tigerhonaker
06-16-2006, 09:53 PM
This is {Sad} but it is still News and thought some would want to be so informed:
Terry
Dead Body ID'd as Editor of Aviation Weekly
by KRISS PERRAS
PCH Press
June 14, 2006 9:30 AM PT
MALIBU - Michael Dornheim, a Senior Engineering Editor for Aviation Week & Space Technology and an award-winning journalist, was found dead at 12:45 PM Monday in his overturned 1997 Honda Civic on an embankment on Piuma Road in Carbon Canyon. The ravine is two miles east of Saddle Peak Lodge where Dornheim was last seen having dinner with friends. That was on June 3, 2006 at about 10:30 PM.
"Mike had a unique combination of engineering education and experience, aerospace industry knowledge, inquisitiveness and dogged perseverance," Jim Asker, Aviation Week magazine's managing editor, said in a statement. "When it comes to things that fly _ whether in the atmosphere or in space _ no one could explain better than Mike Dornheim how things worked, or more importantly, why they didn't."
Dornheim told his dinner friends he was going to drive to his home, about 35-miles east in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, by a less-traveled route. Dornheim siad he would go by way of Cold Canyon to Mulholland Drive to U.S. 101, a police statement said.
A Los Angeles County helicopter crew spotted Dornheim's car about 300 to 400 feet below the road. The death appears accidental, police said. But, an investigation is continuing with the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division's Missing Persons section.
The car went over the cliff for unknown reasons. Only a scuff-skid mark was on the guardrail. But otherwise, the police report there are no other indications of how the car went off the cliff.
Police also report that family and friends arrived on the scene prior to police and were able to view Dornheim's dead body. The group was traumatized by the exposure - some crying and others passing out, the police report.
Dornheim had been with Aviation Weekly since 1984. Prior he was a senior engineer on the aerodynamics staff at the Boeing Company. He received a B.S. degree in Mathematics and an M.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford University. And he was a pilot himself.
In 1994, Dornheim received the Aviation Space Writers Association Award of Excellence for his space shuttle work. And, he was a three-time winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards for his coverage of aviation news, aerospace technology and air safety.
Dornheim wrote on a wide range of subjects - aeronautical engineering, avionics, criminal cases and weapons systems - according to magazine parent The McGraw-Hill Companies. His last story with Aviation Now can be read here - Orbital Express To Test Full Autonomy for On-Orbit Service (http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/search/autosuggest.jsp?docid=602118&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviationnow.com%2Favnow%2Fnews%2Fchannel_space_story.jsp%3Fview%3Dstory%26id%3Dnews%2Faw060506p1.xml). This is the cover story for the magazine for the June 5 issue.
Dornheim earned the magazine a photo scoop with his piloting skills in 1988. The magasine boats in that year, "the B-2 stealth bomber was to be rolled out at Palmdale, Calif., for its first public viewing. But U.S. officials considered any view from the top or the rear to be likely to reveal sensitive design information. So they carefully choreographed the event such that the audience would only be able to see the aircraft from the front."
"Noting that the government had failed to put a temporary flight restriction over Palmdale for the event, Dornheim simply rented a single-engine Cessna 172 and flew over the ceremony with Aviation Week photographer Bill Hartenstein, who snapped away, capturing exclusive pictures," the magazine states.
"No journalist in the global aerospace community was more respected than Mike Dornheim," Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology said in a statement. "His intellect and reporter's instincts were second to none, and to many of his fellow staff editors, he was the ultimate reality check on technology-oriented stories. Outside of the magazine, he was considered an engineer's engineer, able to discuss complex aeronautical engineering subjects with people on the cutting edge of aircraft and rocket design and development -- and then explain it to a non-technical audience. Mike was a unique talent." Dornheim is survived by a brother who also lives California, and his parents who live in suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C. He was only 51-years old. © PCH Press 2006. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.pchpress.com/local/dornheim6-14-06.html
Terry
Dead Body ID'd as Editor of Aviation Weekly
by KRISS PERRAS
PCH Press
June 14, 2006 9:30 AM PT
MALIBU - Michael Dornheim, a Senior Engineering Editor for Aviation Week & Space Technology and an award-winning journalist, was found dead at 12:45 PM Monday in his overturned 1997 Honda Civic on an embankment on Piuma Road in Carbon Canyon. The ravine is two miles east of Saddle Peak Lodge where Dornheim was last seen having dinner with friends. That was on June 3, 2006 at about 10:30 PM.
"Mike had a unique combination of engineering education and experience, aerospace industry knowledge, inquisitiveness and dogged perseverance," Jim Asker, Aviation Week magazine's managing editor, said in a statement. "When it comes to things that fly _ whether in the atmosphere or in space _ no one could explain better than Mike Dornheim how things worked, or more importantly, why they didn't."
Dornheim told his dinner friends he was going to drive to his home, about 35-miles east in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, by a less-traveled route. Dornheim siad he would go by way of Cold Canyon to Mulholland Drive to U.S. 101, a police statement said.
A Los Angeles County helicopter crew spotted Dornheim's car about 300 to 400 feet below the road. The death appears accidental, police said. But, an investigation is continuing with the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division's Missing Persons section.
The car went over the cliff for unknown reasons. Only a scuff-skid mark was on the guardrail. But otherwise, the police report there are no other indications of how the car went off the cliff.
Police also report that family and friends arrived on the scene prior to police and were able to view Dornheim's dead body. The group was traumatized by the exposure - some crying and others passing out, the police report.
Dornheim had been with Aviation Weekly since 1984. Prior he was a senior engineer on the aerodynamics staff at the Boeing Company. He received a B.S. degree in Mathematics and an M.S. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford University. And he was a pilot himself.
In 1994, Dornheim received the Aviation Space Writers Association Award of Excellence for his space shuttle work. And, he was a three-time winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards for his coverage of aviation news, aerospace technology and air safety.
Dornheim wrote on a wide range of subjects - aeronautical engineering, avionics, criminal cases and weapons systems - according to magazine parent The McGraw-Hill Companies. His last story with Aviation Now can be read here - Orbital Express To Test Full Autonomy for On-Orbit Service (http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/search/autosuggest.jsp?docid=602118&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviationnow.com%2Favnow%2Fnews%2Fchannel_space_story.jsp%3Fview%3Dstory%26id%3Dnews%2Faw060506p1.xml). This is the cover story for the magazine for the June 5 issue.
Dornheim earned the magazine a photo scoop with his piloting skills in 1988. The magasine boats in that year, "the B-2 stealth bomber was to be rolled out at Palmdale, Calif., for its first public viewing. But U.S. officials considered any view from the top or the rear to be likely to reveal sensitive design information. So they carefully choreographed the event such that the audience would only be able to see the aircraft from the front."
"Noting that the government had failed to put a temporary flight restriction over Palmdale for the event, Dornheim simply rented a single-engine Cessna 172 and flew over the ceremony with Aviation Week photographer Bill Hartenstein, who snapped away, capturing exclusive pictures," the magazine states.
"No journalist in the global aerospace community was more respected than Mike Dornheim," Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., editor-in-chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology said in a statement. "His intellect and reporter's instincts were second to none, and to many of his fellow staff editors, he was the ultimate reality check on technology-oriented stories. Outside of the magazine, he was considered an engineer's engineer, able to discuss complex aeronautical engineering subjects with people on the cutting edge of aircraft and rocket design and development -- and then explain it to a non-technical audience. Mike was a unique talent." Dornheim is survived by a brother who also lives California, and his parents who live in suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C. He was only 51-years old. © PCH Press 2006. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.pchpress.com/local/dornheim6-14-06.html