TENTATIVE - High Flying Adventures featuring Virgin Orbit Chief Test Pilot Kelly LatimerJoin us on May 20th for a high flying adventure as we hear from Virgin Galactic Test Pilot and Virgin Orbit Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer. Kelly will share with us the exciting focus that both companies have. Virgin Galactic is developing vehicles (Spaceship2 and Whiteknight2) to fly people on suborbital space flights. That would be quite a fly-in! Virgin Orbit is developing an in-flight rocket launch capability (747-400 is the launch platform) to put small satellites into space. How did Kelly end up in these unique programs? Join us as you won't want to miss hearing about her fascinating journey!
Note: This upcoming meeting is dependent on the status of government restrictions due to COVID-19. We truly hope that we will be able to see you all and will advise you closer in if we need to cancel it. We missed you on March 18 and plan to reschedule Craig Ekberg's Tiger Squadron presentation to a later date. We wish you well and hope that you and your loved ones stay healthy at this difficult time.
About Kelly Latimer: Kelly graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with Honors in 1987 with a BS in Astronautical Engineering, then graduated from George Washington University in 1989 with an MS in Astronautics. Her next 20 years in the US Air Force included being a T-38 Instructor Pilot, Aircraft Commander in the C-141 and C-17 including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, graduating from the US Air Force Test Pilot School. Kelly then finished her Air Force career as the Squadron Commander of the 48th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB in California where she oversaw test programs in the C-17, C-130J, C-5, HH-60, CV-22 and KC-135. After her Air Force service Kelly flew as an experimental Test Pilot for NASA, then as Test Pilot for the Boeing Company. Kelly is currently based out of Virgin Galactic's Mojave Air and Space Port in California. She has flown over 50 different aircraft and logged more than 6,500 hours of flight time. Hope to see you on April 22!