NAVAIR: There Are No Limits to What You Can Do Here
I produced performance data and trade studies for programs pertaining to external store integration on aircraft, such as AARGM-ER, LRASM, AIM-260A, IRST, MALD-N, and SDB-II to name just a few. Using the training I received from my supervisors and mentors on similar efforts, I was able to decide that these stores did not require performance flight testing in order to develop accurate aircraft performance data (e.g., range and endurance) for use in the flight manual. The flight manual is analogous to an owner’s manual for a car, but for aircraft and geared toward pilots as the audience.
One thing I love about working at NAVAIR is that my leadership fully empowers me to make technical decisions and has even gone out of their way to provide me with specialized training to become a certified airworthiness authority. Think Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness, but for Navy/Marine aircraft instead of civilian aircraft.
I was able to clear some of these external stores for airworthiness and safety of flight using high-speed wind tunnel data without the need for flight test, which substantially saved on costs for each store program. Accordingly, I supported all wind tunnel efforts, including test requirements, matrix development, on-site data acquisition at NASA Ames, and post-test data reduction using the MATLAB based tool I described previously.
I cleared the remaining stores by similarity to existing ones, leveraging results from CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) experts in my division or my own hand calculations where appropriate to estimate lift and drag differences from existing stores. My efforts helped expedite the timeline to clear these stores on aircraft, saving additional costs for the Navy.
To repay the favor of all the training I received, I helped train and continue to train other engineers on my team to support similar programs. Since I am only one of few to possess airworthiness signature authority, training engineers on my team and mentoring them with their own programs allows me to approve flight clearances based on their own airworthiness recommendations.