Some are so lucky that when they close their eyes at night, they get
to fly in their dreams. Some are even luckier: they get to fly when
they’re awake, piloting planes into clouds. But the luckiest ones
are those who make flight possible, the aeronautical engineers. And,
we’re all lucky that they do what they do, for they’re the
ones who whoosh us home for Christmas, jet us across oceans, and lift
us into those clouds.
Fay Lawy—
Bombadier Aerospace
Faye Lawy is a business analyst for Bombadier Aerospace’s <www.bombadier.com>
V5 Knowledge Based Engineering. Bombadier Aerospace and its 26,000 employees
are well known for manufacturing business and regional aircraft. Its
Learjet was and is a synonym for ultimate style. Founded in 1907, Bombadier
has sites in Kansas, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Montreal, and Toronto.
Lawy is based in Montreal, but she doesn’t just build jets. Her
job can have her jetting to Paris. She says, “The company sent
me to Paris. I saw the air show. We’re working on a new project
and the company needed someone to run the demonstration on the computer.
It was an amazing experience.”
What’s also an amazing experience is what she and her colleagues
do everyday. “We manufacture airplanes, not washing machines.
Just walking through the manufacturing plant, I’m amazed. I think,
‘My employer is manufacturing aircraft.’ It’s a cool
product.”
What’s also cool is how open aeronautical engineering is to women.
Lawy states, “There are many opportunities for women engineers.
People are starting to appreciate diversity in the workplace. We don’t
face a lot of the discrimination and issues that women who came before
us faced. Today, everyone is inviting. More than that, there aren’t
enough women engineers. We’re needed, so there’s nothing
to be afraid of when joining this profession.”
Not only isn’t aeronautical engineering daunting for Lawy, it
carries a certain cachet. She comments, “Everyone knows that airplanes
are ‘cool.’ So, most people think that it’s neat that
I do what I do.”
So, what does she do? “The project that I work on and the group
that I work with are relatively new,” she declares. “We
capture design knowledge. That way, you eliminate errors and other engineers
can work a little bit more to invent new ways to accomplish tasks rather
than just repeating the same task. The group for which I work is a really
great team of people. Everyone wants to help each other. In a big company,
you also get to do so many different things.”
So, how do you come to work for a big company such as Bombadier? Lawy
says, “You need a certain enthusiasm for the job as well as the
ability to think outside the box. Being a team player is also an important
part of being in a company like Bombadier. You have to be able to work
in a group.”
Lawy came to Bombadier by way of Concordia University in Montreal, where
she earned a bachelor’s of engineering degree in mechanical engineering.
It was through Concordia that she came to Bombadier. Lawy recalls, “At
my university, there is an association that gives internships to different
aerospace companies. There are quite a few such companies in Montreal.
I applied for one of those internships and got it. I also took tours
of the different companies. When I came to Bombadier, right away, I
loved the department, which mixed mechanical engineering and industrial
engineering to improve processes.”
To facilitate joining any new company, Lawy suggests mentoring. She
advises, “Mentoring is important. My group mentors me and it’s
essential for new employees and especially for those fresh out of school.
You’re able to get experienced advice because your mentors have
already been through the same jobs as you have. They guide you. It doesn’t
always have to be official mentoring. Many engineers informally take
on the mentoring role.”
Rhonda Y. Hayes—
Raytheon
Rhonda Y. Hayes is a solutions manager, SAS IT business application
solutions for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems <www.raytheon.com>.
Hayes is one of 73,000 employees at Raytheon. “We’re a world
leader in space and airborne systems,” she notes. “We provide
our customers with sensors, integrated systems, and space and missile
integration systems. We’re first in affordability, reliability,
and availability.”
Like Lawy, Hayes oversees efficacy. “I’m part of a newly
organized group, so my role evolves,” she explains. “Our
new group is a business applications solutions group. It’s part
of SAS information technology. We maintain value-added business solutions.
We track and maintain the applications that people use to do their work.”
