Jerome Miastkowski

Aerospace & Defense isn't getting enough credit (Day 76). Unsurprisingly, the industry where a lot is "top secret" doesn't really like talking about itself. So, people form their own opinions about the "military-industrial complex". Let's talk about it, then. A&D in the U.S.: > Employs 1 in 65 Americans > Generates 5% of all U.S. revenues - which is comparable to the GDP of Switzerland or Saudi Arabia. Now, you may be wondering: What do they build, next to weaponry? Let me blow your mind. What's your wish for the world? Feed the world? Weather forecasting, pest control, automated irrigation systems, hydroponic systems, various agricultural sensor types, and genetically modified crops -- brought to you by the American A&D industry. Save the environment? The entire field relies on inventions from A&D research labs: > Solar energy > Nuclear energy  > Ocean cleanup tech > Modern batteries for EVs > Autonomous vehicle software > The soft- and hardware to monitor and model global warming scenarios Help those in need? Water purification filters, baby formula, freeze-dried food rations, mobile hospitals, and search & rescue devices -- all invented by aerospace & defense labs in the U.S. Heal the sick? Portable defibrillators, prosthetics, heart pumps, EpiPens, insulin pumps, MRI tech, CT scanners, eye laser surgery, ... life-saving technology, brought to you by the American military-industrial complex. In fact, pretty much EVERYTHING you use every single day originated from A&D research labs: > Internet and GPS > Touchscreens, Digital Cameras, and Wireless technology > Artificial Intelligence (natural language processing, voice recognition, weather forecasting, virtual reality) > 3D printing > Robots & Drones > Airplanes (turbines and jet engines) > Microwaves > Athletic shoes > Duct tape > Superglue > LED lights > Memory foam ... OK, by now you may be wondering: What about global peace and security? Truth be told: The Western A&D industry has played a significant role in maintaining a degree of global stability through deterrence. If you thought it was weird that the Nobel Peace Prize was named after the guy who invented dynamite: It's a good reminder to the A&D sector of their responsibility and impact on the global society. And while I post this, hundreds of thousands of Americans are working on incredible innovations in A&D. No wonder the sector can still pull the world's leading talent. The industry pays >50% more than the national average. And after years of stagnation, the industry is growing again. Let me know what you think! // For 100 days, I'm challenging myself to daily #RealTalk. You're invited to follow along.

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Looking for a Project Manager to be positioned in Indianapolis area for three years with aviation background. Some of the key expectations would include: Timely Project Delivery: Complete projects within the set timelines, ensuring milestones are met according to the project schedule. Budget Management: Stay within the allocated budget, maintaining accurate tracking of costs and financial forecasting. Risk Management: Identify, assess, and mitigate risks proactively to prevent disruptions or delays. Stakeholder Communication: Provide regular updates and maintain clear communication with stakeholders, including team members, clients, and the executive board members. Change Management: Implement a clear process for handling changes or scope adjustments, minimizing the impact on timelines and budgets. Problem Resolution: Demonstrate effective problem-solving skills to address any issues that arise promptly. Team Leadership: Lead the project team effectively, providing guidance, support, and fostering a collaborative environment. Documentation and Reporting: Maintain detailed records of the project progress, decisions, and changes, and prepare reports as needed.

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The October issue of "Vectors for Safety" is available! See the latest edition of "Gene's Blog," a cognition article explaining our Executive Function, a link to the latest "Old Pilot Tips" video, and detailed analysis of three recent crashes. Vectors for Safety is sponsored by Avemco Insurance Company. https://bit.ly/3TYDcTj #pilots #flying #aviationsafety

