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The Hamburg Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society held its Annual Ordinary General meeting on 4th June 2009 in The George Hotel Hamburg. 16 members were present and 13 proxy votes had been received representing 59% from the current membership of 49. Thus a valid voting quorum of members was represented. The Chairman of the Branch, Dr Hans Altfeld had expressed his desire to retire from the position of Chairman. This was due to his present responsibilities at Airbus which meant that most of his time was spent in Toulouse. Thus he could no longer actively participate in the Branch activities and the day-to-day running of the Branch. We were very lucky that Richard Smyth a long term member of the Society had agreed to stand as Chairman. No other members had put themselves forward for election so this was put to the vote and Richard was elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Branch.
Our new Chairman then introduced himself to the members and said what an honour and surprise it was for him to be invited.After completing his studies in aeronautical engineering at the TU Berlin in 1966, Richard joined VFW-Fokker in Bremen as a Propulsion Engineer. He worked on the VFW 614, the VAK191B and the Tornado. From 1979 to 1982 he was involved in the flight tests of the A300B2K and B4 and in 1981 became Head of the Propulsion dept. in Bremen. From 1982 to 1995 he was at Airbus in Toulouse as Head of Propulsion Systems responsible for specifications, guarantees, certification etc. In 1995 he moved to Hamburg where he became VP & Head of Systems Development. Then in 2001 back to Toulouse as VP Policy Development and Systems General. Following his retirement in 2007 he has been very active as an aerospace consultant and Capt. (Reserve) in the Bundeswehr. In 2008 he became a Fellow of the Society (FRAeS).Richard now lives in Toulouse but has an apartment near Buxtehude and pays regular visits to Germany. He fully intends to play an active role in the running of the Branch.
The other members of the executive committee had agreed to stand for a further term and were elected unopposed.
Secretary........................Jo Wenzel
Treasurer........................André Herbst
The auditors elected were
Auditor...........................George Lazarjan
Auditor...........................Nils Bartling
The following non-executive members were appointed by the committee
Programme Secretary.....Richard Sanderson
Membership Secretary....George Lazarjan
Publicity.........................Marion Gretenkord
The committee expressed their gratitude to Dr Altfeld for all he had done and in recognition of his services to the Hamburg Branch they agreed to appoint him as Honorary President of the Branch. Dr Altfeld was happy to accept this appointment and promised in the future to play an active role as far as his business commitments at Airbus would allow. After the OGA, Tom Williams Executive VP Programmes at Airbus gave a fascinating lecture on "The Management of Programmes at Airbus". His presentation can be downloaded via the download area. |
