Air traffic management plans advanced

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Boeing hosts ACE conference
Now more than ever, Bill Rickard, Director of Boeing's 737 Freighter Conversion Development Program, believes engineers must understand "the big picture" if the aerospace industry is to meet increasing demands for performance, cost, comfort, convenience, and effects on the environment. It just so happens that the purpose of a conference he is chairing, the Aerospace Congress and Exhibition (ACE) slated for September 10-13 in Seattle, is to paint such a panorama. More than 4000 professionals representing diverse segments of the industry are expected to attend the event, which will feature equally diverse issue panels, technical sessions, and an exhibit involving more than 400 companies.

While there are plenty of specialty conferences at which "experts talk to experts," ACE is different in that Rickard and other organizers are emphasizing the fact that its diversity will enable attendees to learn about facets of the industry outside their own narrow scope.

"It's very educational to pull yourself out of your everyday activities where you interact with people who are a lot like yourself and who work on the same problems," explained Rickard. "If you're a product designer, you must know how that product is operated, maintained, and modified over its life. If you're a researcher, you really need to know how your research results get used to deliver a product to the operator and how the designer will use it to create a new product."

The theme of the conference, "From Design To Operation: A Global Perspective," reflects organizers' commitment to exposing all attendees, both from North American and elsewhere, to the big picture. "Certainly there is a lot more to this industry than what you find in the U.S," Rickard said. Aside from the various perspectives offered by speakers during the issue panels and technical sessions, attendees will be able to capture what's on the minds of industry professionals from around the world through virtually unlimited networking opportunities.

The aerospace industry is changing rapidly, according to ACE Executive Chair David Swain, Boeing Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology. He noted that the collaboration between SAE and Aerospace North America to create the conference is a testament to the type of change needed for the aerospace industry to flourish.

ACE will be all about change. Getting to what Swain calls an integrated transportation system will involve tremendous change in how the industry thinks about airplanes, airports, air traffic management, and national energy policy. All of these issues will be discussed to some degree or another at ACE, exemplifying its broad scope. By putting all those issues in front of attendees, Swain said, "maybe we'll see solutions that we don't see today."

The SAE Strategic Alliance (SSA) is planning an "Air Traffic Capacity Enhancement" special event as part of ACE. The President of Boeing's Air Traffic Management group will participate. The SSA will also have a booth on the exhibit floor dedicated to air traffic management technologies and issues.

One of the highlights of the conference will be a panel on "Changing Paradigms." Panelists include one of the world's most famous futurists, author Alvin Toffler, and NASA Langley Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell. Rickard advises prospective ACE attendees to mark this and two other plenary panels as "can't miss" appointments in their day planners. One of the other plenary panels will focus on the commercial side of the aerospace industry while the other focuses on the military segment.

The conference begins with tours of Boeing's Renton facility (where the 737, 757, and 777 are assembled) on September 10. The following three days constitute the heart of ACE, with morning plenary panels each day followed in the afternoon by technical sessions from five separate SAE meetings: World Aviation Congress; Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Conference; Advances in Aviation Safety Conference; International Conference on Lightning and Static Electricity; and Aerospace Automated Fastening Conference & Exhibition.

For more details on the conference, visit the SAE website at www.sae.org/calendar/ace/index.htm.

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