Minutes of a Meeting of the

AIAA Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems

Technical Committee

19 February 1998

The Linda Hall Library

Kansas City, Missouri

Held at the Linda Hall Library (or LHL), the meeting was called to order 
at 8:30Am by Chair Vance Behr. Jean Potvin was appointed Secretary pro tem. 
The meeting was attended by:
M. Accorsi, R. Benney, V. Behr,  G. Brown, W. Garrard, M. Gionfriddo, 
C. Hailey, C. Iacomini, A. Mawn, J. Potvin, D. Wolf and K. Yerdon 
(attending for A. Bennett).

1. Minutes of the 23 October 1997 TC meeting

The minutes of the meeting held in Hartford CT on 10/23/97 were 
approved as submitted.

2. Treasurer's Report

No report was submitted.

OLD BUSINESS

3. Updates TC Roster

Vance Behr distributed an updated version of the committee's membership.
Currently, the total number of members is less than the maximum allowed 
by the AIAA. Nominations for new members are welcome and should be sent
to Mr. Behr for consideration. The nominations are due by November 1998.

4. Database Team

Mr. Gionfriddo opened the discussion by summarizing the goal of the 
team, i.e. the establishment of a centralized 
parachute technology database which would include 
the large number of old published and unpublished parachute research 
reports currently held in storage at several government laboratories and 
private collections. Mr. Gionfriddo also reported on his team's 
recent communications with the Linda Hall Library 
which is interested in holding the parachute database. 
He reminded the members present that this TC meeting was held at the 
Library to allow a close inspection of the facilities by the members of this
technical committee. 

A tour of the Library followed under the guidance of Mrs. Nancy Day, Information Resources Officer, LHL. The tour was followed by a short Q&A session 
with Mrs. Day and her staff. The important issues 
that were raised during the tour and Q&A session were as follows:

- The LHL is the largest privately supported library of science and 
technology in the U.S., with a collection in excess of one million volumes.
Opened in 1946, the library serves users located world-wide. LHL was 
created from trust funds established by Herbert F. and Linda S. Hall. The 
library is independent from any other institutions and has an operation budget
which is mostly supported by the trust. 

- Several technical and scientific organizations (including libraries) have 
donated their collections to LHL. One such organization is the AIAA. 

- Although LHL owns most of the documents in its holdings, some are still
the property of the donor (organization or individual). 
One example of the latter are those AIAA documents which were produced since
1962. Such a loan can be accommodated by LHL as long as the maintenance
costs of the collection are low. Clearly, it is easier if ownership of the documents be transferred to LHL.

- LHL has an on-line database describing the books and scientific 
journals held in its collection (technical reports are currently 
being added to this database). A sample title search was demonstrated 
to the members present. In the near term, some uncopyrighted documents will 
be available for copying through the World Wide Web.
LHL has also access to other bibliographical databases including 
OCLC and ERLIN. 

- The Library's Document Services Department is capable of photocopying and 
sending out requested reports to on-site and off-site library users
within 24 hours if necessary. Fees and 
cost recovery are collected for each transaction to cover expenses incurred
for searching and photocopying, as well as covering copyright when applicable. 

- LHL indexes unpublished reports according to the serial number already  
assigned by the institutions that have produced those reports.

- After its arrival at the library, the parachute database would be processed
as follows: unboxed and shelved in the same order it was received (and boxed);
compared with current holdings to look for duplication; entry in the 
LHL database in a preliminary format. 

- LHL was non-committal concerning the amount of time it would take for 
the parachute database to be indexed after its arrival at the library. One 
TC member suggested that the cataloguing could perhaps be accelerated if the
parachute industry could provide funding for part-time workers (students?)
dedicated to the task at LHL. 

- Video tapes can be accepted in principle, although LHL does not have a
definite policy on how to store and retrieve such documents for public use.

At the end of the tour and Q&A session Mr. Gionfriddo made some closing
remarks, emphasizing that the people at LHL are professionals who know their
business, in contrast with all the other alternatives considered
by his team. Moreover, LHL can handle unpublished reports   
and conference proceedings whereas most other libraries can't.
He also added that we should act now because
the parachute report collections stored at governmental or private locations
will be thrown away as time goes by. Finally, he suggested that the TC 
define a set of standards/formats (or methodology/procedures) 
to be used for pre-processing of the material prior to shipment to LHL. 
Procedures such as looking for duplicates or binding and titling of  
documents of historical importance would help
shorten the processing time of the donated material.

