ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET

In January 1942, one month after the Pearl Harbor attack, admiral of the Japanese fleet, Yamamoto, initiated a secret project to develop the world's first and only giant undersea aircraft carrier with "special purpose attack aircraft" - its destination was mainland North America. Yamamoto's vision to use the submarine stealth to deliver an airborne strategic attack presaged the primary preemptive strike system of today's high-tech warfare - the submarine-launched cruise missile. Unfettered engineering innovations designed into the M6A1 SEIRAN aircraft made it one of the most advanced and complex of the Japanese wartime aircraft. So little did the Allied intelligence know of Yamamoto's secret weapon system that the aircraft did not even beget the customary Allied-English name code. Fate of the war would see the unconventional attack force of combined aviation and submarine crew, on its first and final mission, arriving at the launch point just as the emperor declared surrender! This lecture analyses Yamamoto's vision in the history of aviation.

Thomas S. Momiyama is a freelance advisor on aviation opportunities. He retired in 1995 as a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service and director of aircraft research and technology programs at the Naval Air Systems Command Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Cost: $10.00 for Members/Guests, $12.00 for Non-members, $8.00 for Student Members. Non-members joining AIAA at this event will receive a complementary dinner. Please pay at the door. Checks should be made out to AIAA.

Reservations are requested by Tuesday, May 15, 2001.

Contact:

Robin Hardy, 864-7159, r.c.hardy@larc.nasa.gov

Or Mohammad Takallu, 864-7671, m.a.takallu@larc.nasa.gov

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Last update: April 6, 2001