Outstanding Technical Contribution in Industry

Dr. Alfred O. Awani
Senior Manager
The Boeing Company

By Garland L. Thompson

Sum up Dr. Albert O. Awani with four words: Relentless pursuit of knowledge. His research findings could fill volumes in an aerospace library. But he, like Thomas Edison, is as much a manager of the discovery process as he is an investigator.

Dr. Awani, who left Nigeria to finish college in the U.S., demonstrated a driving, whole-earth pursuit of knowledge, following up his 1975 graduation from Chicago's Aerospace Institute by taking multiple master's-level studies at California's Northrop University. He completed a master's degree in aerospace engineering, in 1997, and the next year finished a second master's in management, double-majoring in management systems and administrative management. Then he marched on to the University of Kansas for his Doctor of Engineering degree.

In three years at NASA's Ames Research Center, Dr. Awani investigated variable camber rotors (helicopter rotors with movable flight-control surfaces). His dissertation had explored such devices, and now he began the process of developing usable products.
He moved on to McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., becoming the first Black designer of low-observable ("stealth") rotorcraft, for the Army's LHX light helicopter. Because he was breaking new ground, the rules for this project, involving rapid, massive integration of new technologies, had to be written as it evolved.

His next big project, after the Boeing takeover, was development of a new type of helicopter warplane, the RAH-66 Comanche. Here his skills were put to the ultimate test. Dr. Awani not only handled the proposal that won a joint Boeing-Sikorsky team the initial development contract, he led the team to win a $3.1-billion engineering and manufacturing contract, with a possible payoff of $8 billion for 1,213 new Comanches.

He had to manage Sikorsky's teams as well as Boeing's to integrate new technologies in survivability from attack by lasers; high-power microwave radiation; nuclear, biological, and chemical attack; a raft of key innovations in avionics and computer gear; and variable weapons loads, all in a package designed for low observability by radar, infrared, and acoustic sensors. And the entire package had to be highly crash-worthy.

As if that wasn't enough, he stepped into the missile arena, setting up an agile production system for the Delta IV satellite launcher, to maximize flexibility in responding to changing requirements in the commercial-launch business.
In May 2000, Dr. Awani joined Boeing's Executive Development Program, with responsibility for helping to rapidly spread best practices in research, development, and implementation of new technologies and business strategies to all Boeing units. He's a man on a mission, and Boeing clearly thinks he's still got room to climb.

Garland L. Thompson is assistant managing editor of The Philadelphia Tribune and a member of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Selection Panel. He can be reached at GThompson@ccgmag.com.