2011 Tim Jorris

2011 Kelly Johnson Nomination-Dr. Tim "Boomer" Jorris

I am pleased to nominate Lieutenant Colonel (Dr.) Timothy "Boomer" Jorris for the 2011 SFTE Kelly Johnson Award.

Dr. Jorris graduated from the University ofCalifornia Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1993 and added a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering to his technical education in 1995. He began his professional aerospace career in 1995 as a Weapons Navigation Engineer at Eglin AFB. In 1997 he transferred to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB and began a flight test career that has been nothing short of stellar! From 1997 to 1999 he served as the F-16 and F-15 flying qualities flight test engineer and was awarded the prestigious "Golden Quill" Award for the best AFFTC Technical Report of 1997 (F-15I Flying Qualities Evaluation - AFFTC-TR-98-02). He also became the AFFTC MATLAB Expert and received several by-name requests to teach MATLAB courses to flight testers from both Edwards and Patuxent River.

From June '99 to Jun '00, Boomer worked in the Access to Space Office, thus broadening his career and flight test experience into the hypersonic flight test regime. Here, he served as the X-40A and X-37 Program Manager and the X-33 Simulation Engineer. In these capacities he conducted flight test planning for B-52 Launches, X-40 helicopter drops, X-33 Launches, and X-37 Shuttle Payloads. He designed/developed new flight test techniques, wrote flight test cards, briefed pilots, and designed instrumentation systems. He also became one of the primary platform instructors for the first-ever Aerospace Vehicle Flight Test Course.

The Air Force recognized Boomer's high potential, and he was selected as a student flight test engineer for Test Pilot School Class OOA. He did not disappoint and graduated as the # 1 flight test engineer in his class, receiving the highly coveted SFTE/TPS R.L. Jones Award as the Top FTEAT Graduate! During my three tours of duty at the USAF TPS, including tours as a Master Instructor and Technical Director, Boomer ranks #1 of all the FTE students I have personally witnessed among hundreds of TPS graduates!

After graduating from TPS, Boomer served as the Bomber Test Conductor for B-52 and B-1 aircraft in the Bomber Flight Test Squadron. Based on his outstanding work, he was promoted to Flight Commander in the Global Hawk Flight Test Squadron. The Squadron Commander showed his great trust in Boomer's aircrew abilities by allowing him to fly as F-16 safety chase observer on the First Flight of newly developed Global Hawk versions. In addition to the myriad of flight commander duties, all ofwhich he performed in an outstanding manner, Tim also excelled as the Unit Test Safety Officer resulting in his Unit receiving "Excellent" ratings in USAF Safety Inspections.

In 2004 Boomer was competitively selected for the highly coveted USAF Test Pilot School PhD program, and was sent to the Air Force Institute of Technology to earn his Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. His PhD dissertation was adopted by AFRL to support Prompt Global Strike initiatives. After receiving his PhD, Boomer returned to TPS to serve as a permanent faculty member during a 3-year controlled tour of duty.

The faith that TPS put in Boomer was repaid in spades! He served first as Deputy Director, and later as Director of Curriculum standards for TPS. His outstanding academic leadership was instrumental in TPS gaining accreditation for the Master of Science degree in Flight Test Engineering!! In January 2010, he was rewarded for his efforts and promoted to Director ofthe Education Division, where he continued to excel as a recognized leader in the field of flight test education and training. In this capacity he led, managed & integrated a 1,200+ hours, 50 semester hr, academic & flying schedule for the $37M USAF Test Pilot School curriculum. He supervises 22 officers, enlisted personnel and civilians and led 48 students annually through the demanding MS-accredited course. He was an Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Adjunct Faculty member, Master's thesis advisor, grader, and approval authority. Boomer is, simply put, an absolutely brilliant educator and leader in the field offlight test engineering. As a visionary leader, he created the first-ever Civilian Intuition (i.e. non-AFIT) PhD slot for TPS faculty, an initiative that will drive quality & diversity of MSFTE education way up!

Dr. Jorris was recently reassigned as the Director ofthe Hypersonics Combined test Force at Edwards. He is currently leading hypersonic flight testing efforts for Edwards on the X-51.

Dr Jorris became a member of SFTE in 1997 and a senior member in 2010. Boomer has excelled in the area of technical presentations at Society Symposiums. Beginning in 2003, he presented a technical paper on 'Inflight Simulation of the ALU 2003 Wright Flyer" at both the 34h Annual International Symposium in Virginia and the European Symposium in France. Counting two papers which have been selected for the 42nd Annual International Symposium in 2011, Dr. Jorris has presented eight times at SFTE symposiums, ranking among the top 10% ofpresenters in the history of SFTE. In addition, Boomer has presented a myriad offlight test and aerospace presentations to other organizations such as ITEA and AIAA, thus significantly advancing the body of technical knowledge in our magnificent flight test engineering profession.

The Kelly Johnson Award is SFTE's highest recognition for "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Flight Test Engineering". I strongly urge you to select Lt Col (Dr.) Timothy "Boomer' Jorris for the 2011 Kelly Johnson Award. His rise to the top ofthe flight testing profession has been truly meteoric! His addition to the permanent list of Kelly Johnson recipients will only enhance SFTEs status as the most prestigious flight test organization in the world. As a past KJ recipient, I would be proud to see Boomer selected for this award and I know that he is extremely deserving and well qualified. Choose him-you could not make a better selection!