News

Lynn Pippitt

Sheila Gideon · March 8, 2023 ·

Lynn Pippitt

Business Operations Director

Lynn Pippitt is the Business Operations Director for NAS, overseeing the following Branches: Acquisitions; Finance; Human Resources; Information Systems and Technology; Office and Administrative Services; Prime Contracts; and Project Controls.

Lynn began her career with Kwajalein Range Services, LLC (KRS) in 2003 at the Reagan Test Site located in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. From 2016 to 2019, Lynn served in leadership roles as the Deputy of Project Controls and Project Controls Manager. During that timeframe, Lynn also held positions in Project Management, managing or assisting, in the contract transition effort. From 2010 to 2015, Lynn held positions of increasing responsibility in Project Controls for the Integrated Range Engineering and Command, Control, Computers, and Information Management portion of the KRS contract. Prior to 2010, Lynn was an accountant and completed rotational assignments in Finance.

Lynn joined National Aerospace Solutions, LLC in January 2019 and has served in multiple business operations roles within Finance and Project Controls, including acting as Manager of both Branches.

Lynn received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland University College and a master’s degree in Project Management from Colorado Technical University.

Roy Thompson

Sheila Gideon · March 8, 2023 ·

Roy Thompson

Mission Execution Director

Roy Thompson is the Mission Execution Director for NAS, overseeing the Aeropropulsion, Flight, Space and Missile, Tunnel 9, and National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex Branches for the Test Operations and Sustainment contract at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC).

Roy joined AEDC in 1989 as a Facility Analysis Engineer and then transferred to the Marshall Space Flight contract in 1990 supporting the International Space Station. Roy returned to AEDC in 1994 as a Turbine Test Engineer conducting gas turbine testing at the Sea Level Test Facility. From 2010 to 2013, Roy supported Capital Project Investments first as a Project Manager and then as a Section Manager over Flight projects. Roy was promoted to Deputy Branch Manager over Flight Plants in 2013 until returning to Turbine Test Operations as Branch Manager in 2014. In 2016, Roy was the Deputy Branch Manager for Aeropropulsion before taking over as the Branch Manager in 2017 where he was responsible for the operation and sustainment of six wind tunnel facilities with ground-test capabilities from subsonic to Mach 10.

Roy has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University. He is also a Six Sigma Black Belt, Project Management Professional, and Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional.

Walter Bishop

Sheila Gideon · March 8, 2023 ·

Walter Bishop

Mission Support Director

Walter Bishop is the Mission Support Director for NAS where he oversees Asset Health Assurance; Design and Manufacturing; Engineering and Functional Management; Instrumentation, Data, and Controls; and Technology Innovations Branches for the Test Operations and Sustainment contract at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC). He has almost 40 years of experience at AEDC.

Prior to his current role, Walter served as the Deputy Mission Support Director, closely overseeing test operations and sustainment operations. He also previously served as the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Functional Manager and managed the functional aspects of wage employees, craft supervisors, planners, schedulers and O&M Specialists, approximately 750 employees at Arnold AFB in Tennessee, Tunnel 9 in Maryland, and National Full-scale Aerodynamics Complex in California. He was responsible for resolving labor management issues and supporting labor management negotiations in Tennessee and California. From 2017-2019, Walter acted as Chief of Staff for NAS.

Walter holds two Bachelor of Science Engineering degrees with post-graduate work in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Tennessee, a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional, and holds one U.S. patent.

Employee Feature: Electrical System Engineer

Sheila Gideon · January 13, 2023 ·

Employee Feature: Electrical System Engineer

Date published: July 7, 2022

**Marcus G. is an Electrical System Engineer for NAS at Arnold Air Force Base, TN**

What do Disney World, patriotism, and video games all have in common? They all in some way influenced Marcus G.’s career path that landed him at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC).

“I found out about AEDC at my university Career Fair,” Marcus said. “I liked what I heard from the start and wanted to find out everything I could. I am very patriotic and have always wanted to give back to my country and contribute to our nation’s defense. I grew up near Sumpter Smith Air National Guard Base in Birmingham seeing all kinds of airplanes fly in. I wanted to be a part of that.”

