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October 3, 2005 Vol. 77, no. 6F
The cool factor of this lecture is sky-highHe’s one of the people responsible for turning Boeing’s gee-whiz ideas into reality. Gary Fitzmire is vice president of engineering and information technology at Phantom Works, Boeing’s advanced research and development arm. His team of 1,100 engineers and technicians creates advanced technologies, processes, and systems that help improve the company’s current aerospace products and make future aircraft and spacecraft projects possible. You may have heard of some of them: the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, Space Maneuver Vehicle, Blended Wing/Body Transport, Orbital Express, Solar Orbit Transfer Vehicle, Space Shuttle, C-17 Globemaster III, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, AWACS, AH-64-D Apache Longbow, Delta III and IV launch vehicles, and the Boeing 777. In aerospace innovation, Fitzmire is on the leading edge. On Tuesday, October 4, engineers can learn more about this amazing world when Fitzmire comes to campus to deliver a talk entitled “Innovation at Boeing” as part of the College’s View from the Top lecture series featuring industry leaders. “We’ll present an informal look at some of the exciting research happening at The Boeing Company, along with some interesting videos,” Fitzmire says. “It will be more of a dialogue than a formal lecture.” The event takes place at 4 p.m. in the HP Auditorium, 306 Soda Hall. Refreshments will be served afterward. Fitzmire got his start in aerospace engineering when he toured an F-16 assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas. Before that, the Ohio State University ME graduate had dabbled in everything from chemical plants to working for the Illinois Department of Transport-ation. But the F-16s captured his imagination. “I was hooked,” he says, and joined up as a structural research engineer. In 1990, Fitzmire signed on with McDonnell Douglas (which merged with Boeing in 1997) as a program manager in the New Aircraft and Missile Products Division. He worked his way up the ladder in different units. “I love Boeing and I love what we do,” he effuses. A career highlight so far, he says, is serving as one of the principal designers of the Bird of Prey, a McDonnell Douglas prototype aircraft that now hangs in the Air Force Museum of Flight. Fitzmire’s expertise puts him in a prime position to envision the future of aviation 20 years out. “For one thing,” he says, “we’re addressing the environmental aspects by contemplating such things as hydrogen fuel cell-powered aircraft. In fact, our Madrid research center will soon demonstrate one, the first of its kind. And autonomous flight may reach the point, by then, where people not trained as pilots can safely operate personal aircraft. Finally, hypersonics may lead to the point where global precision strike missions can be flown anywhere on Earth from bases in the United States.”
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