AEHS Conventions

2010 Convention Attendees in front of the NASM Udvar-Hazy Center

Photo Courtesy of Brian Silcox (click for a larger image)

Report from the 7th Annual AEHS Convention
May 19 - 22, 2010
Chantilly, Virginia (May 19-22, 2010)

Your intrepid AEHS reporter enjoyed the 7th annual convention (I have attended all of them) and I have to say this was somewhat different from the previous gatherings. The theme this year was “more walking, less talking.” In other words, less time was spent at the hotel engaged in oral presentations, with more time on our feet at local Smithsonian facilities (Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles airport and the Garber restoration/storage facility in Suitland, Maryland). The collections of the U.S. National Air and Space Museum are truly first class with many original and unique items that are hard to find. Thus, for many of us “motorheads” living long distances from Virginia (as on the west coast), this was a well-justified sacrifice.

The turnout this year at 85 (defined as speakers, paid registered attendees plus spouses) was a record and up sharply from last year’s count of 62 (which was in the depths of an economic recession), including more international participation this year. The events kicked off with an evening gathering on May 19th, after we picked up our convention packets, with appetizers and drinks. Members did some catching up, having been a year for many since they talked about their favorite aero-engine subjects.

The next morning on the 20th, President McCutcheon launched the convention early (0800), with remarks on housekeeping/logistics and introductions all around the room. It struck me that so many attendees were mechanical engineers, and many had deep credentials regarding aero engines. In past conventions, our President restricted introductions to just new attendees, but this year all had an opportunity to talk (which was useful—gave me ideas on who to contact later on special topics of interest).

The first speaker on the program was Jeremy Kinney, an aeronautics curator with the National Air & Space Museum with a Ph.D in the history of technology, who presented “Shifting Gears in the Air: America and the Variable Pitch Propeller, 1918-1938.” The aero community had long sought a means to vary pitch because the preferred take-off configuration (mild pitch) was not good for cruising at speed (need big pitch for more “bite” of the air, and also to curtail “racing” of the engine). Jeremy took us through the evolution from ground-adjustable types to various mechanically variable types (adjusted in flight), culminating with automatic constant-speed (Curtiss electric and Hamilton Standard Hydromatic) props. The most advanced had full-feathering (to eliminate windmilling drag with a dead engine) and had reversible pitch. That feature could help park the aircraft by backing into spaces on the flight line, and presented a great source of drag for shorter landing distance for heavy bombers. It seems that all of the early variable-pitch efforts were failures and it took much time to sort out the bugs.

After the AM break, we moved on to the Sam Ferguson presentation entitled “The Bell XV-15 Tiltrotor Propulsion System.” NASA’s XV-15 was the forerunner to today’s production V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. Sam is a controls engineer for Bell Helicopter Textron, assigned to the civilian BA609 tiltrotor program. The talk began with a video overview of the precursor Bell XV-3 program, which sported a radial P&W R-985 engine. The XV-15, first flown in 1977 and demonstrated at the 1981 Paris air show, had a top speed 2X other rotary wing aircraft (301 KTAS at altitude) and range 2-3X other rotary wing aircraft. Using an off-the-shelf Lycoming turboshaft T-53 engine, the XV-15 had an amazingly long life (25-26 years of test flights), finally retiring in 2003 at the Udvar-Hazy museum with 1,110 flights and 1,296 hours. Technical details plus a lively Q&A session took us up to the lunch buffet.

During lunch, attendees were treated to a photo-essay presentation by Brian Silcox, a United Airlines Captain (B767) and prolific photographer of aircraft, especially from the WW II era. Brian’s theme that day was the Golden Age aircraft of the interwar years. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Stephen Udvar-Hazy Center. Attendees car-pooled from the hotel, and assembled for group photo(s) by Brian Silcox, before scattering for hours. I captured hundreds of digital photos that afternoon and a selection will be posted at the members-only section of the AEHS website. I started at the engine section and worked through the hall’s aircraft. Two of the notable air frames on display were the “Enola Gay” B-29 of WW II nuclear bombing fame, and an Air France Concorde supersonic airliner. The complete list of aircraft and engines on display there is found at http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/. Regarding indoor photography it was “déjà vu” all over again: same mistake as at the 4th convention in 2007 (National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, OH); my shots came out too dark. I had to re-shoot most (including all of the engines) in the “night mode” with flash and the shutter held open longer to capture more reflected light.

