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Society of Experimental Test Pilots

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SETP News

SETP Fellows Class of 2025!

Congratulations to the SETP Fellows Class of 2025! Please join us as we congratulate the following individuals who have reached this distinguished honor within the Society at the 69th Annual... Read more

Kincheloe & Doolittle Nominations - …

Kincheloe and Doolittle Award nominations are now being accepted. Deadline of 31 July 2025. NOTE:  If submitting a nomination, you must use the appropriate award nomination form we have provided... Read more

Leadership Transition at the National Te…

  Read more

  • Leadership Transition at Internati…

  • 68th Annual S&B Award Winners …

    The Society of Experimental Test Pilots is proud to announce the Award Winners from the 68th Annual Symposium & Banquet and the 2024 Fellow Class   Herman R. Salmon Technical Publications Award (Sponsored by…

  • SETP & Partners Estate and Fin…

    SETP Partner's Estate Preparedness Guidebook & Checklists Formerly the Spouse and Partners Handbook The Guidebooks and Checklists below are designed to help you put the basics in order for your family…

  • Neil Armstrong Luncheon Address

      While digging in our archives we found this historic presentation from SETP Charter Member Neil Armstrong (F), at the Luncheon held during the 2005 Symposium that celebrated the SETP 50th Anniversary. Please…

Welcome to SETP

Special Business Meeting

THE SOCIETY OF EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS

SPECIAL BUSINESS MEETING

DATE:       
Thursday, 27 March 2025

PLACE:       
John P. Eliopulos Hellenic Center
43404 30th Street West
Lancaster, CA  93536        

TIME:
Following the conclusion of the West Coast Symposium at approximately 3:45pm. There is no cost to attend the Special Business Meeting portion of the day. However, if you are interested in attending the West Coast Symposium, please click HERE for more information on this event. 

The SETP Nominating Committee has prepared a slate of officers for 2025/2026 from eligible Members, Associate Fellows and Fellows of the Society. As required by our Constitution, the Nominating Committee now calls a special business meeting to afford the membership an opportunity to make additional nominations from the floor. Those nominated from the floor must have been contacted in advance to determine that they would be willing and able to serve if elected. The proposed slate is as follows:

For President-Elect:
William Koyama (AF), Northrop Grumman
Justin Paines (F)

For Vice President:
Dan Hinson (F), Textron Aviation
Jameel Janjua (AF), Virgin Galactic

For Secretary:
Bernhard Berset (F), armasuisse
Klas Ohman (AF), The Boeing Company

For Treasurer:
LtCol Michael Lippert, USMC (M)
Rusty Lowry (AF), ABSI Defense

For Legal Officer:
James Bieryla (AF), Dept. of the Air Force
Glenn Graham (AF), Stratolaunch

Your support is essential in order to establish a quorum of 25 eligible voting Members! (Eligible voters are full Members, Associate Fellows & Fellows)

Leadership Transition at International Test Pilots School

ITPS Leadership Change News Release APPROVED 20250122 Page 1Dave Lohse Photo

ITPS Leadership Change News Release APPROVED 20250122 Page 2

Leadership Transition at the National Test Pilot School

 

NTPS Jan 2025

January 2025, President Message

Greetings and Happy New Year!

It is my honor to continue serving alongside the Board of Directors as your President in the 69th year of our Society.  We have been hard at work and in the course of our first few meetings, we have gone about some normal business cleaning up SOP wording and streamlining the Membership/Upgrade application process with some long-needed updates – both the SOP/Constitution and Membership Committees deserve credit for this work.  We have also started preparations for the multitude of section symposia over the coming months, as well as our annual Symposium and Banquet to be held in Anaheim in September.  Shawn Kern (AF) of NASA has been appointed as the General Chairman of the S&B and his committee has been approved by the Board.  If you would like to help out in any capacity, please contact Shawn or any of his committee members:

Symposium Chairman – Bryan Kelly (M)
Luncheon Chairman – Andy Edgell (AF)
Banquet Chairman – Art Tomassetti (F)
Displays Chairman – Jeffrey Mabry (M)
                                                     Technical Tour Chairman – Glenn Graham (AF)
                                                      Education Outreach Chairman – Kevin Gross (AF)
                                                      Sponsorship Chairwoman – Laurie Balderas

Volunteerism continues to be the main source of manpower to ensure our symposia and other events are so fruitful.  At your next opportunity, please take a moment to thank these individuals and other volunteers within the Society for their efforts.

