Personal Narrative: The Air Force Research Laboratory Center For Rapid Innovation

When I was a child my best friend and I would languish in the outdoors like dew in the grass on a mid-autumn morning, only coming home when we could smell the scent of fresh garlic bread or lasagna rising through the air. We would build a fort resembling the Taj Mahal one day, and the next would be dismantling a small engine to see what’s inside. I consider my childhood the proving grounds where I honed my bombing runs to prepare me for the job I currently have. Not only did it prepare me for the job, it lit a fire in me that can’t be put out. The Air Force Research Laboratory Center for Rapid Innovation is a great place to work because of the intellectual minds that can be harnessed, the variety of the projects that are carried out, and the

lives that are saved by the work performed.
I could throw a rock in any direction at the Center for Rapid Innovation and probably hit a smart person every time, and to be able to tap into this resource is amazing. The amount of brainpower that I work with on a daily basis is almost akin to the supercomputer Watson, and each individual has different strengths for which they are known. I’m a sponge soaking up the wisdom amassed through years of education and experience, and then I apply it to my job. The conversations meander from how much thrust would a moving body generate in the air if retrofitted with a modified propeller, to how an engine could be modified to perform above its operating condition in extreme states. These conversations are the building blocks to what eventually turn into full blown projects that are both interesting and challenging.
The sounds of saws cutting metal, the smells of burning plastic from laser beams cutters, and the sights of engine overhauls are a testament to the varying degrees of projects that are done at the Center for Rapid Innovation. A particular project could take anywhere from a few days to a few years to complete, and it is this variety that lends itself nicely to no two days being the same. If they say “variety is the spice of life”, then we are drowning in an Olympic-size swimming pool full of the spice of life.
Saving the lives of the warfighters downrange is the ultimate reason why the Center for Rapid Innovation is a great place to work. Needing to know what is just over that ridge beyond the bluff or and being able to provide those answer is extremely rewarding.