[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 87 (Friday, June 3, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING DON BATEMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. SAM GRAVES

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 3, 2016

  Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. C. 
Don Bateman, Corporate Fellow and Chief Engineer-Technologist for 
Flight Safety Systems and Technology at Honeywell Aerospace. As the man 
behind the first Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) and the 
revolutionary Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), Mr. 
Bateman is a true champion of safety for the aviation industry.
  Don has received a long list of accolades, including receiving the 
U.S. Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011. Bateman 
also is in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, an Aviation Path Finder 
in the Museum of Flight, and a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow. He 
received Aviation Week's Laurel for IT/Electronics and its Award for 
Lifetime Achievement, and in 2014 picked up the Elmer A. Sperry Award 
for enhancing the art of transportation.
  Over his 60 year career in the aviation industry, Don's intense focus 
on identifying, understanding, and addressing aviation safety risks has 
led to some of the most successful safety solutions in aviation 
history. He holds over 50 U.S. and 90 foreign patents related to a wide 
variety of safety-related avionics including Terrain Awareness and 
Warning Systems, Heads-up Display systems, Speed Control/Auto Throttle 
Systems, Stall Warning Systems, Automatic Flight Control Systems, 
Weight and Balance Systems, & Radar. Don is most well-known for his 
work addressing Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accidents.
  For decades, CFIT was one of the leading causes of fatalities in 
commercial aviation; it is considered a form of spatial disorientation, 
whereby the pilots cannot discern their position and orientation in 
proximity to the earth surface. These incidents were the leading cause 
of airplane accident loss of life having reportedly caused over 9,000 
deaths since 1944. The technologies pioneered by Don Bateman have 
virtually eliminated what used to be the most common type of airplane 
disaster.
  Beginning in 1970, Don was instrumental in establishing global 
recognition of CFIT risk and the need for improved pilot training 
supported by advanced technologies and tools to prevent pilots in poor 
visibility from unintentionally flying aircraft into terrain or other 
obstacles. This led to the invention and subsequent introduction of the 
original Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) which used existing 
aircraft sensors such as the downward looking radar altimeter, to 
provide the pilot with advanced warning of impending impacts with 
terrain. In 1974, based on recommendations from the U.S. National 
Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 
mandated that all large turbine and turbojet airplanes be required to 
install GPWS equipment. Over 35,000 GPWS were installed between 1971 
and 1998.
  From its initial development and based on knowledge gained from 
accident and incident analysis and vigorous flight testing, GPWS was 
continually improved and new capabilities such as Wind Shear Detection 
& Annunciation were added. However, it was in 1994 that the GPWS 
technology took the most substantial leap forward with the integration 
of GPS technology. What would become the Enhanced Ground Proximity 
Warning System (EGPWS), leveraged advancements in digital data storage 
and processing. Don began assembling a worldwide database of terrain, 
obstacle and runway data and used this data to provide pilots with both 
a forward look and improved situational awareness of any surrounding 
terrain. With this database and supporting alerting algorithms, EGPWS 
increased the pilot's warning time from seconds to minutes, a major 
advancement in the prevention of CFIT accidents. In subsequent years, 
Don evolved EGPWS to accommodate the unique operating characteristics 
of helicopters. There are now over 55,000 aircraft equipped with EGPWS 
and the technology is standard equipment on all commercial aircraft in 
production today.
  Expanding on EGPWS technology, Bateman and his team developed other 
safety products including Synthetic Vision, that displays EGPWS data in 
a 3-D format so pilots can literally ``see'' the hills and surrounding 
terrain with visual cues that give pilots a sense of how fast they are 
approaching potential obstacles.
  As Bill Voss, former president and CEO, Flight Safety Foundation, 
fittingly stated: ``Don Bateman has probably saved more lives than any 
single person in the history of aviation''. . . and the impact of his 
work will be felt globally for decades to come.
  I understand Don Bateman intends to spend his retirement enjoying his 
family, traveling, and staying involved with the avionics industry. I 
congratulate Don Bateman on his many accomplishments and years of 
outstanding service to the aviation community on this milestone 
occasion. He is truly an asset to those millions of passengers around 
the globe who are safe in the skies each year through the use of his 
technologies.

                          ____________________