She also makes certain that federal accounting standards are being met.
“We make sure that everything conforms to the new post-Enron Sarbanes
Oxley standards,” she declares.
Also like Lawy, she was drawn to an aerospace company with intriguing
breadth and depth. “I like the fact that Raytheon is into a lot
of things,” Hayes states. “We’re a defense contractor,
so we partner with a number of other aerospace and defense companies.
The equipment that’s on airplanes comes from different companies
and we’re number one in radar.”
How does Raytheon manage to be number one in radar? Hayes says, “We
hire bright, talented young engineers, scientists, and mathematicians.”
Hayes became an engineer by way of Cal State Long Beach, where she earned
a bachelor’s of science degree in computer engineering and is
currently enrolled in a master’s program in engineering management
at the college. “I tried to take a breadth of classes that would
allow me to be flexible. I didn’t know how my skillsets were going
to mix,” she says.
As Hayes was open in selecting her classes, she urges that others also
be open. She remarks, “I always tell students, ‘You never
stop learning.’ The old saying, ‘The more you know, the
less you know,’ is truer than ever. Technology constantly changes.
You can just try to stay current in your field, since it’s impossible
to know everything. You find a few things you’re passionate about
and try to stay informed. Also, know your resources. No one knows everything,
so know the people who do know the right answers. ”
And why did Hayes apply to Raytheon? “I’m part of the ‘Star
Trek’ generation, so it gives me a chance to go into real life
versions of that adventure television show,” she comments.
But before Hayes was in the aerospace industry, she was an architect.
She believes that that background gives her an advantage. “The
advantage that architecture gives you is the ability to see things in
an exploded view,“ she explains. “You see patterns. You’re
able to identify patterns right away. When I look at things, I see beyond
the wall.”
What also varies for Hayes is the diversity difference between where
she worked and Raytheon. “I love the diversity and the community
outreach at Raytheon,” she declares. “When I first started
here, Bill Swanson was in charge and people said, ‘He talks the
talk and walks the walk.’ That was fascinating for me. Normally,
in the architectural environment, I was the only black woman. If there
was another black employee, it was usually a man. So, I came from an
environment where a big firm would constitute 100 employees. I came
here and there were thousands and thousands of people of color and the
president of the company was talking about diversity and respecting
differences. That just blew me away. They say here that it’s okay
to be who you are and that’s true and so refreshing. Today, Bill
Swanson is the big boss and he still emphasizes these values.”
And how do the people of Raytheon feel about working in such an environment?
“When I first started working here, I was amazed that people here
had been working at the company for 25+ years. You just don’t
find that nowadays. Even to this day, that just really amazes me.”
Sapna Lakshminarayanan—
Hawker Beechcraft:
Sapna Lakshminarayanan, is an aeronautical engineer for Hawker Beechcraft
<www.hawkerbeechcraft.com>,
based in Wichita, KS, and she is one of 8,000 employees. Hawker Beechcraft
has 15 sites with manufacturing in the United, States, Mexico, and England.
Born in India, Lakshminarayanan’s career in aerospace engineering
was seeded by simply looking up.
“Back home, when I was a child, there was a park next to the airfield,”
she remembers. “My parents would take me there and I could see
aircraft taking off and landing. They were really up close: just a few
hundred feet above us. At that age, I would wonder how just two people
could control something so huge and so big. I wanted to know how were
they able to control the speed and direction of those huge planes.”
Lakshminarayanan wonders no more. Today, she is proud to say, “Our
company builds innovative and enduring brands of aircraft. I contribute
to the design and performance of those aircraft. I love that I have
the opportunity to be a part of a big project to design and improve
some aspect of the aircraft. I get to work on new aircraft as well as
existing aircraft.”
However, since Lakshminarayanan came halfway around the world to design
for Hawker Beechcraft, there were some adjustments to be made. “I
was surprised by a lot of empty space, very less people, as opposed
to India, where every inch is occupied by someone. The winters are very
different from back home,” she explains.
