The National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) Combat Survivability
Awards for Leadership and Technical Achievement were presented to James M. Sinnett
and Alan R. Wiechman, respectively, at the recent Aircraft Survivability 2001
Symposium, at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, Calif. These
awards, presented annually by NDIA’s Combat Survivability Division, recognize
individuals or teams demonstrating superior performance across the entire spectrum
of survivability, including susceptibility reduction, vulnerability reduction,
and related modeling and simulation.
The NDIA Leadership Award for Combat Survivability is presented to a person
who has made major contributions to enhancing combat survivability. The individual
selected must have demonstrated outstanding leadership in enhancing the overall
discipline of combat survivability, or played a significant role in a major
aspect of survivability design, program management, research and development,
modeling and simulation, test and evaluation, education, or the development
of standards. The emphasis of this award is on demonstrated superior leadership
of a continuing nature.
James M. Sinnett, retired vice president of Phantom Works Strategic Development,
now part of the Boeing Company in St. Louis, was the 2001 Leadership Award recipient.
Sinnett was cited for his contributions to the enhancement of aircraft survivability
through leading the development of next-generation survivability technologies
within the Boeing Company and throughout the military aircraft industry as a
whole.
At Phantom Works, Sinnett directed large research and development projects
for which there was, at the outset, little assurance of a positive return. These
included far-reaching classified technology demonstrations, the successful completion
of which elevated the Boeing team to a position of leadership in the industry.
Under Sinnett’s leadership, Boeing Phantom Works attained a position of
prominence in low-observables (LO) technology. According to the award citation,
the talented core group he nurtured continues to ensure that the United States
maintains its significant lead in aircraft combat survivability technologies
and is acknowledged as an invaluable defense resource.
The NDIA Technical Achievement Award for Combat Survivability is presented
to a person or team who has made a significant technical contribution to any
aspect of survivability. It can be presented for a specific act or contribution
or for exceptional technical performance over a prolonged period. Individuals
at any level of experience are eligible for this award.
Alan R. Wiechman, director of signature design and applications for the Boeing
Company Phantom Works, was the 2001 Technical Achievement Award recipient. Wiechman
was recognized as a pioneer in LO aircraft design, “a giant whose work
to date has given the United States a legacy of improved survivability and influenced
an entire generation of combat vehicles.” His career in LO design began
at the Lockheed Skunk Works where he worked on a number of classified programs,
including Have Blue, the F-117 and Sea Shadow. He was a principal figure in
introducing a powerful new survivability tool—signature reduction. Because
of Wiechman’s work, the United States gained a 15-year lead over potential
adversaries that it has not relinquished, and the effectiveness of his designs
and products has been thoroughly proven in combat operations, according to the
award citation.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Unlike the annual Leadership and Technical Achievement Awards, the National
Defense Industrial Association’s Combat Survivability Award for Lifetime
Achievement is presented only when merited by the lifetime contributions of
a noteworthy individual to the long-term enhancement of aircraft survivability
and national security. Such a worthy individual was recognized at the 2001 Aircraft
Survivability Symposium. The Combat Survivability Lifetime Achievement Award
was presented to Robert E. Ball, professor emeritus of the Naval Postgraduate
School, in Monterey, Calif.
Over many years, Ball has been an important force working to establish survivability
as an aircraft design discipline. Recognizing that survivability considerations
should be given more attention during the system design process, he saw that
formal education could play a beneficial role and provide engineers with the
tools needed to design more survivable aircraft. As a consequence, he developed
and gained approval for the first-ever college-level course on aircraft survivability,
which was incorporated into the regular aeronautical engineering curriculum
at NPS in 1977.
By the time of his retirement from NPS, some 4,000 individuals from government
and industry had taken his courses. In the mid-1980s, Ball authored the first
textbook of its kind on overall aircraft survivability. This book, “The
Fundamentals of Aircraft Combat Survivability Analysis and Design,” published
by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is widely
recognized as a major factor in establishing combat survivability as a key design
discipline among military aircraft engineering professionals.
Ball’s important role in establishing and promoting acceptance of survivability
as an aircraft-design discipline has been a great benefit to the Defense Department,
and to the aircrews flying more survivable aircraft because of his work, according
to the award citation.