Page 3 - Women's History Month 2022 - Combined Special Edition of Aerotech News and Review Nellis AFB Creech AFB Desert Lightning News

Test Center executive director loves what she does

by KC Rawley with other people when things go ity is the Test Flag Enterprise, where advantage of things not available when
staff writer wrong. As a team member you need to real-time, independently executed she was in high school, like robotics.
be able to communicate calmly to get Large Force Test Events are held at With all the computerized automo-
Dr. Eileen Bjorkman, the executive things done. You can yell, and rant and Edwards’ R-2508 complex in Califor- tive technology today, “Young people
director of the Air Force Test Center, rave, but you don’t want people to help nia, the Gulf Test and Training Range can’t really work on cars anymore,”
has an affinity for Edwards Air Force just because you’re yelling at them. in Florida, and the Nevada Test and she said, so they should do whatever
Base in Southern California. You want them to cooperate because Training Range. The three sites were hands-on STEM activity they can find.
Before she retired as a colonel after they want to.” recently linked with airborne Link-16 When asked if she misses the flight
nearly 30 years of active duty with the Bjorkman sees opportunity for test networks and transmitted targeting data testing she used to do, Bjorkman said:
Air Force, Bjorkman had stints at Hol- work in many different capacities. across roughly 1,500 miles, according “Sometimes, I’d just like to be in a con-
loman AFB, N.M., Wright-Patterson “The Test Center is not all about fly- to https://www.aftc.af.mil/. One such trol room, or flying and collecting data.
AFB, Ohio, and the Pentagon. ing. There’s plenty of room for people event, Orange, Emerald, and Black It’s very exciting. But the higher-level
But it was the Air Force Flight Test who are interested in other disciplines, Flag was held in October of 2021.
Pilot School at Edwards where she and not just at Edwards. Bjorkman said that young people in- jobs are the ones that enable me to pro-
qualified to do her testing in the back- “We have several wind tunnels at Ar- terested in test engineering as a career vide the funding and the personnel to
do the work, and that has value. I have
seats of planes like the F-4 and F-16. nold AFB in Tennessee that are unique should take all the math and science
Also, it’s where she created the base’s Air Force photograph facilities,” she said. classes they can find, as well as take See BJORKMAN, Page 5
first computer network in 1988, when Dr. Eileen A. Bjorkman, a member The Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facil-
there were only around 100,000 inter- of the Senior Executive Service, is ity there does aerodynamic and propul-
net hosts. Executive Director, Air Force Test sion integration testing of large-scale
“Since the 1940s, in one form or an- Center, Edwards Air Force Base, aircraft models in two 16-foot and one
other, the aviation history that was cut- Calif. She serves as principal deputy 4-foot tunnels.
to the AFTC Commander on all
ting edge, that led into the space pro- matters under the cognizance of the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at
gram, almost all of it was at Edwards,” commander. Eglin AFB., Fla., can replicate any cli-
Bjorkman said. mate on Earth, according to the base’s
“The culture at Edwards — the will- website, with temperatures in the
ingness to take risks and push bound- plan doesn’t survive first contact with chamber ranging between minus-65 de-
aries — I found that very appealing. the test.’ There’s always something that grees Fahrenheit to 165 degrees Fahr-
Even today, we push the bar.” needs to happen that won’t, or some- enheit, and can simulate all climatic
And now the Air Force Test Center thing that shouldn’t happen that does, conditions including heat, snow, rain,
is training the next generation of fly- and you need to be able to be flexible. wind, sand, and dust.
ers: the Space Force. On April 6, 2021, “You need to be able to coordinate
the inaugural class of the Space Test Another example of test capabil-
Fundamentals Class graduated. Fifteen Right: Air Force Test Center Executive Director, Dr. Eileen Bjorkman, works in
enlisted, officer, civilian Airmen and the test control room as the data processing branch chief at the U.S. Air Force
Guardians took the class designed to Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, Calif., 1989. Bjorkman graduated USAF TPS
deliver a combat-ready Space Force. in June 1986.
The daughter of an Air Force lieu-
tenant colonel, Bjorkman never consid-
ered a military career for herself in high
school. There were few opportunities
for women: they weren’t allowed into
military academies or in combat.
But after earning an undergraduate
degree in computer science at the Uni-
versity of Seattle, and working for a
year, she found programming comput-
ers less than satisfying. An encounter
with on-campus Air Force recruiters in-
terviewing for officers made Bjorkman
realize that in the six years since high
school, more opportunity had opened
for women.
Before joining the Air Force, Bjork-
man wasn’t all that interested in air-
planes, but her attraction grew. She
wanted pilot training, but her eyesight
wasn’t good enough. A stint in the AF
Institute of Technology earned her a
second degree in aeronautical engineer-
ing and placement in Test Pilot School
as an engineer, so she could fly in the
backseat of fighters.
Bjorkman’s favorite aircraft from her
flight test engineer days is the F-4. She
donated money to the Air Force Flight
Test Museum at Edwards to maintain
an RF-4C on display there.
She loved the F-4 because “it was
an aircraft that had served in Vietnam.
Not that the ones we were testing on
had been in combat, but that model had
been. There’s a lot of history there, and
it’s a solid, honest aircraft. It had a lot
of performance. It was a lot of fun.”
When asked what character traits
were necessary for a career in testing,
Bjorkman said: “The most important
soft skill is being able to navigate Air Force photographs
change. There’s a saying that ‘a battle Air Force Test Center Executive Director, Dr. Eileen Bjorkman, poses on the RF-4C at Edwards AFB, Calif., 1988. During Bjorkman’s nearly 30 year military
plan never survives first contact with career, she served as a flight test engineer, instructor, test squadron commander and as the data processing branch chief, U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School,
the enemy,’ and I always say: ‘a test July 1987-August 1989.

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February 25, 2022 3
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