[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

People wilth a genuine passion for and knowledge of this sphere of activity are rare...those who can tie that knowledge and passion into an ability to communicate in an entertaining and informative way ever more so. People like Mike are few and far between so he will be much missed. My thoughts are with his family and colleagues.

I just saw this blurb on NASA Watch about arrangements for Mike's funeral.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

One final postscript from the July 24, 2006, issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology:

News Breaks

2006 International Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards
Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/24/2006, page 19

Four editors of Aviation Week & Space Technology and two writers for a sister publication have won 2006 International Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards from the U.K.'s Royal Aeronautical Society.

Michael A. Dornheim, the magazine's late senior engineering editor, won the Northrop Grumman Award for the best breaking news story for "Skunks Working," which reported--and expanded upon--the first flight of a Lockheed Martin airship (AW&ST Feb. 6, p. 24).

Editor-In-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., and Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief William B. Scott won the Messier-Dowty Safran Group Award for the best air show writing. Their "Birds and Blues" cover package recounted flights with the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds and Navy's Blue Angels demonstration teams (AW&ST Mar. 21, 2005, p. 44).

Managing Editor James R. Asker was honored for "Reach for the Sky," the lead article in a package that explored very light jets and their potential as "air taxis" (AW&ST July 25, 2005, p. 44). The piece won the Gulfstream Award for reporting on business aviation.

Writers for the Aviation Week monthly Business & Commercial Aviation picked up two honors. Contributing Editor David Esler won the Honeywell Award for the best writing on systems or technology for his feature on the workings, history and future of full authority digital engine controls. A non-journalist, David Huntzinger, the vice president for safety of TAG Aviation, received the Airbus Award for Safety Writing for his piece on PINC, short for "procedures intentional non-compliance," or pilots willfully ignoring established standard flight procedures.

Seventeen of the journalism awards were presented at a dinner July 16 at the Royal Court of Justice in London. Dornheim's breaking news entry was judged the best of all the winners, earning him, posthumously, the Rolls-Royce Award for the Aerospace Journalist of the Year. Guy Norris of Flight International won the Airbus Decade of Excellence Award.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Here's a post-postscript.