Everyone present at the meeting supported the idea of donating the parachute
database to LHL. Mr. Behr suggested that a formal vote on this issue 
be taken electronically by all TC members in approximately one month.

5. Short Presentation

Mrs. Christine Iacomini from NASA/Johnson Space Center gave a short 
briefing on NASA's new "Mars Landing Transition Study". The goal of 
this study is to define mission and systems requirements for transition from 
aeroentry to powered landing for a human mission to Mars. In principle 
the mission would involve parachute deceleration prior to the powered landing.
In particular, the study is to: 1) determine whether the chute phase is 
practical, 2) size the chutes and lander masses and 3) assess options for 
thrust orientation for the powered phase.

6. Incorporation

Andy Mawn reported on his investigation of incorporating this TC for 
tax exemption status. The cost of the application is $500.
Mr. Mawn noted the huge amount of paperwork 
required, a task that would require 60 to 80 hours. Some members wondered 
whether the AIAA was contemplating doing the same and whether the TC could
"tag along" such an effort. Mr. Garrard suggested that the TC's finances 
could perhaps be handled by a university which is a non-profit entity. Finally
Mrs. Hailey suggested that the TC look into how AIAA student chapters 
got their tax-exempt status. Mr. Mawn was asked to continue his investigation
of these matters.

7. Home Page

Mr. Benney reported the recent activities of the Web pages team:
- the pages are now sporting a new layout, including a left-margin table of
contents;
- a duplicate copy of the pages are now kept on a server at the University of 
Connecticut. This allows easier access for changes/corrections by Accorsi and Benney.  The public copy is still resident on the Syracuse server courtesy of Prof. Higuchi
- several TC member biographies need to be updated;
- the team is currently trying to include the newsletter on the web site; 
however, there are problems in translating the electronic format of 
the newsletter into web page format;
- the team requests pictures/photos of parachute projects for display on the 
web pages.
- the team encourages every TC member to broadcast the address of the web
page as much as possible.

8. Specs and Standards (S-017 drawing standard)

Mr. Behr read the following report sent by team leader Mrs. E. Hennings 
who could not attend this TC meeting:
AIAA rules suggests that we follow ANSI standards for specs and standards
review. Such an ANSI procedure involves several steps that are currently 
being followed by the team members.

Mr. Gionfriddo remarked that the PIA has already converted 
several MIL standards into PIA standards. Such a conversion was performed 
according to a process similar to but not and officially ANSI-approved 
standard review.


9. Newsletter

As reported by Mrs. C. Hailey, the current project is to build a mailing
list from the list supplied by Karl Doherr, and from lists 
provided by other TC members. The team is also starting to work on the second
issue and is requesting articles or ideas from the TC members.


10. The 15th ADS Seminar and Conference

Mr. Behr read the report from the General Conference Chair, Mr. D. Jorgensen,
who could not attend this meeting. Mr. M. Accorsi and Mr. W. Garrard 
have accepted to serve as Conference Technical Co-Chairs. Mr. J. Potvin 
has accepted to serve as Seminar Chair and Mr. A. Bennett as International
co-Chair (another international co-Chair has yet to be 
nominated). These individuals will help Mr.
Jorgensen and Mr. J. -F. Vergnolles (Conference Administrative Chair) 
in organizing an exciting meeting which will take place in Toulouse, 
France on 9-11 June, 1999. Mr. Potvin will organize the Seminar scheduled 
on June 8th.The general topic of the Seminar will be: "Parachute fabric 
testing, aging, modeling and innovation" (not the official title). 
The seminar and conference are 
jointly sponsored by the AIAA and the Conference of European 
Aerospace Association (CEAA). Note that the ADS Seminar and Conference will
take place during the week that preceds the Paris airshow.

Mr. Behr noted that no other AIAA TC has shown an interest to co-locate
with us in Toulouse. For that reason, plans are being made to hold the 
conference in a hotel in downtown Toulouse where rates are much lower and 
the venue more charming, rather than at the large conference center as
originally planned.

A "call for papers" will be issued in May 1998. The deadline for 
abstracts/papers is scheduled in September/October 1998.