On Friday the 21st, attendees departed the hotel aboard chartered buses at 7 AM to explore the Paul Garber facility in Suitland, Maryland (arriving around 8 AM). This outpost of the NASM is not open to the public. Our group was to be the last to tour there for some time, as many items in the collection are getting ready to be shipped to Udvar-Hazy. We spent hours going through collections in various buildings I got plenty of photos. The official inventory of these collections is already posted on the AEHS website. One unusual engine really caught my eye: the cutaway of an experimental Continental XR-794S air-cooled sleeve-valve radial engine (picture provided in members section). As this NASM repository is not intended to accommodate the public, we had little or no access to restroom facilities, liquid refreshments (morning coffee, anyone?), and seating for the weary. So, we soldiered on until early afternoon, taking pictures and soaking it all in. I marveled at the rarely seen unrestored (original dirty condition) engines stacked 3-high to the ceiling and stacked 3-deep on steel racks. That was challenging for photography. It seems this was an aero motorhead’s candy store.

Upon departure from the Garber facility, we bused over to a local shopping center with various restaurants and the group split up for a late lunch. My group of several went for Chinese food. Returning to the hotel later in the afternoon, we rested up for the annual banquet at our Holiday Inn hotel, which commenced at 6 PM and wrapped up shortly after 9 PM. The featured dinner speaker was Dave Birch of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust in the UK. He covered the first 29 years of activities at the trust. Attendees of the last AEHS convention in Indianapolis became well-acquainted with the Trust’s Allison branch museum. On the evening of the banquet, besides learning about R-R Trust history, we were shown a movie on the Wright R-1820 and R-2600 engines (Cyclone 9 and Cyclone 14), circa 1940. A special treat was viewing the computer animation of a running Bentley V-8 car engine (with moving internals), a taste of things to come as R-RHT prepares a Griffon animation based on 3D scans of actual engine parts.

The final day of the convention (May 22) began with an early presentation on the Boulevard aero engine by Bouvard Hosticka, Research Scientist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. The largely unknown Boulevard make, started with a SOHC over-square I-4 155 in³ 20-25 hp engine in 1910 (same era as Rinek aero engines). Some internal parts were on display, such as a crankshaft “hogged out” of thick steel plate. Mechanic Charles Taylor used the same fabrication method for the crank in the first Wright Brothers engine that flew in December 1903. A larger and more refined 1911 Boulevard I-4 engine offered 30-35 hp. Mr. Hosticka then did a tutorial on concentric engine valves (which are supposed to offer better volumetric efficiency [breathing]), followed by a DVD clip of him driving his rare 1904 Franklin car, sporting an I-4 engine with concentric valves. One early use of concentric valves in aero engines, was the water-cooled Curtiss V-8 in the Silver Dart biplane built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), and first flown in December 1908 at Hammondsport, NY. My research on Curtiss engines (motorcycle and aviation) was published as an SAE technical paper (1994), and in the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society (Summer 1996).

Next up was the interesting presentation by AEHS member Paul Lagasse, freelance writer and student of the history of Westinghouse turbine aircraft engines. Based on an MS thesis written 15 years ago, Paul focused on the business and cultural aspects more than technical details (as he is not an engineer). The USN put Westinghouse, a producer of steam turbines, into the aero gas turbine business with contracts dating back to 1941. The earliest U.S. Navy jet fighters installed Westinghouse engines. The history unfolded from the earliest days of the company, through such turbojet engine programs as the J30, J32, J34, J40, and the last-throw J54, until its well-deserved exit as an aero engine producer in January 1961. Westinghouse aero gas turbine operations suffered for many years from underinvestment, understaffing, a time-consuming style of small incremental improvements (by contrast, P&W worked on many advances in parallel), plus indifferent management, among other maladies. As a practicing business & technology consultant for decades, I could relate to the Westinghouse case study: lessons learned on how not to run a viable business.

After the annual silent auction was conducted (all proceeds going to the AEHS), President Kim McCutcheon updated attendees on the state of the society. Attendance is climbing again. As of late 2009, membership hit 845, up 52 from late 2008. The website is very active with around 1,000 visits/day and 1.5 million page hits/month. To continue to attract new members, fresh content is needed from members and the society seeks additional webmasters. There was much discussion on how to attract younger members, and what was tried previously. All aviation history organizations appear to be graying and need younger members to carry on. Kim asked how Seattle would be received as the venue for the 2011 AEHS convention: vigorous applause followed. The Boeing Museum of Flight (which I visited before the famous Champlin fighter collection was acquired), among other attractions, await AEHS attendees in the Seattle area. I hope to see you there.

At board member Dan Whitney’s urging, attendees gave Kim McCutcheon a hearty round of applause for his ongoing efforts, and then we adjourned just before noon. Several members were to stay on for another week, to work on a local aero archiving project.