APT has recently worked with regulators and industry in Scandinavia to conduct a three-day training course on IMESAFR v2.0. Twenty students from Norway, Sweden, and Finland registered for the August class, which was held at Nammo’s facility in Raufoss. As regulators in all three countries are looking to update the way quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is used for explosives safety, IMESAFR is being evaluated, as it is now recognized as the industry standard in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.

APT is pleased to announce that Barry Hendrix has joined the APT staff as a Principal System Safety Engineer. Mr. Hendrix is a senior member of the International System Safety Society, former President of the North Texas chapter, former Director of Member Services, and was awarded Manager of the Year in 2001. Prior to joining the APT team, he served as the Integrated Battlefield Command System (IBCS) System Safety Manager and Software Safety Leader at Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control. Among other leadership positions, his career also includes serving as Technical Fellow, Principal Engineer for Aviation Safety & Airworthiness, System Safety/Software Safety Manager on company aircraft product lines for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and as System Safety Engineering Team Lead for Airborne Interdiction Weapons at Texas Instruments and Raytheon. He has contributed to many Safety Standards including ANSI/GEIA-STD-0010-2009, Standard Best Practices for System Safety Program Development and Execution; MIL-STD-882E, Department of Defense Standard Practice System Safety; IEEE STD-1228, Standard for Software Safety Plans; and SA-18 Committee for Aerospace Recommended Practices (ARP).  He is on the G-48, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International, and RTCA Committees. Mr. Hendrix will support special studies out of the SEAC and a variety of APT customers.

A-P-T Research, Inc. has achieved its 25th year in business and is celebrating with two events for employees, their families, and guests. To kick off this momentous anniversary, a picnic was held at APT’s headquarters in Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday, June 20, 2015. A second celebration will be held for APT’s Florida employees at Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral on June 27.

Starting with just a handful of employees in 1990 in Huntsville, APT has grown over 25 years to over 130 employees located all over the United States, supporting more than 50 government and commercial customers.  APT provides professional engineering services in a variety of disciplines including systems engineering, risk assessment and analysis, test planning, range safety, system safety, software system safety, explosives safety, industrial and quality engineering, quality assurance, and mission assurance.

APT recently prepared a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) study using IMESAFR 2.0, which was used by a commercial explosives manufacturer to seek a variance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for an explosives facility in the United States.  ATF approved this variance request, which marks the first time the American Table of Distances (ATD) requirement has ever been waived based on a QRA study. IMESAFR is commercially available [APT Research, Inc. | Products | IMESAFR] and APT offers consulting services if needed.

In October, Company President, Tom Pfitzer, was re-elected for a three year term as the Chair of the Launch and Re-entry Safety Committee of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS). This Committee of international range safety experts prepares and publishes analyses and policy recommendations on the safety issues of protecting the public from the hazards of launch and reentry. The Association also holds an advisory seat at the United Nations (UN).

The APT Annual Awards Banquets were held on December 5, 2014 at the Ledges in Huntsville, AL on December 12th in Cocoa Beach, FL. Congratulations to all the winners! Click here to see photos from the Huntsville banquet.

APT is pleased to announce that effective November 19, 100% of the company’s stock has been sold to its employees, through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

While APT has been privately held by employees since it was founded, as the company has grown the percentage of employees who were also shareholders has decreased. The transition to an ESOP will allow all employees to become owners.

“It has always been our desire for APT to continue the tradition of being employee owned, and the ESOP will help us achieve this goal,” said Tom Pfitzer, President of APT. “The ESOP will enable the continuity of leadership and will not change the way the company operates. The management team is confident that the ESOP will make us an even stronger company.”

Tom and Pete Yutmeyer, Chief Operating Officer, view this as a natural step consistent with their recognition of the contributions of each of their employees in the success of APT, and of their desire to share the rewards of that success. “The reasons for converting to an ESOP are three-fold,” adds Pete. “The ESOP is the best way to provide for future company stability; ensure a smooth long term leadership transition; and share the financial rewards of ownership to our employees.”

Both Tom and Pete plan to continue on in their roles for the foreseeable future. “We still have a lot at stake both emotionally and financially, and we plan to stay around for some time” said Tom. “I’m thrilled for our employees; adding this element to our culture where our employees contribute in significant ways every day, and the future couldn’t be brighter.”

The F-35 Joint Program Office has selected the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) to perform independent software safety analyses of the next generation strike aircraft commonly called the Joint Strike Fighter. Based on their extensive software safety experience, APT personnel Rhonda Barnes, Terry Songy, Leslie Alford, Howard Kuettner, and Danielle DeBraccio have been selected by Mr. Josh McNeil, SED Software Safety Lead, to work alongside Government personnel in performing the analysis. APT is honored to participate in this highly critical new effort.

Click here to read the full article on www.army.mil.

The video below highlights AMRDEC’s efforts on the F-35 software assessment.