11. Short Course

Mr. Gerrard reported on the recent decisions made by the Short Course team.
He first recalled that in the past the Short Course has been held during 
the "off" (or even) years between ADS meetings. He added 
that the last Short Course was held in Houston TX in 1994 and that 
there seems to be interest in the parachute and aerospace community 
to send a substantial
number of students to the Short Course if held soon. All this motivated the 
team into proposing that the next short course takes place sometimes in October 
1998 at the University of Minnesota (home University of Dr. Garrard). 

The lecturers would be S. Lingard, K. DoHerr, D. Wolf, V. Behr and 
W. Garrard, with the first four providing most of the lectures.
This event would be publicized on our home page. The mailing list compiled by
Mrs. Hailey (see "Newsletter" item above) could also be used in this effort.
Because the academic term would be in full swing at U. Minn.,  classrooms may
be in short supply; thus Mr. Garrard suggests that the course be held 
in the Radisson Hotel located on the U. Minn. campus, a few meters away from 
the Aerospace Engineering building. The administration of the course would 
also be carried out by Prof. Garrard's academic department. The department  
would hire a part-time worker to handle the secretarial work. This 
arrangement contrasts with past short courses, which then were administered by 
the University of Minnesota Conferences department. Dissatisfaction with 
the services rendered prompted the change. 

Mr. Garrard estimates that 25 students paying a $1100 fee could make this
4-day course self-supporting.
If allowed to proceed, the team would need some start-up funds to print and 
mail out the announcement on hard copy. 

Mr. Behr closed this discussion by ordering an electronic vote on this issue
in about a month.


12. NPTC Request.

The NPTC meeting that was scheduled on the day before 
this TC meeting was cancelled due to
lack of interest (only 6 people had shown a desire to attend). 

As related by Mr. R. Benney, the steady decline of the attendance 
to NPTC meetings has prompted its leader, Dr. Carl Peterson,
to ask whether this TC could take over the activities of the 
organization, and possibly schedule NPTC round table discussions during 
the day of our meetings. The discussion that followed Mr. Benney's 
introduction included the following points:

- one of the primary goals of the NPTC has been to publicize, coordinate and
support parachute research activities within the U.S.; 

- the number of parachute researchers has decreased in the past decade; 
however, it appears that the researchers who have remained 
in the parachute business have continued coordinating 
their work and also collaborating with each other; there is no doubt 
that the NPTC and AIAA have helped in promoting such leveraging of 
research activities; and there is room for future coordination of effort, 
especially in the area of parachute CFD simulations where two teams
are currently studying this problem using two different algorithms could 
use/generate the same code validation data;

- not all targeted governmental agencies have signed the Memorandum of  
Understanding (MOU). In particular, it seems very unlikely that the 
U.S. Department of Energy will ever sign the MOU;

- the NPTC and this ADS-TC should help the AIAA in the organization of 
the upcoming AIAA Congressional visit scheduled for March 4. 
Such an activity would fall within the NPTC's original mission;

- given the fact the TC's meeting agenda is already very full, it is not 
clear that a NPTC round table discussion can be included, unless it is 
shortened substantially and focus on short briefings from a small number  
of researchers. Such briefings could be similar in format to the briefing of 
Mrs. Christine Iacomini reported earlier.


OTHER BUSINESS 
                                                                  
13. The 1997 Parachute Highlights have appeared in the January issue of 
Aerospace America. The article summarizes the many results and projects  
reported at the San Francisco 14th ADS Conference.

14. Mrs. C. Hailey has been nominated to serve on the AIAA Journal of 
Aircraft Advisory Board.

15. Mr. Behr has reminded the TC members that there is still time to 
apply for AIAA membership upgrades, the nomination form and letters of 
reference being due on April 15 and May 15 respectively.

16. Mr. Gionfriddo reminded us that the next Parachute Industry Association
(or PIA) Symposium will be held in San Diego on January 10-14, 1999,
at the Town and Country Resort. 
He also reminded us that a final decision needs to be made concerning 
the co-location of the 16th ADS Seminar and 
Conference with the PIA 2001 Symposium which will possibly be held 
in San Diego at the same venue as the 1999 Symposium.
He suggested that the TC holds a meeting during the 1999 Symposium to
allow a close inspection of the Town and Country Resort and organization of 
the Symposium.

17. Mr. Benney and Mr. Mawn brought to the TC's attention a recent 
U.S. Army report entitled "Army After Next", which discusses the possible
roles the Army could play in the next Century. Interestingly, 
the report shows precision delivery to play a key role.

18. Next TC meetings: No meetings have been scheduled. 



The meeting was adjourned at 4:20PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Jean Potvin