Momentum Member Spotlight – August 2015

AIAA Congratulates Andreas Schütte

by Duane Hyland, AIAA Communications

After we interviewed one half of the duo who won this year’s AIAA International Cooperation Award for July, we decided seek out the other half for August. The spotlight swung east again from Colorado, stretching its beam across the Atlantic, to fall on Braunschweig, Germany, and illuminate Andreas Schütte, AIAA Senior Member, and a Research Engineer at the Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR).

Since joining DLR in 1998, Schütte has conducted experimental and analytical research on high performance aircraft, serving as a project manager on major multidisciplinary military projects at DLR. Additionally, he serves as the Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) Panel Executive Officer at the NATO Research and Technology Organization. Most notably, Schütte co-chaired the international task groups: AVT-161 – “Assessment of Stability and Control Prediction Methods for NATO Air & Sea Vehicles,” and its follow-on program AVT-201 – “Extended Assessment of Stability and Control Prediction Methods for NATO Air Vehicles,” with the July Spotlight subject, Dr. Russell Cummings. Nearly 40 participants from several NATO nations took part in both projects.

We began our talk by discussing what influenced Schütte to enter the aerospace profession, and I was not surprised to find it was a parent’s influence: “I wanted to deal with aircraft and aeronautics since I was a kid. My dad was in the engineering business and probably an example of what I wanted to do for in the future as well, fortunately it all worked out perfectly.”

Schütte’s best career memory came through DLR, as he stated: “Working in a research environment like the DLR is already a great opportunity in many ways. In addition it gave me the opportunity to work in international research groups, and I stayed for almost a year at the U.S. Air Force Academy as a visiting researcher, and I spent three years in Paris for DLR as the Executive Officer at the NATO Science and Technology Organization. In these two positions I learned a lot and extended my personal and professional network.”

For college kids entering the aerospace profession, Schütte advised them to “stick to your most favorite subject, because what you like you are able to be excellent in. I know that in comparison to other businesses, like automotive, for instance, it’s a smaller area with less job opportunities so it is even more necessary to get a network set up via internship or academic work in the aeronautics industry or at research establishments.” For high school kids, Schütte’s advice was much the same, advising them to “stick with the work, it’s challenging, but it will pay off in all ways.”

Schütte had some unique ideas about how more veteran members of the aerospace industry could help younger members, advising: “One possibility is to give young students the opportunity to do their bachelor or master’s thesis in the aeronautics industry or research establishment environment like NASA or DLR. There you would have the chance to see, besides the specific research subject you are working on, the bigger picture. In addition, it helps to get connections to a senior researcher and shapes the idea of which area you want to work for business later on.”

As for what the value of AIAA is to aerospace engineers, Schütte opined: “AIAA is an outstanding platform to present and discuss your research work and extend your professional network on an international level. There are many topics to cover in aeronautics very specifically,” and that makes it “more necessary to have an environment outside your own establishment to share ideas and get inspiration from others.”

We closed the interview discussing Schütte’s feelings about winning the 2015 International Cooperation Award along with Russell Cummings, our July profile. Schütte told me: “I was very proud and thankful to receive the award, even more to receive it together with my colleague and friend Russ Cummings. Specifically, I have to thank all my colleagues that I worked with over the last years within the NATO research environment for all the corporate achievements we made and for the friendships.” He continued, talking about the importance of international cooperation: “Without cooperation it is very challenging to make progress in some areas of aeronautics because knowledge transfer is essential and the topics are getting more specific, even more because the research community is not getting larger on a purely national level. Sharing budgets is another huge enabler. There are many examples particularly from aeronautics and aerospace that show how international cooperation makes things happen.”

AIAA congratulates Andreas Schütte for being the August 2015 AIAA Member Spotlight.