Our Chapter History

  • The Society of Aeronautical Weight Engineers (SAWE) was organized in 1939 in Los Angeles, California, and incorporated 2 April 1941
  • First national conference was in Dayton in Feb 1941
  • Our Chapter was formed at the conference as the Wright-Patt Chapter.
  • Approximately 1947-1955 chapter suspended operations and became OHIO chapter.
  • In 1949 conference was held in Dayton
  • March 1967, Ohio Valley (Cincinnati) joined our Chapter
  • In 196(?) Chapter was notified that we could not use the name Wright-Patt or any derivative of Wright-Patterson AFB in our name.
  • After lengthy discussion and a vote of the local Chapter members, we changed our name to the Kittyhawk chapter in 196(?).
  • In the 1960’s, our Chapter conducted Advanced Analysis conferences with papers presented from experts around the country.
  • In 197(?), again after much discussion, the Society’s name was changed to the Society of Allied Weight Engineers (SAWE)
  • In 1981, the 40th International Conference was held in Dayton OH.  The conference committee was Tom Oole, chairman; Jim Folck, vice chair; Henry Weiler, Budget and Finance; Ted Muha, Hotel and Events; Bill Yinger, Host; Roger Bullock, Program, Publicity, Photography and Special Events; Charles Call and David Kraus, Registration; David Koehler, Technical Papers; Ed Langleben and Dick Mueller, Vendor; and Pat Folck and Steve Powers, Technical Tour and Ladies Events.
  • In the mid-1980’s, our Chapter started USAF user conference.
  • In the 1990’s, our Chapter expanded user conferences to all services.
  • In 2004, our Chapter expanded user conference, traveling around the country and changed the name to World Wide User Conference thanks to Irv Schaff.