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Day #7: Government Efficiency Initiatives - ELIMINATE GOVT LABS Government labs were once setup to pursue specific objectives on impossible timelines with the most skilled talent in the world. Government labs are now laden with career researchers and bureaucracy, evident in astronomical fringe, overhead and administrative fees. Want to be a Principal Investigator? A PhD is a must and typically means you specialize in something so specific it is basically irrelevant, are willing to tow the line of the majority thought stream, and are great at maximizing references in the many irrelevant papers you publish each year. But, worst of all, the return on investment of these labs has been negative almost since inception. Yes, there are some exceptions, but evaluating on a ROI VC (actual profit, not investment) basis, these labs are losers and always have been. Want more proof? After eliminating these labs, see how many of the paid operators want to purchase the labs and continue to fund them with private dollars... To be specific, I'm looking at you Lawrence Livermore, Lincoln Labs, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Sandia, Argonne, PNL, NREL, and many others! Turn research over to private industry and force alignment with industry objectives. Stage gate development and tie it to actual profit-based ROI for the United States of America. Running List of Government Efficiency Initiatives: #1: FFP Contracts Only #2: 1 Acquisition System #3: Pay for Performance (Government Employees) #4: Rapid Gated Contracts #5: Extend Federal Whistle Blower Rights to Contractors #6: Free Compliance Systems #7: Eliminate Government Labs Have other ideas? Please reach out or comment below.

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Boy, I really struck a nerve with this one! I think the amount of interaction is great for discussion of path forward. There's obviously something here. I've noticed two things that trouble me: 1. No one has responded that there is not an issue with inefficiency in Government Labs. Translation: everyone agrees Government Labs are inefficient. 2. Those that do not want to shut down Government Labs offer no solutions for reduction in costs and increased efficiency. Though, shoutout to Justin Scarborough who highlights a connected and more general issue of lack of scientific discovery. Surely, if the system is producing inverse results, simply throwing more money at the problem isn't going to help - it's more likely to hurt. Also, I never purported to get rid of low-TRL research. It belongs at Universities and industry collaboratives. More thoughts on how to fix the issues, especially for you knee-jerk "No"s?

Never before have we seen a more critical requirement to have NDAA-compliant, multi-payload sUAS capable of delivering lethal and non-lethal effects in contested AORs or a "Hellscape" scenario. PDW has been leaning forward to collaborate with both government and industry partners to test and integrate cost-effective kinetic payloads for such use cases. This is one of many ways PDW is leading the charge in the NDAA-compliant, Blue UAS space to ensure our warfighters and allies are prepared to deter future conflict. https://okt.to/Gvxp2H #UAS #BlueUAS #C100

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I learned important engineering lessons from my father, and his father. Safety: If you attempt to check the level in the corn bin when the ladder is covered in ice, you will be on crutches for 6 weeks. An outdoor ladder in Minnesota should not be made out of smooth boards. Quality: If you mess up a cut on the top of a black walnut book shelf, just flip the top over and have the bad cut underneath. The top will still meet the customer’s (grandma’s) requirements. Delivery: Invent a counting device for loading pigs into a semi by welding an abacus to a vice grip and clamp it to the gate next to the loading chute. Every time you load 25 pigs, move one bead over to the other side and by the time you are done you will know exactly how many pigs were loaded. This is crucial when loading at 4 in the morning. Cost: That black walnut book shelf doesn’t use black walnut for structural members underneath where they can’t be seen. It uses green treated 2x4’s that you found in the storage pile in the old chicken barn. Happy Father's Day.

