DATE: Wednesday, April 30, 1997             TAG: 9704300526

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   77 lines

AREA GETS A LIFT COPTER CONVENTION LIKELY TO HELP REGION'S EFFORTS TO LURE CUTTING-EDGE FIRMS.

It's an oppressive day in the desert and you're skimming the dunes in an RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, looking to make things even more oppressive for some Scud missile technician.

At least, that's what Boeing engineer Rich Sheffield wants you to think. He's showing off a 3-D simulator at the American Helicopter Society's 53rd Forum and Technology Display, being held at the Virginia Beach Pavilion. He and thousands of other exhibitors, pilots, military personnel and industry execs from across the country descended on the Pavilion for the conference Tuesday, checking out the latest in vertical-lift technology.

The convention, which concludes Thursday, is one of two premier events in the vertical-lift and rotorcraft business. The other one is held in Europe. Convention topics include ``affordable vertical lift,'' aviation safety and the Joint Strike Fighter proposed for the Air Force, Navy, Marines and British Royal Navy.

Regional technology leaders weren't letting the opportunity fly by.

The Peninsula Advanced Technology Center got 15 cities and counties together to present a unified front to the rotorcraft industry.

``It's truly a 15-city high-technology effort,'' said Chuck Rigney, marketing manager for the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Council.

``We have so much synergy in vertical flight,'' he said. With the region's massive military presence, NASA Langley Research Center, the Center for Innovative Technology and other high-tech resources, being picked to host the conference was ``really kind of a natural,'' Rigney said.

The conference is usually held in the Washington, D.C., area.

For the region, it presented a chance to sell itself as fertile ground for high-tech companies looking to expand or relocate. It was also a chance to showcase hot, high-tech companies already here.

For instance, Newport News-based Dynamic Engineering Inc.

Earlier this month, NASA bestowed the George M. Low award on the 265-employee company. The award, given for quality and productivity in the aerospace industry. It's the first time a Virginia company received the award, created in 1984.

Dynamic Engineering president and CEO David Mullins called it ``an Oscar and a Lifetime Achievement award for our company.''

And of course the big boys came out to play.

Boeing made a show of its joint venture with Sikorsky, the RAH-66 reconnaissance and attack helicopter. Although company officials didn't manage to get one of the 43-foot attack choppers into the Pavilion, they provided the next best thing - a trailer with a full-sized cockpit mock-up and flight simulator.

And there was Sheffield - who demonstrated Comanche war games using superpowerful Silicon Graphics computers. His job - to take the attack chopper to its limits - without leaving the ground.

``I can say that I get to fight the Comanche before anybody else,'' Sheffield said.

Also making a buzz was Lockheed Martin, with its Joint Strike Fighter design - the JSF is also one of the major focuses of the conference.

A glitzy display complete with multiple monitor banks, animatronic models of the stealthy plane and a music video touted the merits of the project, which is supposed to be a low-cost replacement for the service branches' aging fighter inventories.

The region's high-tech firms are counting on the high visibility afforded by the conference to steer more cutting-edge development this way.

Rigney said the helicopter conference was possibly the first time the 15 cities and counties pulled together in such a manner.

But, he said, ``it's certainly not going to be the last.''

The helicopter conference is open to the public today from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free. MEMO: The helicopter conference is open to the public today from 9:30

a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

McDonnell-Douglas Corp. engineer Jerry Clark on Tuesday checks out a

Sikorsky Seahawk HH-60, used by the Navy mostly for reconnaissance,

at the American Helicopter Society's 53rd Forum and Technology

Display at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.

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