Distinguished Service Award presented by Larry Ilcewicz (July 2010)
Mr. Tom Walker has supported CMH-17 as a Chairman for the Damage Tolerance Task Group for many years. Under Tom’s leadership, the task group meetings have always addressed topical issues of relevance to industry applications and included good attendance. His efforts resulted in many improvements to the original Damage Resistance, Durability and Damage Tolerance Chapter published for Revision F to Volume 3, as well as significant work on several other Volume 3 Chapters.
Starting in 2005, Tom supported the FAA in benchmarking industry practices for composite damage tolerance and maintenance through a series of working group meetings and workshops, requiring significant coordination with industry experts. The end result of Tom’s leadership in these areas has been major reorganization and numerous updates for the corresponding chapters of Revision G to CMH-17, including new content that was not publicly available in the past. In the interest of aircraft safety and certification, Tom’s interface with the FAA also helped link the CMH-17 Revision G content with new regulatory guidance materials on composite damage tolerance and maintenance.