There were also academic adjustments. She had earned a bachelor’s
of science degree in aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of
Technology, but went on to earn a master’s of science degree in
aerospace engineering at Wichita State University. Right away, she noticed
a difference in academic culture. “It was a big change,”
she recalls. “At universities in India, it is more formal between
your instructor and your student. Here I found out that it’s very
informal. There are more opportunities to brainstorm with your professor
here.”
Those opportunities for brainstorming continue at Hawker Beechcraft.
Lakshminarayanan says, “Everyday is a challenge. Some of the projects
that we get here make you think out of the box. It gives you an opportunity
to space out your thinking.”
And what attributes does Lakshminarayanan believe Hawker Beechcraft
needs for its “everyday” challenges? “Hawker Beechcraft
needs employees who are motivated and passionate about their work. We
also need professionals who have pioneering ideas and the ability to
communicate those ideas. We need engineers able to generate the team’s
idea of how to move forward, so that everybody’s contribution
is noted.”
Mentors, according to Lakshminarayanan, facilitate having these ideas
noted. “Cathy Downen is one of my mentors. I’ve been working
with her for three or four months,” she remarks. “I was
so impressed with her by the way she talked and how passionate she was
about the projects. I approached her and asked her if she would be my
mentor. She told me how she became the manager of a project and the
challenges she faces, such as convincing people about her ideas.”
But having Downen as a mentor eased some of Lakshminarayanan’s
challenges. “There was this project,” she recalls. “There
is a certain area in flight controls and that’s the area I majored
in for my master’s degree. I had worked on a theoretical basis
in school. Cathy encouraged us to use our expertise in one of the aircraft’s
projects. It was great, being accepted as an employee and then as an
aerospace engineer. It was a good moment for me..”
Nowadays, if you look for Lakshminarayanan, you might have to look up:
literally. Lakshminarayanan states, “After joining the company,
it motivated me to actually learn flying. I’m in ground school
right now. Soon, I’ll be practicing. We have a Hawker Beechcraft
Employees’ Flying Club. It’s extraordinarily inexpensive
through the flying club. It’s a heck of a perk.”
Colonel Merrily Madero—
U.S. Air Force
Colonel Merrily Madero is Vice Commander of the 17th Training Wing Goodfellow
Air Force Base in Texas. Lakshminarayanan might have the perk of “extraordinarily
inexpensive” flying lessons through Hawker Beechcraft, but Madero
had a few rides in aircraft that make turbocharged Porsches feel like
turtles. She recalls, “I’ve been in an F-15 and an F-16.
Those rides were about a week apart. My first ride was in an F-16. It
was a lot of low-level bombing runs. It was like being in a sports car
that was incredibly fast. The F-15 was even faster. We did a vertical
takeoff, which meant we went straight up, like a rocket. We got to do
some negative Gs, so I experienced weightlessness. I got to do some
spins and turns. I’m a skydiver, so I loved all those rides.”
Madero also loves to serve her country. “Serving my country is
why I joined the U.S. Air Force, but I also love what I do,’ she
states. “I always thought that when I stopped having fun, I’d
go into the private sector. Well, 22 years later, I still enjoy what
I do. I like to move around and live in different places and have a
variety of different jobs. I’ve been able to deploy and serve
my country in a combat environment. There’s never a dull moment.
It’s always exciting.”
What Madero currently does is oversee the training of 10,000 fire protection,
special instruments, and intelligence experts for the Air Force, Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, and various civilian agencies. “I am second
in charge of running this air force training wing and base,” she
says.
Having risen high, she has insight into what it takes to be promoted.
“We look at people who have the maturity and potential to serve
in that higher grade,” she explains. “It’s not necessarily
a reward. It’s more about having the ability to grasp the next
level. When you look at list of who’s been promoted, you say,
‘Oh, yes, I understand.’ You have to be able to take on
all those additional roles and responsibilities and especially in the
officer ranks.”
