Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review, July 7 2017

GAVEA hosts annual investor, ally meeting
by Diane Betzler
staff writer
The Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alli- ance held its annual Investor and Ally Meeting June 8 at the Mariah Country Inn in Mojave, Calif.
Kimberly Maevers, president of the organiza- tion more commonly known as GAVEA, hosted the event and welcomed those attending.
Founded some 19 years ago, the organization is a regional economic developer and represents an area of more than 3,000 square miles here in California’s Mojave Desert.
Maevers says GAVEA is responsible for at- tracting, expanding and retaining businesses within 3,000 square miles.
“To do that we work with local businesses to help keep them here,” Maevers said. She said GAVEA does that by giving local companies and employers tools they need to grow and expand.
We cover the business community from Acton to Ridgecrest, from the I-5 to the San Bernardino County line,” Maevers said. She said business executives can become investors for as little as $1,000 per year. Being an investor gives access to all GAVEA’s reports and a discount for attending quarterly events.
Maevers, along with other professional lead- ers, consider Mojave the Antelope Valley’s epicenter of technology and points out it’s the home of some of America’s top notch technology companies that include NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, the Mojave Air and Space Port, the National Test Pilot School, the Spaceship Company, the Golden Queen Mining Company and Edwards Air Force Base, to name just a few.
Edwards is considered to be the number one economic engine here in the High Desert.
According to Dr. David G. Smith, senior instal- lation support director for the 412th Test Wing, the base is a $3 billion a year enterprise and a
participator in GAVEA. Like Maevers, Smith says the Antelope Valley is a great place to have a business. “We have great community partners here,” he said.
As a highlight of the luncheon meeting, Mae- vers introduced a panel of four High Desert business executives who shared why they be- lieve Mojave is an ideal place to bring business companies.
Bill Deaver, a public and government relations consultant addressed home builders and said the High Desert desperately needs houses and day care because of the rate of company growth in the region.
Deaver informed the audience that the technol- ogy companies started locating here in the 1930s and said today the Mojave area is home to 19 rocket test sites. “More rocket engine tests are occurring here than any place on the planet,” he said, adding that the Antelope Valley is home to a variety of high tech industries as well as manu- facturing, industrial and small businesses.
He said Mojave is business friendly, offers lower operation costs and is the future of aero- space for the next generation. “We work with schools and promote STEM,” he said.
Dr. Allen Petersen, president and CEO of the National Test Pilot School reached out to folks in the technical fields saying the Antelope Valley wants you and talked about the many opportuni- ties at the school for technical personnel.
“We have a variety of aircraft and simulators and students from 30 countries,” he said, add- ing that the school employs highly experienced instructors.
“We’re not a flight school,” Petersen points out. “We don’t teach students how to fly, our stu- dents come to us experienced,” he said.
The National Test Pilot School also offers a flight test camp for young students.
Dale Tutt, vice president of Engineering for The Spaceship Company, said his company is al-
Photograph by Diane Betzler
Panelists at the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance Investor and Ally Annual Event give guests their reasons for locating their business to Mojave, Calif. From left: Bill Deaver, Mojave Air and Space Port; Dr. Allen Petersen, National Test Pilot School; Dale Tutt the Spaceship Company and Robert C. Walish, Golden Queen Mining Company.
Test team looks at new parachute for ACES II ejection seat
by Kenji Thuloweit
Edwards AFB, Calif.
Members of the 418th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., are testing a new parachute canopy for the Advanced Concept Ejection Seat II, or ACES II.
Testers are collecting data on the GR7000 parachute, which has been proposed to replace the current C-9 canopy used in the ACES II ejection seat. The testing is part of the Air Force’s ACES II Safety and Sustainability Improvement Program.
The ACES II ejection seat system has been used for almost 40 years and brought standardization to Air Force ejection seats with it being used in the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22, B-1 and B-2. The stan- dardization reduced cost and training time as maintainers and pilots
GR7000 parachute along with dummy descends over a drop zone near Edwards Air Force Base, Caif. A team from the 418th Flight Test Squadron conducted several drops using the parachute, which has been proposed as a replacement for the current C-9 canopy used in the ACES II ejection seat.
only have to train on generally one type of ejection seat.
“The overall test objective is to demonstrate the strength of the GR7000 parachute at worst-case ejection (situations), high-altitude Mode 1 deployment and evaluate the steady-state descent charac- teristics of the GR7000 parachute,” said Alice White, 418th FLTS
ACES II SSIP project manager.
White said since the initial fielding of ACES II in 1978, the U.S.
Air Force has made two significant changes affecting ejection seat safety. The changes were unforeseen when ACES II was initially developed. The first change was expanding the allowable aircrew weight range — originally 140-to-211 pounds — to 103-to-245 pounds.
“Another significant change affecting the safety of the ACES II was the introduction of helmet-mounted devices, particularly the
nuclear flash blindness goggles used by B-2A Spirit aircrew. The combination of larger allowable aircrew anthropometric range, and the added head-born weight of the helmet-mounted devices, increased the risk of having an unsafe ejection,” said Daniel Bush, 418th FLTS ACES II SSIP project flight test engineer.
The GR7000 parachute is designed to handle the greater weight ranges for pilots and to provide a slower rate of descent and oscil- lation, according to the manufacturer.
In the past several weeks, testing of the GR7000 parachute con- sisted of 10 dummy drops, 20 live-person jumps and five drops using a crosswind deployment cylindrical test vehicle, which looks similar to an inert bomb.
“Key performance values for this test are airspeed, altitude, rate of descent and canopy structural integrity. Riser loads and accel- eration data also will be collected and analyzed,” said Dean Van Oosterhout, 418th FLTS ACES II SSIP project engineer.
For test purposes, the 418th FLTS contracted a Skyvan from Skydive Perris, out of Perris, California. Skyvans have been previ- ously used for live jumps, dummy drops and airdrops. The plane has an anchor cable with a winch on the right side of the aircraft cargo hold and bench seats for parachutists and passengers running down both sides. According to the 418th FLTS ACES II SSIP project pilot, Maj. Duncan Reed, the Skyvan is able to meet test requirements to climb and level off between 16,000 and 17,000 feet median sea level and trim to between 90 and 100 knots-indicated airspeed, which is required for the cylindrical test vehicle drops.
The ACES II Safety and Sustainment Improvement Program has been on-going for many years, according to White. She said in the past year, a critical design review was held that culminated in the final seat design and a qualification effort ensued.
“Approximately 80 percent of the qualification testing has been completed to date.”
Van Oosterhout said this particular testing of the GR7000 was for the B-2 version of the ACES II ejection seat, but data could be ap- plied for all ACES II ejection seats currently using the C-9 canopy.
ways interested in talented people. “There’s cool stuff going on at The Spaceship Company,” he said. Tutt said the amount of technology here in the Antelope Valley is amazing.
Panelist Robert C. Walish, president and chief executive officer for the Golden Queen Mining Company, shared some of the opportunities avail- able at his company and said the Golden Queen offers a wide range of skilled jobs.
Walish said his mining company is producing
gold and silver at the Soledad Mountain proj- ect located just outside the town of Mojave and the company is looking for reliable people with good work ethics to help his company to grow.
He said the company’s goal is to reach 50,000 ounces of the agglomerated ore a year.
Business leaders interested in becoming in- vestors in GAVEA can visit www.SoCalLead- ingEdge.org or contact GAVEA President Kim- berly Maevers at 661-722-6566.
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Air Force photograph by Brad White
Aerotech News and Review
July 7, 2017
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