Dr. John S. Langford is the Founder and CEO of Electra.aero, a startup developing hybrid electric aircraft for regional mobility, flying the Electra EL-2 Goldfinch as a demonstrator. He managed the

MIT Daedalus The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Daedalus is a class of three human-powered aircraftJohn McIntyreMan's Greatest Flight, ''AeroModeller'', August 1988 (in files of Royal Aeronautical Society ...

human powered aircraft project while he was a student at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. He founded

Aurora Flight Sciences Aurora Flight Sciences (AFS) is an American aviation and aeronautics research subsidiary of Boeing that specializes in special-purpose unmanned aerial vehicles. Aurora's headquarters is at Manassas Regional Airport. History In 1989, AFS was ...

in 1989. He was elected President of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecra ...

(AIAA) in April 2017.

Education and career

Langford received his Ph.D. from

in the field of

aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design process, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. While the term originally referred ...

and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

. He also received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in aeronautics and

astronautics Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the practice of sending spacecraft beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science is its overarching field. The term ''astronautics' ...

and a Master of Science in defense policy and arms control from MIT. He founded

in 1989 in order to design and manufacture high altitude

UAVs An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

that could be used for global

climate change research The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect was first identified. In the late 19th centu ...

, and was its President and C.E.O. In 2004, Langford received

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

’s Outstanding Industrialist award for his contribution to business development in Virginia. In April 2017, John Langford was elected President of the

(AIAA).

was sold to Boeing in 2017. In 2018, he was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

for the application of autonomy and robotics to the design, development, production, and operation of advanced aircraft.

References

American aerospace engineers Living people American chief executives MIT School of Engineering alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-engineer-stub

Education and career

See also

References