AIAA Recognizes Aurora Employees

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) recently recognized two Aurora Flight Sciences employees for their accomplishments in the aerospace profession.

Kai Harth was selected as the 2012 recipient of the AIAA National Capital Section Engineer of the Year Award. Kai was recognized for “visionary development of fault tolerant flight control systems for unmanned air vehicles, including development and flight test of Aurora’s Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft, Aurora’s Orion Autonomous Aircraft, the Barracuda UCAV, and the X-31.”

Dr. John Langford, Aurora’s founder and CEO, was honored as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His citation, read by former NASA Administrator and incoming AIAA President Michael Griffin, recognized John for “entrepreneurial leadership in the development of high performance robotic aircraft and the companies that build them.”

“Being named a Fellow of AIAA is among the highest honors that can be bestowed upon an aerospace professional, and represents recognition from colleagues and peers for great contributions to our field and technical community,” AIAA President Dr. Brian Dailey stated.

AIAA is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. With more than 35,000 individual members worldwide, and 90 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org.

Gary Mortimer

Founder and Editor of sUAS News | Gary Mortimer has been a commercial balloon pilot for 25 years and also flies full-size helicopters. Prior to that, he made tea and coffee in air traffic control towers across the UK as a member of the Royal Air Force.