“Terry
Tomeny
was presented the prestigious
James H. Doolittle award for his work in
leading several flight test organizations over the years, most recently the
successful Federal Aviation Administration certification of the
Eclipse 500
very light jet.
The Doolittle Award is presented each year in recognition of outstanding
technical management or engineering achievement in aerospace technology by a
member of the society.
Tomeny was director of the C-17 Combined Test Force at Edwards during the
aircraft's development and later served as commander of the 412th Operations
Group there. He was the mission/avionics flight test manager on the F-22
program and most recently served as director of engineering for the Eclipse
500 very light jet certification.
The Eclipse program, entering a new category of private jet aircraft, won the
2005 Collier Trophy for leadership, innovation and advancement of general
aviation.
According to the award citation, Tomeny's "vast flight test experience at
every level, with progressively increasing responsibility, prepared him to
take on the ultimate flight test management leadership challenge: the assembly
of a flight test team and the development and implementation of flight test
processes leading to the certification - against all odds - of a
revolutionary, all-new (very light jet) aircraft."
Under Tomeny's leadership, the program went from one prototype aircraft with
just over 13 flight hours to four test aircraft with 1,800 flight hours in 18
months.
"Terry successfully changed the chemistry and attitude of the flight test
organization from a very conservative, risk avoidance approach to an
organization with a 'can-do' attitude that assesses and manages acceptable
risk," the citation read.
The 2006
Iven C. Kincheloe Award was presented to Norm Howell
for his work in leading the effort to recover a
heavily damaged C-17 from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
The Kincheloe award is named in memory of a pioneering Air Force test pilot
who died in an F-104 crash at Edwards in 1958. It is a prestigious honor for a
test pilot acknowledged for outstanding contributions to developmental flight
test for a specific project.
The damaged C-17 was temporarily repaired in Afghanistan by Air Force and
Boeing personnel. Because the temporary repairs resulted in numerous
limitations to the aircraft's performance, the recovery flights to bring the
aircraft stateside qualified as test flights.
A Boeing aircrew, led by Howell, flew the damaged C-17 from Afghanistan to the
production facility in Long Beach over the course of five days. The recovery
flight included stops in Qatar, Sicily, the Azores and Charleston, S.C.
"A combination of technical know-how and inventiveness on the part of the
maintenance team, rapid and sound engineering judgment on the part of the
various discipline engineers and aircrew experience, skill and rigorous risk
management before and during the flights ensured a safe and incident-free
recovery mission," the award citation read.
Howell also was mission commander for the first two drop tests of an inert
rocket test article as part of a program to develop a
space-launch vehicle
deployed from a C-17.
The test flights, from Edwards, were 100% successful and the first flight was
nominated by Air Force Materiel Command for the most meritorious flight of the
year.”