The Board of Directors has also approved the establishment of a committee to evaluate the role of SETP in the development and flight testing of unmanned air vehicles along with emerging developments in automation and autonomy in both manned and unmanned air vehicles. The committee will provide actionable recommendations to the Board to ensure SETP remains at the forefront of flight testing and actively engaged and relevant across all facets of the field.  Mike Rabens (F) has been appointed as the Committee Chairman and in January, he will be putting forward his recommended committee members to the Board for approval.

In October, I was fortunate to attend and present a technical paper at the Society of Flight Test Engineers 55th Annual International Symposium in Seattle.  SFTE put on a nice event, and I was able to thank Jen Uchida for her great work this past year as their President and to welcome Jeff Canclini as their new President.

Prez_memo_1.jpg  Prez_memo_2.jpg

In terms of finances, your Society remains strong.  We have roughly $1.7M in current and non-current assets and we remain on budget through the 3rd Quarter ending in September 2024 with no anticipated changes as we close out the fiscal year in December.  In addition to individual and corporate dues, any profit from the annual Symposium & Banquet becomes a component of revenue, and as soon as the financials are closed out from 2024, the Board will be formulating and approving the operating budget for 2025.  Our four full-time professional staff members are doing a great job managing expenses, but we will need to incorporate some overdue capital improvements into the 2025 Budget.  The Board intends to update our Headquarters building with necessary upgrades to ensure our staff are well cared for and proud to call “HQ” their home office.

Membership also remains strong.  As of September 2024, the Society had exactly 2500 members, which includes 5 Honorary Fellows.  This is an increase of almost 50 members since the previous Membership Committee report in June 2024.  Additionally, we have 79 Corporate Members, and dues from Corporate Membership accounts for a sizeable portion of SETP’s income throughout the year.  If you are employed by a company that is a Corporate Member, please take a moment to recognize and thank your leadership for their support of SETP.  If your employer is not a Corporate Member, please let them know of the opportunity to become one!

I also wanted to pass a quick note from the SETP Scholarship Foundation, chaired by John Fergione (F).  The Scholarship Foundation is currently supporting 10 children of our deceased and disabled members and 99 dependents of our active members – roughly $750k has been allocated in the 2024-2025 Academic Year.  Since inception of the Scholarship Foundation, a total of $7.83M has been allocated to beneficiaries (as reported at the end of 2023).  After the 2024 fiscal year accounting comes to a close, I’ll pass another update to you in my next President’s Memo.  I’m sure you will agree that this is an enormous benefit of membership, and it is heartwarming to see the impact this Foundation has had on countless families of our members.

The SETP Board, alongside other affiliated organizations, continues to seek ways to spread the good word about SETP and our members’ achievements and accomplishments.  Gordon McClymont (F) of the Publication Committee reports that Cockpit Magazine has had a recent influx of technical articles that will be published in the next edition, and the Flight Test Safety Committee continues to publish interesting articles and podcasts via Mark Jones Jr’s (AF) “Flight Test Safety Fact Newsletter” and Art Tomassetti’s (F) “Flight Test Safety Channel Podcast”.  We continue to communicate these efforts and other outreach events on our social media accounts – please follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to keep up to date.  If you have an event that you feel should be advertised or simply deserves some due attention, please let me, a Board member, or the staff know about it, and we’ll get a link posted online.  And as always, please consider writing an article or submitting a paper to the Publications Committee for inclusion into Cockpit Magazine, or conversely to the Flight Test Safety Committee.

At the 68th Annual Awards Banquet in September, I elaborated on the notion of not only celebrating but also “elevating” the “Firsts” and other notable accomplishments the members of this Society have achieved.  Your Board of Directors will continue to focus on “telling our Society’s story” and “celebrating our members’ accomplishments”, and that will continue to be my main focus for the year to come.  I won’t be able to attend every symposium this year but hope to see you in person at the West Coast, Central and European section events and in Anaheim for the 69th Annual Symposium & Banquet.

Until then, fly with precision and passion!

