A meeting of the ADS TC was held at the US Army Soldier Biological & Chemical Command (SBCCOM), Natick Soldier Center (Natick), Natick, Massachusetts 26-27 Oct 99. This was the first meeting following the 15th ADS Conference, June 1999, Toulouse, France. The attendees were:

Name Organization Phone number

Accorsi, Mike UConn 860-486-5642

Appleby, Brent Draper Labs 617-258-2419

Benney, Rich Natick Labs 508-820-4313

Brown, Glen Vertigo 831-425-5147

Dellicker, Scott Yuma Proving Grounds 520-328-6150

Dyatt, Alec AFFTC 661-227-0800x2855

Gionfriddo, Maurice MPG Consultants 508-366-1042

Heindel, Ken Coleman Research 407-354-0047

Johari, Hamid WPI 508-831-5261

Jorgensen, Dean Pioneer Aerospace 860-528-0092 x 213

Meyerson, Rob Kistler Aerospace 425-602-0228

Patel, Sanjay Natick Labs 508-820-4313

Potvin, Jean St. Louis U 314-977-8424

Taylor, Tony Irvin Aerospace 714-662-1400

Wolf, Dean Consultant 505-298-6430

Wolfe, Walt Sandia Labs 505-844-4387

Wednesday only:

Butler, Manley Butler Parachutes 540-342-2501

Hintzke, Steve Pioneer Aerospace 860-528-0092 x 214

Kubiatko, Paul Boeing - PWLB 562-982-7850

The meeting was chaired by Richard Benney, the newly elected committee chairman.

