IEEE-USA in Action:

IEEE-USA, AESS Display Cooperative Spirit with Avionics Timeline
Electronics Pioneer Honored with Special Citation

by Chris McManes

When Jim Leonard served as IEEE-USA president in 2003, one of his goals was to improve relationships between IEEE-USA and other IEEE organizational units. This cooperative spirit was reflected in a 100-year avionics timeline exhibit that premiered at the 100th Anniversary of Powered Flight Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, in July 2003.

The exhibit features key developments in avionics, or the electronic equipment that supports aerospace systems. The timeline begins with the Wright Brothers’ famous 1903 flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C., and runs through the SENSOR CRAFT, an unmanned U.S. Air Force advanced design concept. The Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner jet will be one of the timeline’s newest additions.

The avionics display was the brainchild of IEEE Senior Member Erwin (Erv) Gangl, director of Dayton Operations for CACI Technologies, Inc. Gangl, who lives in Washington Township, Ohio, worked with four IEEE entities to build the timeline: the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS); the IEEE's Dayton Section; the Student Branch at Dayton’s Air Force Institute of Technology; and IEEE-USA.

“I was very pleased with how well everybody supported the project,” Gangl said. “Every time I asked for help, I got it. Nobody said, ‘I’m not in this organization or that organization.’ It was great teamwork on the part of so many people. Not only did volunteers support any request I had, but they also helped fund the development and production of the exhibit.”

IEEE-USA Recognizes Gangl

Past IEEE-USA President Leonard, who is also AESS’ executive vice president, was so impressed with Gangl’s effort that he honored him with an IEEE-USA Special Citation at April’s IEEE PLANS (Position Location and Navigation Symposium) conference in Monterey, Calif.

“I was delighted,” Gangl said. “Being the AESS awards chair, I usually arrange for other people to be recognized. It was very satisfying to get recognition for a little side effort. It wasn’t really my job, but I felt strongly that it was important to do something for the 100th anniversary.”

Gangl also presented AESS Exceptional Service Awards to David Dobson and Ron Schroer for editing and publishing special editions of the AESS Systems magazine: the Oct. 2000 Jubilee issue and the July 2003 issue, “A Century of Powered Flight.”

IEEE-USA Display Accompanies Exhibit

Leonard was instrumental in gaining IEEE-USA’s financial support of the timeline exhibit, and in ensuring that the IEEE-USA display appeared with it. Even though the centennial of flight celebration has passed, the timeline and the IEEE-USA display have been so well received that they will continue to be used together around the country.

After premiering in Dayton in July 2003, the avionics exhibit went to the October 2003 IEEE/American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Digital Avionics Systems Conference in Indianapolis. Then, in late April, it was displayed at the IEEE PLANS conference in central California. The biannual PLANS event was well-attended by people from around the world. While organizers prepared for 240 attendees, 340 took part in the four-day symposium at the Hyatt Regency Monterey. Honeywell, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, CAST Navigation and BAE Systems were included among the 23 exhibitors, and more than 100 papers and 800 pages of proceedings — both PLANS records — were submitted.

Other Cooperative Efforts Equally Successful

The avionics display is just one example of IEEE-USA working with other IEEE organizations. In February, IEEE-USA and the IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) cosponsored a North American electric power system briefing on Capitol Hill for congressional staffers. In April, IEEE-USA worked with the Industry Applications Society, the Power Electronics Society, the Society on Social Implications of Technology and PES in producing a hydrogen economy conference (www.ieee.org/power/hydrogen) in Washington. Last fall, IEEE-USA and IEEE Spectrum magazine teamed up to conduct a survey (www.eweek.org/site/news/Eweek/2004_spectrum.shtml) of IEEE members to find out what they like about their profession.

IEEE-USA’s mission is to promote the careers and public policy interests of the more than 225,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. Leonard thinks the IEEE benefits greatly when its organizational units (OUs) work in harmony.

“It’s like synergism,” Leonard said. “When two or more things work together, they can produce an effect greater than their individual effects. The avionics timeline is a perfect example. Four IEEE OUs collaborated, resulting in an outstanding display that made the global IEEE look like positive contributors to the first century of flight.”

Erv Gangl: Electronics Pioneer

Gangl earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Akron (Ohio) in 1964, and added a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1967. As a civilian employee for the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton from 1965 to 1988, Gangl was an early pioneer in integrating digital computers into military aircraft.

In the late 1960s, Gangl was assigned to handle the digital computer requirements in the F-15 program office. His work resulted in the data bus standard (Mil-Std-1553) that led to plug-and-play digital avionics. The standard, still in use, is featured on the avionics timeline.

Before retiring from his Air Force position as chief avionics engineer, strategic systems, Gangl was appointed U.S. representative to the NATO Military Agency for Standardization’s (MAS) Digital Avionics Systems Committee in the early 1980s. He introduced Mil-Std-1553 — or 1553 — as a NATO STANAG (Standardization Agreement), and it was adopted as STANAG 3838. Gangl was also made U.S. representative to the Air Standardization Coordinating Committee (ASCC) Working Party 50, which approved 1553 as an ASCC standard.

Just as Leonard’s vision is to have IEEE-USA work closer with other IEEE entities, 1553 resulted from the work of many people. “The standard evolved due to dedicated teamwork between the military, the government and the aerospace industry, including international support,” said Gangl in the September 2002 issue of Avionics Magazine (www.aviationtoday.com). “That was the key to 1553’s success. I may have lighted the match, but the team made the fire roar.”

Chris McManes is IEEE-USA’s senior public relations coordinator.