Marcus is an Electrical System Engineer also running Plant Operations in the von Kármán Gas Dynamics Facility at Arnold Air Force Base. Marcus has been with National Aerospace Solutions, LLC since June 2019. He has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Alabama A&M University.

“Here at AEDC I get to learn from so many people who want to help me be successful,” Marcus said. “We have so many brilliant minds on our team, engineers and craft, and I get to talk to them and learn what they know and how they address problems. Everyone has been so helpful and willing to offer suggestions or talk through situations with me. What better environment to learn?!”

Marcus has worked closely with his mentor Larry B.

“I call Larry my mentor, but he has really been more than a mentor; he’s more like a father figure. In other places I worked, many times the senior folks wouldn’t share what they knew—they felt if they “gave away” their knowledge, they would reduce their value. Larry has never been that way. He is 100% not afraid to share what he knows. He understands sharing your knowledge actually makes you more valuable.”

Larry went above and beyond to teach and mentor Marcus, even calling him out in the middle of the night so Marcus could learn what he looked for, what questions he asked, and what approaches he took.

“I value that time with him greatly and know he has invested a great deal in me. He has helped me develop a level of confidence I never had before. He wouldn’t just give me the easy stuff. He included me in everything. He’d show me how to do something the first time, then go out with me and push me to do it but watch what I did. Then it was up to me. He conveyed a degree of trust in me and I wanted to learn to show him I’d earned that trust. I knew Larry would always answer my questions too, so I never felt like I was totally on my own.”

Marcus’ interest in engineering started at an early age. His mom took his family to Disney World when he was younger. He remembers being so excited to go again the next year, and then she sat him down and explained that they couldn’t go every year; she said if he wanted to be able to afford to go to Disney every year, he needed to get a college degree and find a job that paid well.

“I enjoyed video games, so I researched about that industry and found out that the first gaming console with interchangeable games was developed by an African American (Gerald Lawson) for kids with disabilities that couldn’t get out and play,” Marcus recalled. “I thought that was cool and began to explore electronics. I really learned about engineering as a career in my junior year of high school.”

A few years into his engineering career with National Aerospace Solutions, Marcus is excited for the future.

“I’m excited about working on future technologies to help defend our country. I enjoy learning about the history of AEDC and what we’ve done here. It’s truly amazing to work in this environment and understanding what we’ve done here gives me a deep sense of pride and helps me connect with that history and want to drive things forward. I feel like maybe I’m actually a part of history that will be told someday. Maybe someone will read about something I’ve done the way I found out about Gerald Lawson. I love it out here—I can’t wait to see what’s next!”

Employee Feature: ID&C Engineer

Sheila Gideon · January 13, 2023 ·

Employee Feature: ID&C Engineer

Q&A with Davy R. about how he came to work at AEDC, his day-to-day work, and what he thinks is cool about his job.

Date published: April 14, 2022

**Davy R. is an ID&C Engineer for NAS at Arnold Air Force Base, TN**

Davy R. is an Instrumentation, Data and Controls (ID&C) engineer in the Propulsion Wind Tunnels (PWT) in the Flight mission area. Davy has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, both from Tennessee Technological University (TTU).

How did you decide on computer engineering? I really liked computers in high school. I could see that computers weren’t going anywhere. I knew I wanted to enjoy my work and make enough money to enjoy life.

What do you do from day to day? Of course, it varies. At a high level, our plants in PWT run three shifts every day; a lot of the systems are automated. I work with all the computers that help to automate those plant systems that supply the test conditions for the test article. If, for instance, a valve isn’t behaving the way it normally does, they may contact me to troubleshoot.

What do you think is cool about working here? One thing that I think is really cool is that you can transfer to another facility and do a similar job in a completely new environment. The nature of what we do is cool—working with complicated systems, aging systems, and even new systems that you wouldn’t see anywhere else and trying to make them all work together to accomplish the mission.

What do you like about working at AEDC? The 12-year-old answer is everything is really big here. At one time we had the largest motors in the world in PWT Main Drive. We were in the Guinness Book of World Records. Others have popped up now, but the horsepower being provided to the same load is something you can’t work with anywhere else. The other aspect that really makes the hard days worthwhile is how important the data we collect is…that what we do here really matters to someone’s safety at the end of the day.