This article first appeared in the January 2016 Flight Test News.
The coming year promises to bring many changes. For the past year, I’ve dreamed about the many ways that Flight Test News can continue to improve and serve the members of the SFTE. For example, perhaps a podcast would be an entertaining and informative way to connect with members and present interviews previously only available in print. Though it will probably not happen in time, a podcast would be a great way to present the Greatest Airplane of All Time Tournament. (Note: We will hold the tournament again in March, and I expect to offer more ways to engage earlier, with an aircraft nomination process, for example. What ideas do you have to make it better? Please let me know.) One of the things I would really like to do is see more of our members jump into the writing process, whether that’s an opinion-editorial piece or a technical article or an interview, or even just an announcement. I hope that Chapter President’s will use the space available in the Flight Test News to share their story. I think it would benefit us a whole to hear what’s going on at the chapter level, and it will free up chapter resources to upload that newsletter requirement to the Society level. News, announcements and calls for papers are welcome from the chapters.
Often, a serendipitous encounter with a member results in a remarkable exchange of ideas—I’ve seen that happen over coffee and over email. For those email encounters, I wish you’d realize how valuable your written words are. It would be a simple thing to change that email into an article. Please consider doing that.
In the coming months, we will feature a full length story on a member, hinted about in the previous issue. We would still like for someone to do a book review in support of that feature. Please contact the editor if you are interested in that opportunity. If you have other ideas for book reviews, whether that’s a new biography or a text book, we’d be delighted to print those too. We even accept written reviews of technical papers or talks from local or national symposia.
Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to begin to brainstorm the 50th Anniversary of the SFTE. At that time, I would really like to publish a journal-like, printed report of the Society, to include historical anecdotes, technical articles, interviews, member and chapter statistics, and the like. Please consider what content you would like to see in that publication and how you can make that happen. It will take a team effort to bring all the moving pieces together.
This article first appeared in the January 2016 Flight Test News.
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