Sincerely ~

Andrew “Face” McFarland (AF)
2024-2025 SETP President

October 2024, President Message

Sandberg Brian Headshot

It is my honor to serve alongside our newly elected Board of Directors as your President in the 69th year of our Society.  I’d like to thank Toonces for his leadership this past year and for his continued service as my Executive Adviser.  And I also want to acknowledge the outgoing Board for their contributions and welcome the new Board into service.  We on the Board are volunteers and not only do I appreciate each one of them but also those that serve as section officers or on committees or within the Foundations.  We have well over 100 volunteers that serve SETP in one way or another, and they all deserve recognition.  And of course, the SETP Staff is our engine that handles the day-to-day operation and planning for events such as the Symposium & Banquet, our hallmark event.  This is a great Society, and we, as your Board of Directors, will all endeavor to live up to the high expectations are predecessors have set for us.

At this year’s Annual Business Meeting, I discussed a few themes for the coming year.  Our goals are not to make major power or attitude corrections, but simply to keep us on speed, on course, and on glidepath with minor corrections to observed deviations.

  • Our Future is bright. Credit should be given to the SETP Foundation for its work in the realm of Educational Outreach. We have cultivated many paths and connection points to potential future flight testers, and I’m happy to see that trend continue.  Additionally, our membership numbers are solid.  We can, of course, expand our membership and we will continue to make small strides and tweaks as we are able to increase opportunities to entice potential new members to apply.  For example, as unmanned aviation continues to grow, we’ll need to strike a balance to ensure we are making positive contributions to that burgeoning field of aviation as well as a potentially offering new avenues for membership as our constitution allows.
  • We are well positioned in the Present. As I previously mentioned, volunteerism is strong. Our regional and annual symposia are strong, with an amazing array of contributors via technical presentations and guest speakers.  The Flight Test Safety Committee (a SETP Foundation led effort alongside SFTE and AIAA) is a strong and well attended collaborative organization.  And the SETP Scholarship Foundation is continuing to support the financial needs of the children and spouses of our disabled, deceased, and active members of the Society, with over $750,000 given in scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year.
  • Our Past is full of “Firsts” and our members continually create new “Firsts”. I want to ensure that we do our best as a Society, linked with the SETP Foundation’s Historical Committee, to support every opportunity to capture and communicate the good work of our members and the good name of our Society for posterity. We, as a Board, will be looking for ways to increase these opportunities and communication paths, be that through conventional publication of another historical archive or through more digital and social media means.  We are approaching the 70th anniversary of our Society, and we have only published one historical archive that represents the first 20 years of our existence from 1955-1975.  We’ve got 50 years to catch up on!

At the 68th Annual Awards Banquet in September, I elaborated on this notion of not only celebrating but also “elevating” the “Firsts” and other notable accomplishments the members of this Society have achieved.  We had four “First Flights” that were briefed at this year’s Symposium alone.  It is truly amazing what the members of SETP accomplish every year, and it’s actually very challenging to acknowledge them all.  I believe we need to continue to focus on “telling our Society’s story” and “celebrating our members’ accomplishments”, and that will be my main focus for the year to come.  I’ll update you from time to time on our progress.

I hope to see each of you throughout the year at the many regional events and, of course, in Anaheim for the 69th Annual Symposium & Banquet.  Until then, fly with precision and passion!

Sincerely ~

Andrew “Face” McFarland (AF)
2024-2025 SETP President

68th Annual S&B Award Winners and 2024 Fellow Class


The Society of Experimental Test Pilots is proud to announce the
Award Winners from the 68th Annual Symposium & Banquet and the 2024 Fellow Class
Susan Edit Correct SETP Logo Transparent
 
Herman R. Salmon Technical Publications Award
(Sponsored by Symbolic Displays)

For the Best Technical Paper published in Cockpit during the Past Year

"A Method for Identification and Correction of Altitude Errors for Special Mission and Research Aircraft”

Thomas A. Washington (M), MIT Lincoln Laboratory

SETP 21 Saturday 0275

Read more: 68th Annual S&B Award Winners and 2024 Fellow Class

Neil Armstrong Luncheon Address

  While digging in our archives we found this historic presentation from SETP Charter Member Neil Armstrong (F),

at the Luncheon held during the 2005 Symposium that celebrated the SETP 50th Anniversary.

Please take 30 minutes out of your day to watch this captivating talk!

 

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