ENGINEERING GROUP SALUTES INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS FROM BASE.

Byline: Daily News

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Two teams and five individuals from Edwards Air Force Base were honored at the San Fernando Valley Engineers Council's 50th Anniversary Honors and Awards Banquet.

With more than 720 people in attendance Feb. 26 for the awards, the council awarded the Distinguished Engineering Project Achievement Award for 2005 to the 27-member F/A-22 Combined Test Force Missile Shot Team and the 12-member U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School Transformation Team.

The F/A-22 team successfully met the challenge of safely completing the accelerated buildup of missile separations and guided missile shots to meet the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation schedule, the council said.

The test pilot school team was recognized for its recommendations for education and training requirements for test and evaluation, including establishing a Test and Evaluation Institute that would standardize test education and training across the Air Force.

The Transformation Team's recommendations were reported to an advisory board of Air Force general officers at Edwards in July 2004.

``Several of the team's resource recommendations are already being implemented to include updating the TPS control room to modern test program standards and identifying the most cost-effective lab and simulator solutions for flight test training,'' said Lt. Col. Jay Dunham, the school's Curriculum Standards director.

F/A-22 flight test engineer Capt. Kris Cowart received the 2005 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Merit Award for leading missions that expanded the F/A-22 combat envelope to 60,000 feet, 800 knots and Mach 2.

Distinguished Engineering Achievement Awards went to Bob Kennington, 412th Test Wing Engineering Directorate director; Dave Vanhoy, test pilot school master instructor; and Victor Martinez, Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System X-45A lead engineer.

``The awards banquet was a great event focused on honoring achievements of individual engineers and engineering teams,'' said Kennington, who has worked more than 30 years in the flight test community. ``Edwards was well represented in the list of award winners, and I was proud to see our engineers receive recognition for their awesome accomplishments.''

Martinez first came to Edwards as a second lieutenant, and after a military career, ended up retiring here. The Cuban native contributed to the fields of high-power microwave effects testing on aircraft and the emerging technologies of unmanned aerial vehicles, the council said.

Vanhoy was recognized for his commitment to flight-test engineering, safety and education, the council said. Additionally, Vanhoy contributed to test planning and safety chase support for the Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System.

Capt. George Mellen, F/A-22 flight commander for the 411th Flight Test Squadron, received the 2005 William B. Johnson International Inter-Professional Founders Memorial Award. The award is presented to individuals who embody Bill Johnson's commitment to leading and influencing the developing international engineering community.

An engineering graduate from Syracuse University, Air Force Institute of Technology and the test pilot school, Mellen was instrumental in opening the way to on-time initiation of operational F/A-22 testing.