protocols for high cycle fatigue (HCF) characterization and demonstration testing. The Dynamic Data Analysis code for rocket testing analyzes high response data to include vibration and accelerometer data. The code produces information such as time history, frequency tracking and power spectral density. In the 1990s, McAmis created the SBRAM which was used during Minuteman rocket tests to predict internal ballistic performance of flawless and flawed rockets. Later in the decade he became the co-test conductor for the testing of the Pratt & Whitney RL10B-2 rocket used in the upper stage engine of the Delta III and Delta IV missile systems. His management led to a successful test program which certified the RL10B-2 used on the Delta IV rocket with 46 successful launches without a failure. After he transferred to AEDC turbine engine technology in 2000 as chief engineer, McAmis developed the Aeropropulsion Technology Program which became a model for gathering test requirements and for program development. He also developed analytical tools and measurement systems to characterize HCF in military turbine engines. During his supervisory role in the turbine engines analysis section in 2006, he led a team in propelling AEDC to being the Responsible Test Organization for Uninstalled Turbine Engine Testing. McAmis was instrumental in preparing engineering graduates and recruits at the Complex for data analysis through a training program. The training would prepare the recruits for using the testing methods at AEDC. To continue the training path for engineers, he became a leader in creating the AEDC Ground Test University preparing additional engineers for conducting tests at AEDC by pairing them with mentors. McAmis serves as the director of the ATA Integrated Test and Evaluation Department. Robert Lindeman AEDC Lifetime Achievement Fellow Lindeman began his career with AEDC in 1975 as a senior controls engineer in the turbine engine and rocket test facilities. He is recognized as an AEDC Lifetime Achievement Fellow for his extensive leadership for multiple projects that sustain AEDC facilities and capabilities. One of his earliest contributions to the Complex was providing the first microprocessor development system in the Engine Test Facility. He later led a team of engineers, programmers and craft personnel in the design and implementation of an automated control system for the flexible nozzle in the Propulsion Wind Tunnel 16-foot transonic wind tunnel and an improved model attitude control system for the PWT 4-foot transonic wind tunnel Independent Drive System. During the 1990s, he provided leadership in the 7-foot and 10-foot Vacuum Space Chamber upgrade. The upgrade met research requirements for government organizations such as the Army, Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA. From 1996 to 2006, Lindeman managed the PWT Sustainment Program for 16T and the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel, and the ETF control upgrade. After the project was completed, the facilities had improved data acquisition and processing system hardware and software, improved test article and plant control systems, a new atmospheric air dryer, larger main drive motors, 16S flow quality improvements and automated operation. Lindeman led and managed other sustainment projects such as the Integrated Test Operations Initiative for multiple AEDC business areas; the Space Threat Assessment Tesbed program, the Improve Transonic Test Capability and Improve Transonic Plant Capability programs, and the 16T Cart 1 A project which provides additional captive trajectory system support in a new test cart. The CTS is used for store separation testing of bombs, missiles or fuel tanks from an aircraft. Lindeman is an ATA systems engineer and program manager in the Flight Systems Plant Assets Branch. Claude Morse AEDC Lifetime Achievement Fellow Morse is recognized for 30 years of support in marketing the capabilities of AEDC to the media, national and international industry and local community. He began his career at AEDC in 1972 as an Air Force captain in charge of the Complex public affairs and community relations activities and also oversaw the Arnold Research Organization Contractor Public Affairs office until 1975. During this time, he worked with local, regional and national news media to make AEDC more visible to the civilian and aerospace communities. He also served on the B-1 Bomber Public Affairs Working Group where he helped to develop strategies and news releases to inform the public about the new strategic bomber. Morse returned to the AEDC Public Affairs as a contractor manager in 1989 where he worked for three contractors until his retirement in 2009. In 1989, Morse helped in the establishment of the AEDC Fellow program. He served on the committee until his retirement. Morse developed a marketing display program to promote testing capabilities of the Complex. The display was used at approximately 28 aerospace trade shows and conferences for more than two decades. The displays were designed to appeal to government and industry program managers of military and civilian aerospace programs. To enhance the effectiveness of the display, Morse managed the production of technical news articles and releases that would be released coinciding with the dates of the trade shows. The technical releases would also be used in technical publications produced by public affairs such as Test Highlights, and in the first edition of the European research and development magazine Aerospace Testing International that was distributed at the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom in 2002. Morse also created a 35mm six-projector, computer-driven, slideshow presentation that was used to brief customers and civic groups about AEDC. He updated the presentation to video after he advocated for funding of a digital video editing system and production facility. The video system also allowed for the production of marketing videos about testing at the Complex. Additional contributions include the installation of the Video Teleconferencing facility; designing the Gossick Leadership Center; developing an Air Force Materiel Command award winning website for AEDC; reducing the cost of the base newspaper High Mach and increasing distribution to a twice monthly publication; coordinating three air shows; and producing the "Beyond the Speed of Sound" publication about the history of AEDC. After Morse retired, he became a member of the Arnold Community Council to continue his support of AEDC. David Duma, the principal deputy director of Operational Test and Evaluation Department of Defense, will be the speaker. Duma assumed his position in January 2002. Prior to returning to government service, he worked in private industry managing a variety of projects involving test and evaluation; requirements generation; command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; modeling and simulation; and software development. He was acting director, Operational Test and Evaluation from February 2005 to July 2007. Since the inception of the Fellow program, AEDC has bestowed the complex's highest honor to a total of 87 individuals.