“The Niagara Frontier Section was instrumental in helping the UB AIAA student branch host the incredibly successful 2023 AIAA Region I Student Conference. NFS leveraged an extensive network to help secure professional sponsorships, identify judges, and invite an all-star keynote speaker: Alice Bowman.”— Aaron Estes, Ph.D., Director of Undergraduate Studies, Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo
A note on the record
Virtually no records are available on the Niagara Frontier Section in the 1990s. Not only were no section records preserved, but section leadership did not publicize events in local newspapers or Aerospace America. What survives is fragmentary.
In recognition of his work at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory from 1946 to 1963, AIAA Honorary Fellow Alexander Flax is inducted into the Niagara Frontier Aviation and Space Hall of Fame. After CAL, Dr. Flax served as Air Force Chief Scientist, third director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and president of the Institute for Defense Analyses.
D. Joseph Mook, Assistant Professor in the MAE Department at the University at Buffalo, presents on “Automatic Aircraft Carrier Landing Systems” at a Niagara Frontier Section dinner meeting.
Niagara Frontier Section member and AIAA Fellow Ira G. Ross dies at age 84. Ross was president of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory from 1959 to 1969. He is memorialized today through the Ira G. Ross Niagara Aerospace Museum.
Canadian pilot Bill Lishman, “Father Goose,” who trained a flock of geese to follow his ultralight aircraft on a migration from Canada to Virginia, speaks to the section at the University at Buffalo. The 1996 film Fly Away Home was based on his experience.
Carleton Controls co-founder George Ord is presented with the Outstanding Aerospace Achievement Award. Ord was known for the fact that “No American has breathed in space without a regulator designed by George Ord.”
Former section chairman Henry Heubusch is presented with the Outstanding Aerospace Achievement Award — date and location unknown — citing “The innovative analysis and solution of the titanium tank leakage problem of the Apollo Lunar Module Rocket Engine.” It is possible he was the last recipient of this award before it was discontinued.