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🚀 Introducing the HTV-R: The Heart of the NYX Hypersonic Missile Defense Platform 🚀 HYPERIAN AEROSPACE is once again pushing boundaries with the HTV-R—the world’s first radar and command & control system with a built-in self-defense Direct Energy Multi-Cannon Weapon designed to neutralize incoming threats targeting its own platform. This revolutionary feature ensures continuous operation and unparalleled security, setting a new standard for missile defense systems. Why the HTV-R Stands Alone: 📡 Advanced Radar & Command & Control Precision The HTV-R provides the most precise, responsive targeting in the industry, tracking hypersonic threats in real time. With multi-band, multi-mode radar technology, it can detect, prioritize, and track a vast range of incoming missiles, aircraft, and drones faster than ever before. 🔆 Self-Defense Direct Energy Multi-Cannon Weapon HYPERIAN’s HTV-R is the only radar and command platform equipped with a self-defense weapon, capable of destroying threats before they reach the command center itself. This breakthrough innovation secures the critical command & control element that ensures the effectiveness of the entire missile defense system. 🚛 Mobility on Hyper Tactical Vehicles (HTV) Mounted on our highly versatile HTV, the HTV-R can be deployed rapidly and positioned in high-risk zones, offering unmatched flexibility and coverage. Without a robust radar and command & control platform, a missile defense system is rendered ineffective. The HTV-R, with its integrated self-defense and cutting-edge technology, guarantees that the NYX Hypersonic Missile Defense Platform is always ready to defend. Once again, HYPERIAN AEROSPACE is revolutionizing what’s possible—delivering the world’s fastest, most precise, and reliable missile defense command & control system. Want to see how HYPERIAN is transforming global security? Let’s connect! 🔗 https://HYPERIANAero.com #MissileDefense #RadarTechnology #Hypersonics #HYPERIANAerospace #NYXDefensePlatform #CommandAndControl #Innovation

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“SMS & CAPA with Lessons Learned Training Courses” is ready to be released in December. To schedule demo call 224-662-1070 or email [email protected] The SMS part of the module comes with the manual. It designed so that a company can fill in the blanks with company name, logo, titles, etc. and even make additional modifications if you wish to best fit your organization; a turn-key solution. Additionally, #SMS section comes complete with the Accountable Executive's Safety Policy Statement, Measurable Objectives, and Resources for the management of SMS, such as documents and links to all of the regulatory and advisory circular data for cross-referencing. #CAPA Program provides an effective way to initiate a CAPA (8D Major, 4D Medium, 2D Minor) based on severity, provides notifications when actions are coming due, overdue notifications, reports, and an array of review and filtering options. One of the most valuable features supports the "Lessons Learned" objectives of EASA, Other CAA's and soon the FAA. With just a click of a button convert CAPA to "Lessons Learned Course" and place it directly into your MyFAA Training Program! This is greatly reduces efforts necessary to achieve your goals. #aviationindustry #aviation #safety #training #aviationnews #aviationsafety #aviationtraining #overhaul #maintenance #calibration #calibrationservices #supplierquality #NBAA #mroe #aviationlovers #aviationdaily #aviationgeek #mro #mroam #mroamericas #mroservices #avgeek #SafetyManagementSystem

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Valuable information for any DevTech VC’s, if you own a full capability stack, you might not need to bring it inside the wire… I have number of defense industry friends who have called me up recently asking for solutions to the same hard problem. This was super useful for them, and since the DoD needs a better way to integrate capabilities holistically, I want to share this concept more broadly for applicable utilization. My friends were all looking for ways to rapidly integrate commercial capabilities with military customers, and the answer is surprising simple…plain text outputs. The Simple Concept: 1. The military already has very robust, and well developed chat messaging systems with multi-network transport capabilities. 2. The commercial world now provides full stack capability solutions for many actions (sensor>datalink>algorithm>detection) 3. Let the commercial system do its full function to produce the detections of value, and provide that resulting actionable intelligence to the military customer via a secure commercial endpoint in plain text output format. The military customer can manually (human copy/paste) or automatically (via software automation) retrieve that Intel from your endpoint, and because it’s just simple plain text data from a commercial system (still unclassified at this stage) it can be easily & securely (plain text being the easiest to verify doesn’t contain malicious code) be transferred into a NIPRNET chat system for rapid dissemination to any military (or foreign partner) customer at any classification level anywhere in the world in seconds. It’s a trivial matter to convert the received plain text on the distant-end military network to a COP, datalink, or other military specific system for additional utilization. We never really did this much in the past because the commercial world didn’t have an abundance full stack capabilities on offer that were better than military equivalents. There was always a need to utilize some or often many military components as part of the capability stack. Times have changed, and many of the most capable systems across many domains are entirely commercially owned and operated. The DoD doesn’t need to spend billions of $$$ to agnostically integrate cutting edge commercial capabilities with legacy military systems (looking at you CJADC2), you can use this method today for free with humans or for very low cost with a little automation code. The lesson here is, you don’t need to bring everything inside the wire, and it actually is much more advantageous to just pass the intel instead of the data. Primes won’t like this concept, as it literally side steps their usual widely overcomplicated and massively expensive lock-in schemas, but it is how a VC could make a compelling cost effective pitch to a government sponsor with limited funding and a need to do more with less today. Tag the folks below who need a way to do things better, cheaper, faster!

