It is my privilege to introduce the 2011 inductees to the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame.

We start with a gentleman whose vision, leadership and dedication provided the Commonwealth of Virginia a world class aviation facility in the form of Norfolk International Airport. Kenneth R. Scott’s career with the Norfolk Airport Authority began in 1970 as a project engineer and continued for 39 years, 37 of which serving as the Executive Director of the Authority. During his tenure Ken oversaw major improvements that included the opening of the departure terminal in 1971 and dedication of the new arrivals terminal in 2002. Further improvements to the Norfolk Airport including new general aviation, air cargo, airfield maintenance and airport rescue and fire fighting facilities plus the current FAA air traffic control tower were completed under Ken’s watch. Ken was instrumental in forming the Virginia Airport Operators Council and has been an avid supporter of Virginia’s aviation community. Ken has been known for his willingness to provide help, support and advice to any Virginia airport operator when requested and offer his experience and expertise beyond the Commonwealth as the Official Representative to Airports Council International – North America.

The next two gentlemen to be introduced are unique in that their individual contributions to aeronautic and space research and development at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia would be considered exceptional. When they combined as a team on NASA’s B-737 Transport Systems Research Vehicle program they proved that benefits far beyond a simple sum of the parts can be achieved.

Kenneth R. (Dick) Yenni’s career at Langley began in 1963 and his early research and test pilot work centered on rotor wing handling and stability qualities of rigid rotor and heavy lift helicopters and development of variable stability systems on NASA’s CH-47.

Dick was one of 3 pilots flying lunar landing simulations at the Lunar Landing Research Facility. At the LLRF he demonstrated the feasibility of stand up lunar landings leading to steeper descent profiles with attendant fuel savings. He further demonstrated the precise control required to land on the cratered moon surface. Dick was the primary research subject in experiments on weightlessness proving humans could work in space and participated in experiments in docking simulation studies in Langley’s docking and rendezvous simulator.

Lee H. Person, Jr. joined the Langley Research Center in 1962 and during that time his work included both aeronautics and space research. As project pilot in the Vectoring in Forward Flight Program he did pioneering work in the use of inflight thrust vectoring in close air combat using the P-1127 Harrier prototype and Hawker Harrier aircraft. Lee was recognized as an international authority on in-flight thrust vectoring systems and his work was directly responsible for thrust vectoring systems modifications to RAF and USMC Harriers.

Lee’s space research coincided with the United States moon landing program. He tested numerous one man lunar flying devices and worked on orbital missions and space station rendezvous simulations. Chief among his space research tasks was Gemini – LEM docking simulations, flying lunar landing simulations and participation in the development of the Rendezvous and Docking Simulator at Langley.

In 1986 a joint NASA – FAA – Industry Wind-shear Program was formed to characterize windshear on the basis of standardizing hazard level to aircraft, develop accurate, forward looking windshear detection and developing flight management concepts and systems to provide pilot information enabling them to effectively respond to windshear threats. In the 10 years leading up to the program there were three accidents with over 500 fatalities on air carrier aircraft attributed to windshear.

With Yenni as safety and research pilot and Person as chief test pilot NASA’s B-737 TCV spent six years on this research often times requiring they to fly into windshear/micro-burst conditions to calibrate it’s effects. Yenni’s and Person’s work led directly to the hardware and techniques used by transport and general aviation pilots to this day in avoiding the hazardous and all too often fatal encounters with windshear. In the 25 years since the inception of the Windshear Program in 1986 there has been only one fatal air-carrier windshear accident in the US. I think the results speak volumes.

Please join the VAHS in honoring the three newest members of the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame at our reception and dinner to be held on November 12, 2011 at the Virginia Aviation Museum.

Tom Woodburn
VAHS Chairman