AVweb’s search of aviation news around the world found an award-winning L-139 at AirVenture, an Airbus helicopter going on a stamp, the annual convention of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, and an aviation poetry award for a Maryland writer and sailplane pilot. At the conclusion of the 2015 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Dianna Stanger has proudly brought home the EAA Warbirds Award for “Best Jet” for her Aero Vodochody Albatros L-139; it is not only a beautiful exemplification of aircraft — it is the only one in the world. “The Jet division at Oshkosh is filled with some of the best jets in the world for competition. It is an extreme honor to have the winning entry with such a distinguished field of competitors,” Stanger said. Airbus Group Inc. is honored that the MH-65 Dolphin helicopter will be featured on a U.S. postage stamp in celebration of the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard. Airbus Group Inc. is the U.S.-based operation of Airbus Group, a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. The Coast Guard has been a customer of Airbus for 30 years and has used the Airbus Helicopter’s Dolphin to support its rescue, security and life-saving mission operations since 1985.
More than fifteen hundred aviation and aerospace professionals will gather August 12-14, 2015, for the 39th Annual National Convention and Career Exposition at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. The convention, presented annually by the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP), will feature 20 speakers including Captain Howard Attarian, Senior Vice President, Flight Ops, United Airlines; Deborah Lee James, Secretary of the Air Force; and Dr. Aprille J. Ericsson, Aerospace Engineer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center throughout its three-day program. Sailplane pilot Pat Valdata has won the Donald Justice Prize for poetry in 2015. Her winning manuscript, titled Where No Man Can Touch, consists of poems in the voices of women aviation pioneers, chiefly women who achieved firsts in the field of aviation. The book was released by the West Chester University Poetry Center in June. Valdata flies a Pilatus B-4 sailplane and is a founding member of the Atlantic Soaring Club in Churchville, Maryland.
