In order to fulfill the purposes of the AIAA as set in its constitution and by-laws this charter aims at establishing the framework for the committee’s activities. The P&C TC will be responsible for scope, organization, and technical content of all AIAA meetings concerning propellant and combustion technologies.

The P&C TC will operate in the fields of education, research, development, and application of propellant and combustion technology for military, civil and commercial aerospace systems. Its major purpose is to promote the knowledge and effective use of propellants and combustion systems at political and technical levels.

The main activities of the P&C TC in support of its scope will include:

• Facilitating review and publishing of propellant and combustion papers and articles
• Providing educational programs by sponsoring propellant and combustion short courses
• Coordinating activities with other AIAA Technical Committees and other technical societies such as American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), etc. with common interests
• Honoring technical contributors through awards, nominations for fellows, and membership upgrades
• Encouraging, supporting and honoring outstanding students through the awarding of an annual scholarship to a deserving student
• Broaden the member participation base through the creation and use of subcommittees within the full committee
• Increase the outreach of AIAA by encouraging international experts in the field to participate to the scopes of the TC

The P&C TC will consist of managers, engineers, and scientists from within government, academia, and both the defense and commercial aerospace industry. The committee will include individuals from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, ranging from fundamental research to design, development, and production of combustion systems all over the world.

The members shall actively participate in the items defined in the scope and activities paragraph of this charter.

Selection of membership on the P&C TC will be made by the committee chair in accordance with the AIAA guidelines.

The normally accepted term of membership on the TC is 3 years. Technically, however, members serve for three consecutive one-year periods, so that the membership of inactive members can be terminated after the first or second year.

The committee chair may appoint active members for additional terms.

The membership shall be limited to a maximum of 35 (not counting international and associate members) unless an increase is approved by the Technical Activities Committee.

See current membership roster>

The P&C TC will meet twice a year at a minimum. These meetings will normally be one of two types:

1. Those held concurrently/consecutively with AIAA-sponsored national meetings/conferences, to provide support of these events and,
2. those held at an industrial/Government/academic facility to provide the membership with first-hand exposure to technological developments, products, resources, requirements, and missions.

Meetings will be held at a time and location determined by the P&C TC Chair after consultation with the committee membership. The Chair shall distribute an agenda of these meetings to the TC members at least two weeks prior to the meeting. The length of meetings will be set to accomplish the necessary business of the P&C TC.

Members are encouraged to attend all P&C TC meetings and be active participants in meeting activities.

See current meeting schedule>

Official correspondence of the P&C TC will be forwarded through the Chair or Secretary as appropriate. Copies of official correspondence will be provided to all members of the P&C TC.

The P&C TC will be led by a Chair and a Chair-elect/Vice-Chair. P&C TC correspondence, meeting minutes and committee finances will be attended to by a Secretary / Treasurer.

The Chair of the P&C TC shall be elected by the majority vote of the TC membership and certified by the Vice President Technical Activities of AIAA.

The Chair of the P&C TC shall serve for 2 years or until their successors are selected and qualified and may serve for 1 additional successive term. The Vice-President Technical Activities may appoint a Chair for additional successive terms.

The Chair shall preside over all meetings of the P&C TC. She/He shall have general supervision and direction of the other officers serving the P&C TC.

The Vice-Chair shall be elected by the majority of the TC membership. Nominations have to be distributed to the TC membership prior to or latest at the meeting. Nominees have to be P&C TC members.

The Vice-Chair must select nominees for Chair-elect to be approved by the TC membership, preferably before he takes over the position of the Chair.

Generally, the Vice-Chair succeeds the Chair with the change made in May of the year ending the term of the Chair.

The Vice-Chair shall act as Chair in the event of absence of the Chair.

The Secretary shall have the duty of forwarding official correspondence, providing names and addresses of the members distribute agendas and minutes of all meetings, maintain membership records of past and current membership and implement efforts to solicit members.

The Secretary shall be the principal financial officer and shall be responsible for the treasury, accounting, audit and interpretive functions. The Secretary shall report to the Chair and the Committee on the occasion of the first meeting of the year.

The P&C TC will be composed of several subcommittees. Each of these will be led by a subcommittee Chair. The subcommittee Chairs will report to the Chair of the P&C TC and will give activity reports at each committee meeting.

Subcommittee chairs shall be nominated by the Chair and Vice-Chair and elected by the majority of the membership.

The current subcommittees are listed below.

See current subcommittee membership>

The Continuing Education Subcommittee provides a short course covering topics related to Propellants and Combustion. The short course provides the opportunity for members of industry, laboratories and university faculties to update their knowledge of propellant and combustion research, development and production. The course contains both theoretical and practical materials, suitable for a wide audience with varied interests. It is offered every two years in conjunction with the AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit. The subcommittee is also formulating the outline of an additional course that will address the role of experimental techniques in combustion modeling. The subcommittee would then have two courses, one of which would be updated and conducted every other year. It is the purpose of the subcommittee to maintain the visibility and importance of Propellant and Combustion studies at the forefront of the AIAA membership.

