Darren Cole Email and Phone Number

Mr. Darren Cole is the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) Aerostructures Deputy Branch Chief and Flight Loads Laboratory (FLL) Project Manager. He manages an annual $3.5 Million budget to operate and maintain the FLL as well project budgets to perform various thermal and structural research and test projects to develop new technologies and ensure airworthiness in order to safely achieve mission success of flight research projects. The FLL has been a National Test Asset since 1964.

Mr. Darren Cole is the Technical Advisor for the Mobility Test Operations (MTO) division of Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Cener, Detachment 5, Edwards AFB, California. He is the technical lead of a multi-functional team of civillian and military AFOTEC test directors, program managers, pilots, navigators, maintainers, engineers, and analysts, as well as MAJCOM augmentees. Darren directs operations, maintenance, and engineering supporting all Operational Test and Evaluation of mobility programs including the KC-46A, T-7A Advanced Pilot Training and VC-25B Presidential Aircraft Replacement. He provides technical adequacy for $18 Million Operational Tests to support $76.9 Billion acquisition of nearly 500 aircraft to support Air Mobility Command, Air Education and Training Center, and Presidential Airlift Group.Darren is the Test and Evaluation representative of the Flight Symbology DevelopmentGroup (FSDG), responsible for endorsing each new or altered Primary Flight Reference (PFR) for all USAF aircraft to ensure a safe and consistent pilot vehicle interface. He has endorsed 16 USAF programs.From October 2017 to December 2018, in addition to Technical Advisor, Darren was also the Acting Division Chief of MTO where he led the establishment of the Light Attack Experiment test team to determine the effectiveness and suitability of the AT-6 and A-29 during an intensive 2-month experiment. He also led the T-7A and VC-25B implementation of the AFOTEC Adaptive-Relevant Testing paradigm shift to collect operational test data earlier in the acquisition cycle.Prior to working for AFOTEC, Darren spent 15 years as a Human Systems Integration Developmental Test Engineer for the 412 Test Wing at Edwards AFB, CA. Over that time, he was the lead Human Systems Integration Engineer and Technical Expert for nearly all the aircraft at the Air Force Test Center, culminating in F-35 Initial Operational Capability.

Acting Division Chief and Technical Advisor for the Mobility Test Operations (MTO) division ofthe Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Cener, Detachment 5, Edwards AFB,California. He leads a multi-functional team of AFOTEC test directors/program managers, pilots, maintainers, engineers and analysts. Darren directs operations, maintenance, and engineering supporting all Operational Test and Evaluation of mobility programs including the KC-46A, T-7A Advanced Pilot Training, and VC-25B Presidential Aircraft Replacement. He provides technical adequacy for $18 Million Operational Tests to support $76.9 Billion acquisition of nearly 500 aircraft to support AirMobility Command, Air Education and Training Center, and Presidential Airlift Group. He led the establishment of the Light Attack Experiment test team to determine the effectiveness and suitability of the AT-6 and A-29 during an intensive 2-month experiment. He also led the T-7A and VC-25B implementation of the AFOTEC Adaptive-Relevant Testing paradigm shift to collect operational test data earlier in the acquisition cycle.

Technical Advisor for the Mobility Test Operations (MTO) division of Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Cener, Detachment 5, Edwards AFB, California. He is the technical lead of a multi-functional team of civillian and military AFOTEC test directors, program managers, pilots, navigators, maintainers, engineers, and analysts, as well as MAJCOM augmentees. Darren directs operations, maintenance, and engineering supporting all Operational Test and Evaluation of mobility programs including the KC-46A, T-7A Advanced Pilot Training and VC-25B Presidential Aircraft Replacement. He provides technical adequacy for $18 Million Operational Tests to support $76.9 Billion acquisition of nearly 500 aircraft to support Air Mobility Command, Air Education and Training Center, and Presidential Airlift Group.

Technical Expert and lead HFE for F-35 Developmental Test. Past experience includes: F-22A Raptor B-2A, B-1B, B-52H, Global Hawk, and F-16.

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