Page 3 - Aerotech News and Review, Oct. 20 2017

H
onorees
2017 Gathering of Eagles
Paul Metz
Paul Metz
Paul Metz was assigned to the Advanced Tactical Fighter pro- gram in the summer of 1986 and worked on the proposal that was one of two accepted by the U.S. Air Force to build the first stealthy air superiority fighter.
A Demonstration and Validation or DEMVAL program was ini- tiated to show how the technology for an LO fighter was probable even though it did not yet exist. Metz was assigned as Northrop’s chief test pilot working with the engineers on the prototype YF-23.
With 12 other pilots he took part in early multi-bogey air com- bat simulations that defined the ATF capabilities. It was evident, even four years before the airplane flew, that this was to be a revolution in airpower IF the technology could be realized. At the time, the computer power was many years in the future. In 1990 the world’s first true air superiority LO fighter made its first flight on Aug. 27, 1990. In the DEMVAL competition that followed, the YF-22 emerged as the ATF winner and Metz was offered the job of Chief Test Pilot on Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor.
He joined Lockheed in October 1992 and once again worked closely with the engineers in the design and development of the Raptor. The first Raptor flew on Sept. 7, 1997, seven years after the prototype YF-22 flew.
Metz moved to Edwards Air Force Base to conduct the airwor- thiness and first avionics tests on the Raptor until November 2001. In 2001 he was reassigned as the vice president for the F-35 Integrated Test Force responsible for 1,300 people with a $700 million budget. He was responsible for the flight testing of the F-35 for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Air Force and the air forces
of seven partner countries.
Metz has more than 7,000 flight hours in 70 aircraft types and
is a Fellow and past President of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a holder of the Kincheloe Trophy and an inductee to the Lancaster Aerospace Walk of Fame and the U.S. Air Force Gathering of Eagles.
Chuck Killberg
Chuck Killberg first soloed as a college student in 1964, begin- ning an aviation career spanning more than 50 years.
He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1971, flew F-4 combat missions in Southeast Asia in 1973, and was an F-4 and F-15 instructor and Functional Check Pilot in West Germany and the United States.
In 1982, he attended USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, and was then assigned as Ops Officer and test pilot for F-16 Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting, Infra-red for Night (LANTIRN). He returned to the Test Pilot School as Ops Officer/Instructor from 1986 to 1987, and afterwards was director
Chuck Killberg
and chief test pilot for F-15E development flight testing until his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 1991.
Killberg was Boeing’s chief F-22 test pilot from 1991 until 2002. In 1998 he became the fifth F-22 program pilot, and was lead pilot on aircraft 4003, the third Engineering & Manufacturing Development Raptor.
From 1998-2002 he completed more than 100 test missions, including the first AIM-9 Sidewinder launch. From 1996-2006 he was also Chief of Flight Ops for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Seattle, Wash., managing and testing the 757 F-22 Avionics Flying Testbed, as well as 737-based Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft.
From 2006-2009 Chuck directed and conducted C-17 and KC- 767 production and developmental flight tests in Long Beach, Calif., and Wichita, Kansas. He then returned to Seattle as director and chief test pilot for all Boeing Commercial and Military flight operations until his retirement in 2015.
During his career, Killberg accumulated nearly 10,000 flying hours in various fighter, transport, tanker and commercial air- craft, including the F-4, F-15, F-16, F-22, A-37, U-6, T-33, B-737, B-757, B-767, B-777 and B-787 aircraft.
Bret Luedke
Bret Luedke is a 1980 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the USAF Test Pilot School Class 88B.
After graduation from the Test Pilot School, Bret flew flight test in the F-16 at Edwards Air Force Base for several years before being assigned to the school as an instructor pilot in the High Angle-of-Attack, Spin and Departure flight training portion of the curriculum.
Luedke separated from the Air Force in December of 1992 and was hired by Lockheed Martin in June of 1993 as an Experi- mental Test Pilot. He worked a number of different programs for Lockheed Martin, but in 1995 transitioned full-time to the F-22 program working with Paul Metz in Marietta, Ga. He continued to work the F-22 program for the next 17 years through the delivery of the last Raptor, 4195, to the U.S. Air Force.
Early on Luedke was involved in the Pilot Vehicle Interface design of the flight test and production aircraft. He performed some of the initial ground Auxiliary Power Unit, and Pratt and Whitney F-119 engine runs on aircraft 4001 in preparation for its first flight. He was the Lockheed Martin tower “Air Boss” coor- dinating the various flight and ground agencies for Paul Metz’s first flight in #4001.
Bret Luedke
Luedke alternated his time between Edwards and Marietta where he continued to provide support to the flight line as #4002 and #4003 moved through ground testing prior to their first flights.
Luedke’s first flight was in aircraft #4002 at Edwards in June 2000. Despite being in the Mojave Desert, he managed to find the only rain within 100 miles of Edwards and take the highly instru- mented aircraft through it ... a definite “no no.” Fortunately, none of the instrumentation “melted” from the brief dousing.
Luedke was assigned as the project pilot for aircraft #4004, the first F-22 outfitted with initial aircraft avionics. He flew the first flight of #4004 in November 2000. He subsequently moved out to Edwards full-time in spring 2001. He spent the next 2 1/2 years at Edwards taking the F-22 through all of the flight test disciplines (Loads, Flutter, Flying Qualities, Performance, Propulsion, High Angle-of-Attack/Departure Resistance, Weapons and Avionics).
When Paul Metz transitioned from the F-22 program to the F-35 program, Luedke was selected as the chief test pilot for the F-22 program. A “high” (pun intended) of Luedke’s time at Edwards came on Jan. 18, 2002, when he (unintentionally) set the F-22 altitude record in #4003 of 66,800’ MSL during an Environmental Control System test point starting at Mach 2 and 50,000’ MSL. A number of lessons were learned that day both in the air and on the ground.
As F-22 production began to ramp up in Marietta, Luedke re- turned to Georgia in the summer of 2003 to oversee the production flight test operations. Over the next 14 years, Luedke ground test- ed or flew all but six of the 195 F-22s built accumulating roughly 650 hours in the F-22. He flew the last production flight of the last F-22, 4195, in Marietta on April 25, 2012. Luedke remained in Marietta as the Manager of Flight Operations overseeing the production flight testing of C-130J and C-5M aircraft until his retirement from Lockheed Martin in July 2013.
He and his wife, Ruth, now reside in the “boondocks” of White- fish, Mont., with their daughter, Heather, who is a freshman at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
Randall L. Neville
Randy Neville recently retired from Boeing where he had been the chief pilot for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
In that role, Randy was responsible for engineering flight-test activities related to all Boeing 787 airplane models, including working with engineering teams on the design requirements for current models and derivatives. Neville worked on the 787 from its early development through its certification and in-service op- eration with airlines. He was a pilot on the first flight of both the 787-8 and the 787-9.
Before his assignment on the Boeing 787 program, Neville was an F-22 Raptor test pilot for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
October 20, 2017
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As the focus of the flight test program moved out to Edwards, See HoNoREES, page 4