The Best Paper Award Subcommittee seeks nominations each year for the selection of the best paper presented in a Propellants and Combustion-sponsored technical session. Nominations come from session Chairs at the Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Joint Propulsion Conference. The subcommittee develops and coordinates the selection process such that the technical content, the written quality of the paper and the presentation quality are all considered in the selection process. Final selection is made by the full P&C TC. Upon final selection, the Chair of the subcommittee notifies the award recipient(s), the TC Chair and the manager of AIAA Honors and Awards. AIAA must be notified by May 1, annually; in order to present the award certificate at the Joint Propulsion meeting awards banquet.

Generally, the Vice Chair of the P&C TC shall be the Chair of the membership subcommittee.

The role of this subcommittee is to collect and maintain information such as the mailing addresses and technical interests of the members of the technical committee, use this information to assign members to the various subcommittees and provide this information to the other subcommittees as needed. An additional purpose is to maintain a wide representation from the industry, government and universities by encouraging qualified individuals to join the P&C TC.

The primary task of the Awards Subcommittee is to participate in the nomination of candidates and selection of recipients for various AIAA national awards. The P&C TC has an annual award and this subcommittee leads the selection of the recipient. The selection committee consists of the Awards Subcommittee chair, the present and past P&C TC Chairs and representatives from the Air Breathing TC and the Liquid Propellant & Solid Rockets TC. The subcommittee, along with other Technical Committees, also participates in the selection for other national awards such as the Air Breathing Propulsion Award. The subcommittee has the responsibility to respond to other requests from the National AIAA Awards Office. The Awards Subcommittee members actively solicit nominees for the various national awards as well as the Propellants and Combustion Award. These nominations are then passed on to the National AIAA Awards Office for processing. The subcommittee also encourages the promotion of fellow Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee members for AIAA upgrades to Associate Fellow and Fellow status.

See past award winners>

A. Conference Planning and Execution - The subcommittee is responsible for organizing all aspects of the Propellants and Combustion sessions and technical paper selection of the Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Joint Propulsion Conference.

1. Coordinate all P & C presentations with responsible AIAA groups.
2. Prepare Calls for Technical Papers.
3. Develop topics for technical papers and seek papers in selected areas.
4. Coordinate review of extended abstracts for applicability and anticipated results.
5. Determine number of sessions and select session chairs/vice chairs from the roster of the full P&C TC.
6. Coordinate with AIAA to ensure proper facilities for each session.
7. Provide data and attendance at each session, lessons learned, and assessment from preceding year.
8. Implement and monitor Chair/Author checklist.

B. Other Technical Society/Organization Coordination

1. Monitor and assess activities with other technical societies and organizations.
2. Recommend appropriate personal contacts between P&C TC and other technical societies/organizations.
3. Identify and implement selected P&C TC approved activities.

C. Local AIAA Section Coordination

1. Assess activities with local sections and chapters.
2. Recommend approaches for appropriate optimization of P&C TC and local chapter interactions.
3. Identify and implement selected optimization activities.

A. Aerospace America Highlights Article - Each year Aerospace America publishes a highlights issue (December issue). One TC member, preferably a publications subcommittee member, takes the responsibility to put together this article by asking for suitable inputs and combining them into an article of about 600 words (plus one or two pictures). Responsibility for preparing the article in time rests with the Publications Subcommittee chair. The highlights article typically covers significant accomplishments in the propellants and combustion area on the national and international level.

See past highlight articles>

B. Journal and Book Support - Support AIAA technical journal and book publication work by soliciting, preparing, and/or reviewing high quality papers.

1. Typical examples of this activity are as follows: assist journal/book editors in finding and reviewing papers for publications, identify authors, identify reviewers, identify important topics that need to be published.
2. Examples of past subcommittee activities in this area are as follows: recently three AIAA progress series volumes were sponsored by the P&C TC. Activities included discussions with the authors, reviewing and making suggestions for changes of the outlines, and suggesting possible reviewers.

C. Position Papers - A position paper shall provide a unique perspective rather than echo existing positions, and it must be technically correct. Individuals, the subcommittee, or the whole P&C TC may prepare proposals covering the area of Propellants and Combustion. In order to prepare a solid proposal it is recommended to discuss proposals of position papers in the whole TC; after finalizing the proposal it should then be submitted to the AIAA by the Publications subcommittee, which should also coordinate all correspondence.

It should be noted that at least in the past six years the P&C TC has not submitted any position papers, partly because a need was not identified, and partly because of the lengthy review process required by the AIAA.

The P&C TC charter will be revised when changing circumstances dictate. Revisions require concurrence of a majority of the members and the P&C TC Chair. Revisions may be proposed at any time, but may only be enacted at a P&C TC meeting.