Category: Uncategorized

Board Members

Board Members:

President – Ming Lau, president@vfshrc.onmicrosoft.com

Vice President – Mat Thomas, vp@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Treasurer – Susan Gorton, treasurer@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Secretary – Dr. Robert Haynes, secretary@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Education Chair – Dr. James Stephenson, education@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Industry Representative – Trevor Archinal, industry@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Membership Chair – Dan Wolfe, membership@hrc.onmicrosoft.com

Member-at-Large – Tommy Bernal

Member-at-Large – David Meyer

Member-at-Large – Aaron Trinh

Upcoming Chapter Events

2025 HRC Luncheons, Conference, and Socials

  • February 13: North Wind NN City Center facilities host luncheon visit (US Nationals ONLY)
  • April 10: Speaker, Mr. Ming Lau, President Hampton Roads Chapter
  • June 12: Speaker, Army – Dillon Snyder, Army VTOL Flight Testing
  • August 14: Speaker, Dr. Noah Schiller, NASA Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Overview
  • October 9: Seafood Feast
  • October 21-23: Vertical Lift Structures & Survivability Technical Conference
  • December 11: HRC Christmas Dinner/Social

2026 HRC Luncheons, Conference, and Socials

  • February 12: Vendor site hosted HRC luncheon
  • April 9: Speaker, Army Rotorcraft RDT&E Technology
  • June 11: Speaker, NASA/Army Vertical Lift Technology Brief
  • August 13: Speaker, Industry Vertical Lift RDT&E Highlight
  • October 15: Seafood Feast
  • Oct/Nov/Dec HELMOT (desire to return to October timeframe)
  • December: Christmas Dinner/Social

Vertical Lift Structures and Survivability Technical Meeting

This quadrennial conference will present technologies and programs relating to vertical flight structures, survivability and crash safety enabling increased capability for vertical flight systems. Experts from government, industry and academia will present results from current research, development, test and evaluation projects. Additional details will follow in the next 2 months and will also be posted to the VFS VTOL.ORG website.

2024 Scholarship Announcement

The Robert Powell Scholarship

The Robert Powell Scholarship was established to honor the long-time treasurer of the Hampton Roads Chapter whose stewardship of the chapter’s financial assets originally enabled the chapter’s STEM outreach program, including its scholarship fund. The 2024 Robert Powell scholarship has been awarded to Reagan Labert, the daughter of Carrie and Matthew Labert. Reagan attends a Virginia Beach Public School and is an exemplary scholar and leader. She has earned an excellent GPA while conducting research and competing in sports. Her documented perseverance has earned Reagan the Robert Powell Scholarship for 202. Reagan plans to pursue a degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.

 

The Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship

This Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship was established to honor Ed’s many years as a chapter board member in various positions from treasurer to education director. In his retirement, Ed continued to support the chapter through staffing multiple events, encouraged the public outreach of our chapter by maintaining our website, and was a huge and continued proponent of our STEM outreach program including the scholarship program. The 2024 Edward ‘Ed’ Austin scholarship has been awarded to Paul Morales, the son of Stephanie and Louis Morales. Paul attends a Portsmouth Public School and is a scholar pursuing a degree in Biology with the hopes of becoming a doctor.

 

VFS Scholarship Announcement

Summary

VFS-HRC has selected three phenomenal high school seniors for the Chapter Scholarship awards. Taylor Mowery, Alice Fang, and Kyle Ray were each chosen for their exemplary leadership, scholarship, and community service experiences. They are excellent representatives of the next generation of STEM scholars, and the VFS-HRC Chapter looks forward to tracking their future successes.

The Robert Powell Scholarship 

The Robert Powell Scholarship was established to honor the long-time treasurer of the Hampton Roads Chapter whose stewardship of the chapter’s financial assets originally enabled the chapter’s STEM outreach program, including its scholarship fund. The 2023 Robert Powell scholarship has been awarded to Taylor Mowery, the daughter of Melissa and Bryan Mowery. Taylor attends a Hampton Public School and is an exemplary scholar and leader. She has earned an excellent GPA while also continuing to volunteer and compete in multiple sports. Her documented perseverance has earned Taylor the Robert Powell Scholarship for 2023. Taylor plans to pursue a degree in Environmental Science.  

 

The Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship 

This Edward ‘Ed’ Austin Scholarship was established to honor Ed’s many years as a chapter board member in various positions from treasurer to education director. In his retirement, Ed continued to support the chapter through staffing multiple events, encouraged the public outreach of our chapter by maintaining our website, and was a huge and continued proponent of our STEM outreach program including the scholarship program. The 2023 Edward ‘Ed’ Austin scholarship has been awarded to Alice Fang, the daughter of Ming Fang and Le Zhang. Alice attends a York County Public School and is an exemplary scholar who’s achieved a truly impressive amount. Alice has multiple State and National awards for math, science, and music related fields. Alice intends to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering, where her impressive work ethic will pay off in spades. 

 The Christopher Gavora Scholarship 

The Christopher Gavora Scholarship was established to honor the son of COL William Gavora, former Commander of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate.  Chris was killed in a tragic high school baseball practice accident shortly after his family relocated from Hampton Roads to Texas.  The 2023 Christopher Gavora Scholarship has been awarded to Kyle Ray, a student in the York County Public School system.  Kyle, the son of Renee and Brian Ray, is a proven scholar and school leader. Kyle has both state and national awards for science, has exemplary grades and scored well on the SAT. Kyle plans to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering. 

Education Outreach – Sound and Vibration Class

Dr. James Stephenson, VFS Education Chair, engaged with a local elementary school during the last week of classes, teaching a lesson on Sound and Vibration. The students learned about vibration first using a 1-dimensional vibrating string, then they saw it using a 2-dimensional Chladni plate, and finally experienced it in 3 dimensions as sound in the room. This hands-on lesson instructs students on what a vibration is, how sound is a vibration we hear with our ears, instead of see with our eyes, and gets them to experience and create various sounds using instructional aids.

Penn State Rotary Wing Short Course

The 52nd Annual Pennylvania State University Comprehensive Short Course in Rotary Wing Technology will be held August 5 – 9, 2019, in State College, Pennsylvania.  It is a 5-day course covering aerodynamics, dynamics, stability and control, structures, acoustics, propulsion and drive trains of vertical flight vehicles. Many chapter members have attended over the years and have found the course to be excellent.

If you are interested in more information click here.

Luncheon meeting of AATD Retirees, Monday, May 6

Actually, any men or women who worked  for TECOM, USAAMRDL, AVLABS, ATL or AATD or even had close associations with these organizations (like NASA or industry) are welcome to attend.  The luncheons are held most first Mondays of the month, gathering around 11:15 a.m. at the Yorktown Pub, 540 Water Street, within sight of the Coleman Bridge.