Experience:
Michael Drake has over 30 years of directly related experience in aging aircraft research and problem solving. He was UDRI’s DESP Program Manager from contract award to 2008. Under his leadership, more than $58 million of delivery orders were awarded to solve a variety of systems problems. Projects have included improved repair and manufacturing processes, improved coating application and removal techniques, repair equipment maintenance, high-cycle fatigue reduction, nondestructive inspection, improved corrosion-resistant coatings, material replacements for improved corrosion resistance and life, solution development for aircraft systems problems, and sustaining and reverse engineering to develop improved structural and electronic replacement components.
Michael has been both Project Engineer and Project Team Leader on system support projects sponsored by OO-ALC, WR-ALC, OC-ALC, Air Force Materials Laboratory, Productivity Reliability and Maintainability Office (PRAM), and various System Program Offices. The PRAM projects produced life cycle cost savings of more than $300 million. The system support projects have involved the F-16, F-15, C-130, B-52, KC-135, F-15, B-1, AV-8B, S-3, and F-4 aircraft and the TF 30, TF 33, TF 4l, J85 21, TF 34, and F 107 jet engines. During these projects, Michael defined the cause of the problem, developed a solution, developed and conducted ground and flight test programs to evaluate and verify the solution, developed the solution implementation plan, defined repair equipment required, and trained the maintenance personnel in the implementation procedure.
Michael has been the program leader or a major contributor to UDRI programs aimed at solving high cycle fatigue problems through the use of passive damping, and is internationally recognized as a leader in passive damping technology. He led various Air Force and Navy projects that developed and improved structural concepts that increased system performance, reduced system weight, and provided effective vibration suppression for systems where no commercially-available materials could function. He has mentored and trained numerous in-house and industry personnel in vibration damping technology.
Michael was the program leader for the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) Advanced Integrated Diagnostics Programs. He provided significant technical leadership to these programs, with his primary areas of contribution consisting of the base integrated diagnostics architecture definition, ALC operations, implementation analysis (risk, cost/benefit, life cycle cost analysis (LCC), sortie generation), and in the structures, propulsion, and flight controls subsystems areas. This program made extensive use of “house of quality” techniques to translate user requirements into technology requirements, then used Kepner-Tregoe techniques to assess and rank over 100 different candidate diagnostic technologies against these requirements. As a result of these programs, the JSF adopted a total aircraft/maintenance system approach to integrated diagnostics that will increase sortie generation rates and produce a $5 billion LCC savings.
Michael also was co principal Investigator on the AFRL Air Vehicle Directorate Vehicle Subsystem Integrity Program, which developed a method utilizing an Air Force repair and maintenance database to define the critical component within an aircraft subsystem that was causing the subsystem failure, and solve associated supportability, reliability, and availability problems.
Education:
B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 1972
M.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 1973