1977 Richard Abrams

RICHARD ABRAMS
"KELLY" JOHNSON AWARD

This year's recipient of the "Kelly" Johnson for outstanding achievement in Flight Test Engineering is Mr. Richard Abrams. The award is presented to Mr. Abrams for his personal management of the flight test engineering effort which has made the B-1 flight test program not only ambitious but efficient and safe.

Dick, as he is known to his friends, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1938. Presently he is Manager of Flight Test Engineering and chief flight test engineer at Rockwell International's B-1 Division test facility at the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Edwards AFB, California. His flight test background includes approximately ten years with the U.S. Air Force and three years with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As an Air Force civilian, he worked at the AFFTC as a flight test engineer on B-58, SR-71 and F-111 flight test programs. In 1970, he left the AFFTC and accepted a position with the FAA's Washington Headquarters Flight Test Branch. At the FAA he was associated with the Concorde and other SST-related airworthiness requirement programs. In this capacity, he participated as project flight test engineer in France on the first U.S. Concorde flying qualities flight test evaluation in 1972. He joined Rockwell in July, 1973 and has flown on over forty B-1 test missions to date, including the first flights of B-1 aircraft Nos l and 3.

Dick graduated with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from California State Polytechnic College (San Luis Obispo, California) in l960, and obtained his M.S. in Systems Management in 1971 from the University of Southern California. He is a member of the Society of Flight Test Engineers, and American Aviation Historical Society, and has recently authored CORSAIR AT WAR, part of the popular Ian Allen AT WAR series that cover the operational history of many World War II combat aircraft.