| "As a flight systems engineer with the Flight Systems Branch at Dryden, I carry out systems engineering, programming, and experiment integration on the F-18 System Research Aircraft. Right now we’ve just completed flight test of an electromechanical actuator in place of the hydraulic actuator on the left aileron of the aircraft. We hope this technology will be used to eventually develop aircraft with only electric systems and no hydraulic system at all. This change in technology would lead to increased efficiency and safety, since there would be no hydraulic lines to sever, less fuel consumption, and less maintenance.
"I have found the opportunities here to be tremendous. The variety of activities is much, much greater than in a commercial company. We’re involved in all aspects of development. We can work with an experiment early in the design stage and stay with it all the way through flight. Our work is 10…15…20 years out from what anyone else is doing. We work with high-risk technology, sitting way out on the cutting edge. It’s exciting." |
Steve Jensen
Flight Systems Engineer
Dryden Flight Research Center
UCLA
Joined NASA in 1998
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