As Vice Commander, Madero also has insight into the general qualities
that allow one to excel in the Air Force. “We have three core
values: integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do,”
Madero says. “Integrity defines the character of a person and
the character of the organization. Our goal is to have people of high
character, people that other people look up to for guidance. The military
personnel are respected highly. So, doing the right thing is crucial.
Everybody who comes into the Air Force raises their right hand and agrees
to defend the Constitution. We are called to deploy sometimes and must
put our service to our country before ourselves. Excellence in all we
do is the standard of striving to do our best. Whether it’s an
E-mail or ensuring that as we train people to go to war, we do our best.”
Madero, who earned a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical
engineering from Michigan Technological University, has found that her
degree has helped enable her to do her best work in unexpected ways.
“Engineering has brought an incredible amount of credibility,”
she notes. “I was walking down the Pentagon with a one-star general.
He asked me, ‘What’s your degree in?’ I told him and
he said, ‘Oh, so you’re smart.’ It buys me instant
credibility. It’s given me the ability to problem-solve. When
I deployed last year to Southwest Asia, we needed to move our base from
one location to another. It required civil engineering expertise. I
was able to finish ahead of schedule.”
Sable Arega-Hutton—
ITT
Sable Arega-Hutton is a business development manager for ITT
“We design, develop, and manufacture components for aerospace
and other industries,” she comments. “My responsibility
is to do product development, strategic planning, and also work to identify
growth opportunities.”
Arega-Hutton is pleased that she landed in the aerospace sector. “I
like the aerospace industry,” she states. “I like that we
always push the technology and the performance. The end market is exciting,”
Arega-Hutton also likes the personnel at ITT. She says, “I also
like the people. They have been with the business a long time and are
passionate about their work.”
Arega-Hutton came to ITT by way of California State University in Northridge,
where she earned a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical
engineering. She followed that degree with a master’s in business
administration (MBA) from the University of LaVerne.
To smooth the transition from academia to career, Arega-Hutton encourages
networking. “Learn about the industry,” she advises. “And
make certain that you are passionate about the business and culture—they
go hand in hand. So, talk to people in the industry. The reality is
that what you learn in school is a lot different than what you’ll
encounter later.”
What Arega-Hutton has learned is that you must have a supple mind and
a solid set of social skills. “On the top of the must-have list
is problem-solving ability,” she declares. “To that end,
you must be detail oriented, persistent, creative, and flexible. You
also have to know when to change your path. If you are a project engineer,
you have to have good customer communication skills and customer relationships.”
Join these assets and you’ll position yourself for a promotion.
“The people who get promoted are the people who have the technical
skills for the job and who like new challenges, but who can also work
on a team and are results oriented. You have to manifest leadership
in a highly technical environment,” she says.
But is this highly technical environment good for women? Arega-Hutton
comments, “Engineering is great for women. It’s still male-dominated,
but young women should look into the field because it’s rewarding
and exciting.”
And that goes double for the aerospace industry. Arega-Hutton states,
“It’s a great industry. It has different levels of sophistication.
You can be a manufacturer or designer. You can work on engines or cabin
systems or many other areas or the controls.”
And triple for ITT. “ITT is a great place to work. There’s
a lot of loyalty between employees and the corporation. There are a
lot of lifetime employees here,” she concludes.
Stacey Kelly—
Bell Helicopter
Stacey Kelly is a technical resource specialist for external loads and
structural design criteria and a work package manager for the armed
reconnaissance helicopter for loads and fatigue at Bell. Based in Fort
Worth, TX, Kelly savors the techo-magic in helicopters and tilt rotors.
“I like the product that we manufacture. Helicopters are so unique.
Nothing else hovers and nobody else makes tilt rotors,” she says.
Kelly also likes the corporate atmosphere that produces such technological
wonders. “In my particular group, we enjoy a diverse set of activities,”
she states. “For example, one of us is a fencer, one is a pilot,
and I’m into horseback riding. We enjoy having a lot of discussions
that are not necessarily work-related. They’re all bright and
I enjoy swapping barbs with them. We all enjoy good-natured teasing.