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The 2024 AirVenture fly-in at Oshkosh, WI was a huge success this year, with 15,000 planes and almost 700,000 people attending. I participated in the Cessna Mass Arrival which brought 65 airplanes and 130 people to smooth, safe landings in just 14 minutes. Even the air traffic controllers were impressed. I was honored to be one of the featured speakers at the EAA Forums, which are the heart of the educational component of the fly-in. As part of my presentation, I reviewed the abstracts of all 1,237 presentations and prepared the chart below, which tabulates the general topics and their popularity. As you can see, despite the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of flyers at Oshkosh that week, only FOUR presentations were about the protection and promotion of our G.A. airports. This strikes me as an enormous oversight by both the pilots and presenters. After all, every flight needs an airport, and nobody should be more concerned than pilots about the health and vibrancy of their local aerodromes. Meanwhile, airports across the country are threatened by neglect, mis-management and avaricious developers. Look what's happening in California and Colorado, where short-sighted politicians are trying to close a number of airports with bogus claims of lead-poisoning and noise problems. There is an urgent need across our industry to reach out to airport operators and show them a healthy community needs a healthy airport. Nobody can do that better than the pilots who know those airports best. Pilots need to be the marketing team for their airport: presenting a positive face to our communities, to government agencies, and to the media.

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For all the venture folks out there with your divining rods out: Lockheed Martin is telling you - whether they wanted to or not - that something interesting is afoot overhead. The Space Force is groping, somewhat ineffectually, towards a better understanding of what it needs to operate as a true force (which is why we hear terminology like "maneuver without regret" and "dynamic space operations," as if there should be any other kind). And Lockheed's picked up the scent. They've twigged to the fact that the new space economy (and its close cousins in the national security and civil space arenas) doesn't get real without a transformational boost in energy and power available. Solar's way too sparse at 1.3 kW/m^2 and chemistry simply doesn't hack it - we've sucked all the juice out of those particular fruits and there isn't any more to be had. The future is nuclear; we simply have to make the right choices about what to develop, build and deploy as we move forward. I'd respectfully suggest to the assembled that we NOT build the Graf Zeppelin and consider something more analogous to - you got it - the P-51, the DC-3. Small, agile, inexpensive, fast. Let's do this thing. https://darkfission.space

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#Boeing seems to be making a number of mistakes. It cannot seem to get anything right. The sports analogies seem to abound. Here is a podcast that I suggest you listen to since it includes direct quotable moments out of the mouth of a senior company exec. Kudos to Ostrower/Snyder for the reporting. BTW the ICAO document they quote is a little indistinct and it is ANNEX 13. https://lnkd.in/g_VMKy-n #737Max #aviation

