Our 2015 Whittle winner – Beth Gamble was presented with her medal and certificate during the ASIP Conference, held in San Antonio in December 2015. IFA Vice President – Americas, John Goglia was delighted to travel down to Texas to present the award and was joined by Steve Swift, IFA Vice President – Australasia who had nominated Beth for the award.
‘For a career devoted to keeping the world’s largest aircraft fleet – Cessnas – airworthy as they age, by developing a special suite of maintenance programs engineered to ensure Cessna aircraft are damage tolerant, as are large transport aircraft.’‘
After introducing IFA, John invited Steve to tell the conference’s 240 experts in structural airworthiness (Beth’s peers) how she had excelled: ‘Beth’s designed more ‘damage-tolerance-based’ structural inspection programs, for more aircraft types, for more aircraft in the world, than anyone else! She’s wrestled with the engineering challenge of old designs and materials. And, she’s stared down the political challenge of industry opposition so strong that her national airworthiness authority relented, leaving her to promote the safety value of her programs alone. She has already been rewarded, inwardly, by her programs finding life-threatening cracks. But, the IFA also wants to publicly honour her persistence, passion and professionalism. Beth has saved the lives of many air travellers!”
‘The IFA also wants to publicly honour her persistence, passion and professionalism. Beth has saved the lives of many air travellers!’
STEVE SWIFT
IFA VICE PRESIDENT – AUSTRALASIA