Careers

A pre-med student enrolling in her third year of college, Mindy Lindheim met with a neighbor who was a Delta pilot and changed her future endeavors forever. Within a month, she enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She earned her degree in Aeronautical Science while working as a mechanic’s assistant. Today, she is the Regional Sales […]

Tucker Rice started out flying RC Airplanes when he was three-years-old. He and his grandfather Allen Rice decided to get into flying full-scale airplanes when Tucker was only 12. Now at 20, Tucker a student and lineman, knows he wants his future in aviation to be in the military. “I’ve always known I wanted to […]

The pilot shortage continues to be thorn in the side of the airline industry, and the 1,500-hour requirement for pilots to enter as first officers has not helped. To ease the initial stage for pilots entering an airline career, Eagle Jet International, a Florida-based training company, has established a program that allows them to step […]

“If you are ever presented with an opportunity, no matter where you are in your life, no matter what you are currently doing, don’t hesitate to try to take advantage of that opportunity,” says Michael Marco, who is a third generation pilot. Fourth generation pilot Allison Leeward definitely believes that. She did a quick internship […]

“My two passions are planes and people,” says Cayla McLeod. When she graduates with a degree in her major of Mass Communications, she hopes to mesh her two passions together. She started in aviation at the Candler Field Museum Youth Aviation Program when she was 16 years old and was able to earn 75 hours […]

A new job title is appearing in classified ads for aviation and aerospace professionals: repair and test technician. “A repair and test technician is a jack of all trades,” says Royce Wagner, who holds that title at GE Aviation’s Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion (LEAP) engine manufacturing and repair facility in Lafayette, Indiana. “You have to […]

The growing need to launch satellites, scientific experiments, International Space Station supplies and other goods into orbit is fueling demand for payload integration specialists, technicians who install cargo on board and ensure it deploys from the rocket as designed. “It truly is a mechanic’s job. It’s turning wrenches, working with high-pressure fluids and gases, and […]

One of the first words Emmy Dillon, Garmin Human Factors Engineer said, was “plane.” Emmy believes that truly shows what she lives for. Emmy earned her Human Factors Psychology degree from ERAU, where she is also working on her masters. She picked that line of study because of an aviation camp she went to in […]

Michael Mainiero went to see the Patriots Jet Team performing in Sacramento, California. That was a life-changing decision for him. He was invited out to the Patriot’s facility in Byron, California. When he walked into the facility with his father, he said, “we are coming back.” With his experience with the Patriots Jet Team, he […]

Swarm intelligence, or swarm theory, refers to decentralized, self-organizing systems, such as flocks of birds, whose actions “enable relatively simple individual entities to produce complex behavior when operating with other simple entities,” says Michael Campobasso, CEO of Embedded Control Designs (ECD). The field is quickly moving from theory to practice as specialists like Campobasso seek […]