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Freeing Your Talent: The FTC's Game-Changing Move on Noncompetes If you've been following the business buzz, you've heard about the FTC's big move on noncompete agreements. Yep, those contracts that can feel like invisible shackles for your top talent. States like California and Washington, D.C., have been booting noncompetes, and others, like Colorado and Virginia, are scaling back. But the FTC's decision ramps things up, potentially making it easier for your employees to break free. Sounds like a win for workers, right? But hold on—there's a legal showdown brewing. Some big names aren't thrilled and are gearing up for court. Before you panic about your trade secrets, know this: while the FTC's ruling might complicate things, there are exceptions, especially for top dogs in the C-suite. If your employee makes over $152k and has policy-making authority, there's an exception on existing agreements (but not for new agreement). But for the rest of your crew, those noncompetes might not pack the same punch. And here's the twist: not every industry plays by the same rules. Banks and certain nonprofits get a pass, while others have to toe the line. Lawsuits are already flying, with bigwigs squaring off against the FTC. Buckle up—it's gonna be a bumpy ride. So, what's the bottom line? It's time to reassess those noncompetes. Are they still worth it in this new world? Only time will tell, but change is coming fast, and you don't want to be left behind. 🛎 Like to stay up-to-date on recruiting? Sign up for our newsletter on elraysearch.com

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My #unfiltered take on the State of the Commercial #UAS industry – while there is value (present and future), we have a long/painful way to go before the industry figures itself out. None of my opinions are directed at any one individual/company...just my own general thoughts.   A full $0.02 exceeds a LI character limit. So here is my $0.01: UAS/Hardware/Software manufacturers 🚁🕹️💻 : Many of you are making great strides in the #innovation aspects of your products, kudos to you. It’s becoming harder to weed you out from your competitors though. It’s one thing to brand yourself product as a Swiss-army knife. It’s a completely different thing to say your Swiss Army knife is bullet proof, only to find out that under the hood, it’s made of #3D printed plastic. Drone Service Providers (DSPs)🚧📋: You’re trying to juggle #industry resources, conflicting industry reports, a challenging #economy , #customer demands (race-to-bottom pricing), and #differentiation . All while trying to manage the idea of your customers taking on flight services internally (effectively cutting you out). #Regulatory State ⚖️: Whether you are for or against the CCP regulations, & whether or not it is completely passed, it is going to affect all of us in some way. I see both sides of the issue. Both sides can (and should) stand up as tax paying citizens and have their voices heard. But at the end of the day, #politicians are going to play #politics . You should have bravo, charlie, & delta plans for each scenario. #Conference Organizers 🏟️: You need to #innovate . The days of nail-biting keynotes with flashy product reveals have come and gone (hopefully not forever). I think you will always have a core group of attendees that can stomach the expensive travel budgets (mainly to network). But right now it’s the same people, with the same breakout sessions, and generally the same tech, every year. That core group is dwindling. If we are going to sacrifice time away from our family’s, let’s get back to when conferences were exciting. End-users/customers of DSPs 🏭:        End-users have been accustomed to this idea that DSPs provide a safer (or alternative) solution to solve a problem. Generally, this is true. But when end-users buy into some of the misconceptions about things like pricing, availability, capacity, and demand, the only underlying KPI that matters is direct cost. If your organization is using a contracted model for UAS services, I think there needs to be a stronger emphasis on the relationships with your contractors (and supporting them). When a customer puts so much pressure on pricing, you’re backing legitimate DSPs into a corner where #safety and #integrity are compromised. No one #wins here. Moral of my story 💡 :     Buckle up and be ready for whatever this crazy world is ready to throw at us next. The commercial UAS industry is here to stay. What will the industry look like in the near (or long-term) future? No one truly knows.

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This article is a short but comprehensive overview of potential future small to large transport concepts for the USAF. There is a shift to operating from dispersed airbases as part of an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept. This could include small hybrid- electric cargo aircraft, like the Next-Generation Intratheater Airlift (NGIA) concept, as part of the "Last Tactical Leg" airlift proposal. Also Aurora Flight Sciences, Fan in a Blended Wing STOL transport proposal for DARPA's SPRINT concept. At the larger end of the scale are the Jet Zero Blended Wing Body, BWB, Next Gen Tanker Transport concept and the"Liberty Lifter", Wing in Ground, or Surface, Effect flying boat for longer range over ocean transport direct to a contested beach. #usaf #futuretransport #faninwing #stol #bwb #wige #wise #libertylifter

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