You tend to respect people more when they bring color into the workforce,
as far as being interesting people. Bell wants well-rounded people.”
Playfulness is often a facet of sparkling intellect and intellect is
always needed to get metal aloft and hovering. Kelly explains, “I
like the challenges of engineering. Everyday that I come to work, I
have a different engineering challenge to tackle. It’s easy to
get bored in a job if you’ve been doing it for a while. Here,
there’s always something new.”
However, you must often academically endure to be rewarded by such a
challenging profession. “The first two years, many colleges actively
try to weed out students,” she notes. “Just because you’re
not doing well in these subjects doesn’t mean you won’t
go on to flourish in engineering. The freshman year, they actively seek
to push 50% of the students out of engineering. The second half of my
freshman year, I earned a D in physics, but I managed to graduate with
honors. I almost thought about changing majors and I’m glad I
didn’t.”
Kelly did graduate from the University of Texas with a bachelor’s
of science degree in aeronautical engineering. She parlayed that degree
into a career that delivers daily challenges and pride. “Compared
to rocket science, which everybody says is difficult, working on helicopters
is far harder,” she mentions. “I know. I’ve done both.
At Bell, we talk about fixed wings and how much simpler they are than
our rotors. The tilt rotor combines the best of both worlds: the helicopter
and the airplane. Whenever I see a Bell product, I feel a sense of pride
about what I do.”
Stephanie Sipila
NASA
Stephanie Sipila is a hardware manager at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston, TX. She is one of 15,000 employees, counting contractors, and
60,000 employees overall. Sipila likes the size of NASA—and its
range. “NASA is really large,” she explains. “It encompasses
a huge amount of capability. NASA covers work within all aspect of the
space industry. Within my world, we do human space flight and specifically,
spacewalks. We call that EVA, which is extra vehicular activity, meaning
outside of the vehicle. Within my office, we provide spacewalk capability
to all three of NASA’s space vehicles: the space shuttle, the
International Space Station, and the Constellation, which is the new
program going to the moon.”
So, how do you work for an organization that does what no one else does,
which is to put people on the moon? Sipila says, “From my perspective,
NASA looks for engineers who are sharp and creative. We do things that
no one else has done. We have to think outside of the box and do it
well. It takes courage to do what we do. We design the hardware and
tools to go to space and work in space. However, with all that creativity,
engineers also have to be grounded. We spend taxpayers’ dollars,
so we have to make sure that what we do is achievable.”
What’s it like working for in a place as breathtaking and brainy
as NASA? “More than anything else, I like the passion of the people
with whom I work,” she answers. “Everyone loves what we
do and believes in what we do that is important to society. You can
tell that people believe in their jobs by the way they act and work.
People wake up and want to go to work. There’s no doubt that our
work is inspiring. Who doesn’t want to walk on the moon and go
into space?”
To do what she does, Sipila earned a bachelor’s of science degree
in engineering physics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and
a master’s degree in space studies from International Space University.
“There are two crucial things you have to do in college,”
she advises students. “First thing, you have to complete is a
cooperative education study. You have to figure out if what you study
is what you think it is. When you do that, don’t be afraid to
try something that seems out there. Open your eyes to all the possibilities.
The second most important thing is to do more than study. Get involved—find
an extracurricular activity. You want to come out of school well rounded.
If you do more than just study, you teach yourself to have balance in
your life.” Balance at NASA is also important. Sipila states,
“The engineers who get promoted are the ones who have the balance
among creativity, intelligence, and responsibility.”
Sipila’s seminal attraction to NASA came at an unexpected moment
and through precocious reasoning. “It was accident that attracted
me,” she remembers. “When something goes awry, you hear
about it. I was in middle school and the Challenger accident happened
in 1986. We just talked about it and I came home and said, ‘I
want to be an astronaut.’”
