MIRATEK Site Manager For AEDC, Wade Burfitt, Co-authors 
award-winning technical paper with Tom Fetterhoff which represents a significant stepping stone to the future of hyper-sonic weapons system program development.  Fetterhoff is AEDC Test Division's technical director and Burfitt is AEDC's site manager for MIRATEK El Paso and the deputy executing agent for OSD's High Speed Systems Test (HSST) program at the Complex.  In 2002, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), represented by George Rumsford, the manager of OSD's Test Resource Management Center, had tasked Fetterhoff, Burfitt and their team at AEDC to devise methodologies for ground testing hyper-sonic flight regime technologies.
Fetterhoff said, "We [at AEDC] should be very proud of the fact that we managed this technology area for OSD and that this, along with some other projects, are world-class, recognized by the Department of Defense as ground-breaking technology advancements."
Burfitt said the award-winning AIAA technical paper that Fetterhoff and he authored has provided an excellent opportunity to get the word out to the public on the initial tangible payoff from their team's efforts - a special facility located at ATK GASL (General Applied Science Laboratory) in Ronkonoma, New York.
"Once the clean air, variable Mach number technologies are perfected in the HAPCAT demonstration facility, it is envisioned that similar larger scale capabilities will be built at AEDC to enable much more accurate and thorough test and evaluation of hyper-sonic weapons systems," he said. "HAPCAT will be operational in 2016 and will likely be followed by an applicable investment program at AEDC." 
Fetterhoff and Burfitt were unable to attend the award ceremony for their paper, held at the 2012 awards luncheon at the 18th AIAA /3AF International Space Planes and Hyper-sonic Systems and Technology Conference in Tours, France. 
However, Burfitt said he appreciated being acknowledged, but the significance of the award went well beyond two engineers writing a paper.
Fetterhoff said, "I'm proud of the organization we built between the government and the contractor workforce - and their expertise - it's second to none."