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TABLE OF CONTENTS

First Word -- Note from Embry-Riddle's associate provost for research and graduate studies
Portraits -- Profile of two faculty members and their current research.
Professional Activities -- Roundup of faculty scholarly pursuits
UAV Research at Embry-Riddle
Internal Funding -- for New and Continuing Embry-Riddle Research
External Funding -- for New and Continuing Embry-Riddle Research
Embry-Riddle Research News
Kudos

PORTRAITS

Lynnette Porter

As a scholar and teacher, Lynette Porter has sought to reveal hidden meanings in two of today’s most popular worlds: technology and fantasy.

After getting a Ph.D. in English at Bowling Green State University in 1989, Porter taught technical communication, English, and Native American literature for nine years at the University of Findlay.

During that time she published several books on writing and editing technical materials and online education, and she worked on contract as a technical editor and writer.

At Embry-Riddle, the associate professor of humanities and communication teaches technical writing, Honors seminars, and Native American literature.

In recent years, she has added popular culture to her teaching and research schedule. She’s particularly interested in the social and spiritual meanings of The Lord of the Rings films and the Lost television series.

“The Lord of the Rings remains important because its interests in family, friendship, and virtue are the same issues we deal with today,” Porter says. “In our post-millennial world, we’re interested in how these characters deal with rapid change. In the Lost TV shows, the survivors of a plane crash are trying to make a society of different people and nationalities work together.

“These themes resonate with me,” she says. “At heart, I’m a frustrated anthropologist.”

While interviewing actors and stuntmen from The Lord of the Rings films and visiting New Zealand, she saw how tourism to that country has surged due to the films’ popularity worldwide. Now she’s studying the phenomenon of “cinematic tourism” – the industry catering to fans who travel to places where a movie was filmed – and its impact on those places.

During a sabbatical in 2006-07, she will research the creative processes of JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, and Peter Jackson, director of the films.

“Tolkien was creating new languages, maps, and histories for his fiction,” Porter says. “Jackson was creating a new way to film that wasn’t possible when he started the trilogy. Technology was changing so much during the 18 months he made the movies that the way he ‘filmed’ the creature Gollum wasn’t possible when he started.”

Her book, "Unsung Heroes of The Lord of the Rings", was nominated by fans for an award as “best Tolkien-themed book published in 2005.”

Her newest book, "Unlocking the Meaning of Lost: An Unauthorized Guide", will be published in April.

Contact Porter about her research at porterly@erau.edu

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David Lanning

David Lanning is an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle’s Prescott campus who specializes in mechanical fatigue and crack analysis.

After getting his PhD in aerospace engineering from Ohio State University in 1997, Lanning worked at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology on the High-cycle Fatigue Program, a long-term engineering study of the wear and tear on turbine engine aircraft that are operated frequently and under demanding conditions.

Lanning’s focus was the notches on turbine engine blades that are often caused by sand and particles ingested by the turbine.

After two years at AFIT, he says he was interested in teaching, “but not at a large research university where there’s pressure to bring in large amounts of money each year in grants.

” Although he joined Embry-Riddle in 1999, Lanning continued his research at AFIT for four summers until the program ended. Data from his studies and those of other researchers there have been used to improve safety procedures and maintenance of turbine engines used by the Air Force.

At Embry-Riddle, he has developed several research projects.

He is principal investigator on a project, funded by Arizona Paradrogue Systems, to conduct mechanical tests on a paradrogue, a cone-shaped basket at the end of a hose used for mid-air refueling of aircraft.

Lanning and a student researcher are testing the paradrogue’s mechanical strength at minus- 66 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at 35,000-feet altitude. They’re also doing fatigue tests and microscopy of the epoxy ends on the cords that allow the basket to open and close.

In another project, a student is shooting small steel spheres from an air rifle at aluminum specimens to simulate foreign object damage and will determine the residual fatigue life of the specimens. “We’re using aluminum because it’s easier to work with,” Lanning says, “but much of what we learn can be applied to products made of more exotic materials."

He is pleased by the impending completion of the new Aerospace Experimentation and Fabrication Building and the tools it will offer his research. One such tool is a new scanning electron microscope used to examine fracture surfaces and an attached energy dispersive spectrometer to analyze the composition of materials.

Lanning teaches courses in aircraft detail design, aircraft structures, engineering materials science, and solid mechanics.

Contact Lanning about his research at lannind@erau.edu.

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