1. The minutes from the 7 June 99 meeting were accepted with minor typographical changes and are posted on the ADS TC homepage.
2. Rob Meyerson and Chris Hailey were recognized as new AIAA associate members. Ken Heindel was introduced as a new ADS TC member (nomination in progress).
3. Treasurers report: A new account was opened for committee funds which requires two signatures to expend funds. The account is listed with three ADS TC members (Richard Benney, Sanjay Patel and Mike Accorsi).
4. Dean Jorgensen reported on the Toulouse conference. He stated both the seminar and conference breakeven numbers were exceeded and that the event made money. The AFFF is compiling the results and will provide the ADS TC it’s percentage soon. Conference organizers shared lessons learned with recently announced organizers of the 16^th Seminar and Conference. The group discussed production and distribution of seminar notes for sale. Potential mechanisms of distribution were discussed to include maintaining via the homepage and/or potentially utilizing other sources like Dan Poynter (publishing group) to market the seminar notes. The TC decided to maintain the same structure of the seminar and conference (plenary, 2 sessions, etc.) and discussed AV equipment difficulties and the need for 3 separate identical projection systems and an on-site AV technician. One recommendation was to use the speakers breakfast as an AV prep/practice session to assure that all electronic presentations are compatible prior to the formal presentation.
5. Mike Accorsi updated homepage news. Several people were still deficient on bios and Mike made a request for images, related links, and other relevant material.
6. Mo Gionfriddo updated the group on the Linda Hall Library agreement and stated that nothing to date had been sent. Walt Wolfe (Sandia) agreed to investigate the progress at Sandia with locating and transferring the WPAFB ADS collection to LHL. Tony Taylor discussed the possibility of donating a copy of Irvin’s library. Industry reps stated they would provide an estimate of the volume and actual costs associated with supplying material for the TC to consider authorizing.
7. Rich Benney presented The Decelerator (newsletter) to the TC for discussion on the newsletter efforts. Discussion included the costs associated with color copying and mailing the newsletter. The TC agreed with the need for dissemination of newsletter like materials but did not reach agreement on the target audience, how to disseminate (hardcopy or Web-based), or a frequency goal.
8. Reviewed Rich Benney’s Aerospace America article.
9. Discussed Specs and Standards Team activities. Rich Benney will circulate a ballot to ADS TC members within the next two weeks to approve S-017 process. If the ADS TC approves the content, the S-017 will be posted on the AIAA and ADS TC webpages for a period of time to allow for "public comment". Mo Gionfriddo briefly discussed the PIA process of formalizing MIL SPEC cataloguing. He stated approximately 45 drawing have been converted from MIL SPECs to PIA specs. He also stated that PIA specs are available from the PIA website.
10. Short Course ideas were discussed including the potential of a shorter course in conjunction with PIA. This was not met with a very good response from attendee’s. A quick poll indicated that there is interest in another full week short course. A quick poll of the ADS TC indicated a total of 18 potential attendees from organizations represented at the TC.
11. The ADS TC overviewed the 16^th ADS Seminar and Conference (S&C) Boston MA. A tour of potential hotels was scheduled for Oct 28^th. The 16^th ADS S&C will be chaired by Mr. Scott Dellicker and many TC members have volunteered to help with this event. The ADS TC discussed S&C planning and timelines.
12. Rob Meyerson presented ideas on potential seminar subjects for the 16^th ADS Seminar. Parachute manufacturing was selected over testing. Subjects included new technology, materials, sensors and instrumentation, and systems engineering as they apply to decelerators. This information will be compiled for TC review and final selection.
13. Michael Accorsi discussed the JOA special session. A minimum of five papers from the Toulouse conference will be submitted (Dellicker, Machin, Heindel, Potvin, and Stein). Other papers may also be included.
14. Rob Meyerson presented AIAA AFM/GNC/MST/AA Conference information. These TC’s have invited the ADS TC to host a single session on Decelerator technologies during the August 2000 conference in Denver. The call for papers is out and 5 or 6 papers will be selected. Mo Gionfriddo mentioned that past experience showed that similar activities have reduced the number of papers submitted for the ADS Conference. It was also mentioned that it could bring in additional authors from that group for the ADS Conference.
15. Rich Benney introduced Congressional Visit Day information for March 2000. Interested parties included Ken Heindel, Rich Benney, Mo Gionfriddo, Steve Hintzke and Phil Delurgio. Deadline is 12/31/99. A draft pamphlet should be presented for committee coordination by 31 Jan 00. Planned visitors will compile the handout for ADS TC review.
16. The idea for an Awards Team was introduced by Rich. Charter would include research and nomination of Knacke award recipients. Rich also called for potential recipient names and encouraged nominations. No one in attendance volunteered.
17. A finance team was also introduced. The charter for this team will be to determine what to do with the committee’s funds. Sanjay Patel volunteered to lead the team. Ideas included a small annual scholarship, paying LHL for a student summer hire to catalog all of the ADS material, and paying to ship collections to the LHL. Rich also solicited ideas for spending the funds and establishing procedures for spending funds.
18. The team reconvened on Wednesday with Mo Gionfriddo updating the TC with PIA news. The PIA is trying to institute a plan that will smooth out the procurement buys in the parachute industry (balanced flow) with the government.
19. The NPTC mission areas presented by Carl Peterson (Sandia) during the January 1999 meeting was discussed due to the re-organization at Sandia that appears to be minimizing Carl Peterson’s involvement in parachute research. It was decided to entertain the idea of authoring an AIAA-backed white paper on the need for a joint effort on parachute technology development in an attempt to avoid "reinventing the wheel". Mo mentioned that the next PIA meeting is in San Antonio TX around 17 Feb 00 and the TC showed interest in attending the government systems portion of the meeting to discuss NPTC mission objectives and the assumption of those missions by either the PIA or the TC. Mo volunteered facilitate and planning that meeting. In general, the TC agrees with the NPTC mission goals and that the TC has begun to address and incorporate NPTC mission areas informally into TC activities. Discussions on methods of formalizing this process will continue.
20. An NPTC like "round-table" discussion was held with interesting info being disseminated and general agreement that the session was useful. The ADS TC will consider holding "round tables" periodically during meetings.
21. A tour of Natick’s facility was then conducted including the parachute prototype shop, rapid prototype shop and tensile testing facility.
22. A demonstration of the pneumatic muscle was conducted on the static crane.
23. Mr. Edward Doucette gave a presentation on Natick Airdrop S&T and business opportunities.
24. Capt Joel Riemann gave an overview of Natick PM Soldier Support Development Programs and future plans.
25. Thursday included a tour of potential Seminar and Conference sites in the Copley Square area of Boston.

Meeting minutes were taken and submitted by Alec Dyatt.