So, how did she become an engineer? It was a teacher’s nudge.
says, “I had a seventh grade science teacher who said, ‘You’re
good at math and science. You should be an engineer.’ Right then,
I decided I’d be an engineer, even though I didn’t even
know what one did,” she recalls.
Now that she knows, how do people feel about her work?
“One of the neat things that I’ve done is to go out and
talk to people outside of the industry and watch them light up because
they think what we do is so ‘cool.’ It rejuvenates you.
I love to watch the faces of children when I visit classrooms. I get
letters too.”
Julie Anne Townsend—
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Julie Anne Townsend is a staff engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, where she also works in mobility and robotic
systems. Most people have played the part of a navigator, pre-GPS, with
a map awkwardly spread on a lap and an anxious driver wondering if it’s
“a right or a left.” Townsend is the ultimate navigator.
She explains, “I’m a Rover planner. I spend half my time
on the Mars Exploration Rovers Mission. As a Rover planner or driver,
I plot the path for the Rover. Scientists see the pictures that the
Rover broadcasts and say, ‘I want to go look at that.’ So,
we plot a safe path. The other half, I work on development of new robots
for future missions. One is ATHLETE, which stands for All Terrain Hex-Limbed
Extra-Terrestrial Explorer. ATHLETE is a six-legged robot that’s
being developed to support manned missions to the moon. It’s a
robot that will possibly be used as a support vehicle. We work with
prototypes to see what they can do and determine if they’ll be
worthwhile for a flight mission.”
How do you become a Rover driver and a robot builder? For Townsend,
it began with a childhood without dolls and a summer with an egg. “Since
I was a young child, I have always liked taking things apart to see
how they work,” she recalls. “My parents had a definite
sense of gender roles, so my brother got the Legos and I was never allowed
to touch that stuff. It was quite frustrating. So, I always had that
interest and when I was 13 years old, I took the Michigan Talent Test,
through which middle-school students took the SATs. If you score high
enough, you qualify for all sorts of summer programs. I qualified in
English and math. I was into reading at the time and thought that English
was going to be more my interest. I signed up for this summer program
at Purdue University. I could sign up for two classes, so I signed up
for one literature class and almost at random, I chose aerospace engineering.
During my two weeks, my astronautical engineering class was fabulous.
We learned about orbital mechanics, how you travel from one planet to
another, and how a rocket is designed. I came back from this summer
program and I told everyone I know that I was going to be an astronautical
engineer.”
Today, Townsend finally gets her chance to play. She states, “I
don’t think I’ll ever stop working. I enjoy my work. I’ve
made myself a strong base in this career and there are many ways I can
go with it. I might get into teaching someday, but I always want to
be part of robotics development and inspiring the next generation of
engineers. People who work here share the common dream that everyone
has. I’ve worked in industry and had some internships, but what
I’ve always found that’s different between working in industry
and working at NASA is that people here really want to be here. They’re
earning less pay and working more hours, but they believe in what they’re
trying to accomplish. That gives the whole place an energy and a fantastic
morale. There’s such an emphasis on excellence and always doing
the absolute best that you can. It pushes everyone to achieve to his
or her highest potential. Working here will never be a 9-to-5 job.”
To work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Townsend earned a
powerful academic pedigree. She earned a bachelor’s of science
degree in aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) and a master’s of science degree in aeronautics
and astronautics at Stanford University. She’s currently working
on her PhD in the same field at Stanford.
Then rocket science lit a fire under her. To light a similar fire, Townsend
urges students to play. “The advice I always give to anyone who
aspires to be an engineer is to find a way to play with robots”
she declares. “Find a program, course, or club that gives you
an opportunity to make a robot and tinker around. That hands-on experience
is more valuable than what you learn in your classes. It’s not
nearly as effective if you don’t learn the hands-on work. The
First Robotics Program, which is a robotics competition for high- school
students, is fantastic. There’s a related one with Legos for elementary
school students.”
