Travis Talbot Email & Phone Number

St. George, Ut, Us

St. George, Utah, Us

I support production and site operations for multiple customer programs providing cutting-edge solutions to aerospace thermal challenges. The future is hot!

Hawthorne, California, Us

Designed and accelerated the processes for bringing Raptor and Starship together as a system, ranging from validating the engine’s performance, to synchronizing the digital and physical configuration varieties, facilitating development research on specially-configured test engines, to supporting engine fleet logistics across the country. The dream: make rocket engines as commercially-stable as passenger jet engines, and make spaceflight a routine and dependable industry. Trust The Algorithm!

Hawthorne, California, Us

Operated and qualified Raptor engines for flight on Starship. This included designing the engine hot fire test campaign characteristics, designing and programming the ground infrastructure and digital controls architecture, studying the engine system responses and adjusting its operational settings, and proving its performance for the unique service demands of Raptor—unprecedented full-flow staged combustion, multiple in-flight relights, atmospheric re-entry, and SpaceX's trademark landings and reusability. Actively sought performance gains to maximize the flight reliability, payload capability, and the ultimate profit potential of the Starship vehicle.

Hawthorne, California, Us

Entered the Raptor program during early the prototyping and initial production phases. Served as manufacturing engineer owner for the Raptor main combustion chamber sub-assembly. Designed and built out the next-generation Raptor production line for combustion chamber sub-assemblies, yielding a 24X increase in production rate in synchronous rate surge with other production owners. Contributed to Raptor design aspects focused on manufacturability, reliability, and performance. Explored suitable automated solutions where appropriate. Drastically condensed and simplified production planning documentation and processes, promoting better working conditions and team collaboration to achieve Raptor’s ambitious production targets.

Cincinnati, Oh, Us

Joined GE Aviation as an engineer in the Composites Technical Track. The program's overarching objective is producing engineering leadership in composites within GE Aviation.First assignment included manufacturing ownership of various ceramic matrix composite components, including elements within the GE9X turbofan engine.Guided the implementation of these parts to local production lines; accelerated the feedback loops between Production Engineering and Design Engineering with respect to material needs, production concerns, and tooling and resource availability; supplemented detailed quality data and sustained rigorous quality controls for this complex class of material system; and sought to unify the supply chain by elevating interconnection within the CMC value stream of GE Aviation.New Product Introductions (NPI): Led manufacturing aspects of 2 emergency NPIs to save delivery commitments.Cut waste in the preliminary review process by eliminating unnecessary steps, simplifying core steps, and thoroughly documenting the process to ensure a smooth learning curve for training purposes. Thorough training materials translated to saved time, saved money, and earlier returns on investments.Conducted quality review of 500+ components, monitoring yield, conformity, and trends, maintaining close contact with Design Engineering and local Production Engineering. Certified preliminary reviewer for product quality. Point of contact for several engine components, maintaining regular feedback loops with Design Engineering, customer Quality Engineering, and local Production Control.Prepared 700+ pages of visually-oriented work instructions connected to custom production control software gathering operator inputs on critical process variables.Tool design for assembly, machining, and composite materials manufacturing applications. Designed and 3D printed tools for layup. Iterated tool revisions based on technician feedback.

Sugarhouse Aerospace brings space access to everyone by dramatically lowering the entry cost to suborbital launch services.Joined Sugarhouse Aerospace at the time of it's founding as the lead manufacturing engineer. The startup environment presented massive opportunity for rapid...everything.Built-out the early supply chain of vendors for raw material and tooling.Flexed professional networks for fundraising efforts necessary to raise capital for a growing startup, including conferencing with angel investors and business owners around the world.Supported a growing customer base by analyzing production capability and projected growth requirements.Led DFMA perspective on launch vehicle design.Designed and built, by hand, the rocket composite structures.Mixed and cast proprietary propellant formulations of solid rocket motors.Researched real estate and facility needs in anticipation of company growth.Designed custom production equipment.Produced aero-structures parts by machining and other metal working processes.Created a baseline operations safety plan in anticipation of OSHA requirements for employer production facilities.Supported all other variable objectives of the company.Had an awesome time doing rocket science.I continue to wish the team at Sugarhouse Aerospace the incredible success they are bound to achieve.

Provo, Ut, Us

Invited to join a student project to send a suborbital rocket to space. Led the manufacturing engineering, which included integrating custom composite materials and other advanced engineered materials into the high-performance launch vehicle.The attached pictures show both the composite motor casing and carbon fins (painted blue), which I built by hand (when I had a broken hand). This project pushed the boundaries of hobby rocketry further than ever, and there were a ton of unknowns worked against. But the team prevailed through testing, calculating, and sometimes just using sharpened intuition.Was further invited to continue this project as a manufacturing engineering leader as it evolved into a student startup company shortly thereafter.

Provo, Ut, Us

Supported graduate research of Liquid Composites Molding to investigate void formation in composite structures.Responsible for bringing ultrasonic phased-array system into operation to inspect samples.Included creating setup standards, generating focal laws, and providing usable scan data for analysis.Adapting this technology to inspect rocket components for high-power rockets as part of the BYU Rocketry Club. Currently using phased-array ultrasound for inspecting our composite components, and plan to use it to inspect motor case bonds, propellant grains, and other items as needed.

Columbus, Indiana, Us

Joined Cummins, Inc. at the Rocky Mount Engine Plant, working to improve production quality by reducing or eliminating an engine paint defect. With guidance from expert engineers developed experiments, closely observed and analyzed the assembly-test processes, and interacted first-hand with line workers to understand the issues.Updated training materials to fix operator errors on the production line, recommended new equipment configurations at workstations, and conducted the first experiments for an advanced new method of fuel-evacuation proposed by test engineering.

Provo, Ut, Us

Constructed and serviced various experimental systems.Performed disassembly and repair of vacuum pumps, vacuum systems, and related instruments so that professors can conduct funded research.Integrated CAD usage to help professors design experimental systems and trained other employees on CAD programs.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Manufacturing Engineering Technology

Minor, Astronomy