Great loss can become great opportunity

Sometimes great loss leads to great opportunity.

Lockheed Martin was awarded the F-35 program on October 21st, 2001. I’ll never forget that day. I was not on the winning side. I was at Boeing. I was devastated. It’s hard to lose a fighter jet program like that.

The USAF NGAD competition that was awarded today was similar in many ways to the Joint Strike Fighter competition. Many years of design and development leading to a fly off of multiple test aircraft. Along the way, there were many obstacles and many victories for both teams. A lot of sacrifice on the part of the engineers and their families. Many late nights, weekends, and holidays, in the office, the lab, or the flight line.

I’m so excited for the Boeing team that won, but I also understand the great disappointment of the Lockheed team that lost. Both programs were classified, so I have no details on why one jet won or one jet lost. However, I’m confident that both designs were outstanding.

For the joint strike fighter program, it became obvious after a few years that the Air Force chose the better aircraft. I hope we can all look back at today, a few years from now, and say that the Air Force made the right choice again.

I did not know it at the time, but my work on the Joint Strike Fighter program did not end that day. It was just beginning. About a year later, I accepted a position at Moog Aircraft in Buffalo, NY - leading the system design team on the F-35 Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation System EHAS (Flight Control Actuation System). The ironic part was, that was the exact job I was a finalist for on the X-32 program. I thought I had lost that job forever when the USAF chose the X-35.

What seemed to be the worst loss of my professional career turned into my greatest opportunity. I would eventually become the Chief Engineer of the F-35 EHAS and after that, Director of Engineering at Moog. This led directly to my selection as VP of Aerospace & Defense at Siemens twenty years later. I doubt I would have ever become director of Engineering or VP of A&D if the USAF had chosen the X-32 on that day in October 2001.

The X-32 loss was just as good for my family as it was for me. My two daughters grew up in Buffalo, and met their husbands there. I now have two incredible grandsons that would not be here if the USAF had picked the X-32.

To all the engineers and staff at Lockheed, and their supply chain: I encourage you to see today as a great opportunity - not just a loss. I’m guessing they will be hiring in St. Louis soon, and the Cowboys are not likely to compete for the Super Bowl in the next several years anyway.

Congratulations to the great Boeing team in St. Louis. After some devastating losses, you won a great victory today. Now the real work begins. Delivering a world class fighter to the United States Air Force.