Dryden Nominees Win Three out of Four NASA Safety Awards
April 5, 2004
Release: 04-17
NASA has recognized three individuals with one of its highest safety awards for contributing to the safe operations and maintenance of NASA Dryden Flight Research Centers’ one-of-a-kind and modified research aircraft, such as the DC-8 atmospheric experiments plane and the legendary B-52B mothership.
The Quality and Safety Achievement Recognition (QASAR) awards program has four categories: NASA employees inside and outside of the Safety and Mission Assurance directorate, a NASA prime contractor or subcontractor and one person from another government agency. The QASAR acknowledges people for significant quality improvements to products and services for NASA, as well as safety initiatives, programs, processes and management activities. Dryden nominees won three of the four categories for 2003.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe will present the awards on April 14, 2004, at the 18th NASA Continual Improvement and Reinvention Conference in Alexandria, Va. Dryden’s winning nominees were:
- NASA employee William R. Condzella was nominated for discovering the DC-8 airplane’s control surfaces were improperly balanced after it returned from FAA required major maintenance at a contractor’s facility. The citation states Condzella’s “insight, dedication, persistence and concern for others, has saved NASA and the Airborne Science Program from potential disaster. His behavior is in the best tradition of the Dryden safety ethic and serves as an example for others, particularly operations engineers. He is deserving of our highest praise.”
- Analytical Services & Materials (AS&M) employee and NASA retiree Frank W. “Bill” Burcham was chosen for his creation and development of propulsion controls technology that provides aircraft with crippled flight controls the ability to use the engines alone to land a plane safely. His citation states: “For outstanding contributions to aircraft safety through the conception, dedicated research, and the successful demonstration of propulsion-only controls technologies that have contributed to the survival of a crippled civil aircraft as demonstrated by the successful engines-only landing of the DHL A300 airplane in Baghdad, Iraq, on November 22, 2003.”
- U.S Air Force employee Al Clark is the Systems Program Office coordinator between the Air Force and NASA at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. He has helped maintain the B-52B for 28 years. The Air Force plane is on long-term loan to NASA. His citation states: “Mr. Clark has provided absolutely essential quality and airworthy safety to NASA Dryden with the upkeep of the high-altitude, heavy lift launch capability of the B-52B. He has spent endless hours coordinating, advising, inspecting and contracting, especially the past 10 years, to keep the B-52B safely airborne. The lives of our pilots and aircrew depend on it.”
-NASA-
Note to Editors: A more complete description of the nomination is available by calling Leslie Williams at 661-276-3893 or email Leslie.A.Williams@nasa.gov.