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Q: What is something you believed your whole life and discovered in adulthood was not true?TLDR: With great embarrassment, I only learned in my 40s that my grandfather did not work on the Space Shuttle project.From 1979 to 1983 my grandfather, Ralph Grayson, was an engineer at NASA. He had an office at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field Airbase in Mountain View, CA, near the famous “Hanger One” that Google more recently donated the money to refurbish.Hanger One was built in 1933 to house U.S. military dirigibles, or zeppelins.Though I’ve spent most of my adult life, over 20 years in New York City, I grew up in Memphis. My parents divorced when my sister and I were barely out of diapers, at which time our father moved away to Australia.Mother bounced through a couple of other short-lived marriages but spent most of my childhood as a single mother. Ralph was my father’s father. Given his son’s delinquency in any parental responsibility—and my young mother’s struggles—my grandfather assumed the surrogate role of being the only paternal-constant in my youth. During his years with NASA I would spend a couple of weeks each summer, visiting him in Silicon Valley.Ralph’s work at NASA was under subcontract through Battelle Research Institute—you can think of Battelle like a glorified temp agency for scientists and engineers. I’m told that NASA had repeatedly tried to recruit Ralph without success, and they turned to Battelle after he declined their offers to hire him directly. Prior to NASA he had an impressive resume, and retired early. He had been a partner in a Memphis law firm, and briefly went career military after serving most of his career with the FAA, much of it as Associate Commander, Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center.At NASA, his title was equally impressive: “Principal Research Scientist, Aviation Safety Reporting Systems.” That’s what it says on his business card. I had thought that this related to the Space Shuttle’s ground control systems. It did not.When I was young, the Space Shuttle was the most high profile NASA project. NASA and the Space Shuttle were almost synonymous.Like so many others, I was fascinated by space travel (still am), and with Ralph at NASA, it was only reasonable that as a kid, the Space Shuttle was the center of my fascination with his employer. I would ask him all kinds of questions about the shuttle—which he referred to as the space truck, or simply “the truck.” It was apparently a nickname engineers at NASA used to refer to the shuttle. He explained why:In the 70s, as with any NASA project, Congress had to be sold on funding the Space Shuttle. As it was originally conceived, its principle purpose was to have been a reusable vehicle for shuttling astronauts to-and-from a space station: or a “space bus.” But Skylab was scheduled to end operations, and was retired in 1979. The first shuttle did not launch until 1981. There was no approved space station replacement budgeted for. This put the Space Shuttle program itself in jeopardy. Hence, in order to get funded by Congress, the Space Shuttle had to be sold as a “Space Truck” instead of a “Space Bus.” This meant the design had to have a large cargo bay, to carry “things” to-and-fro, not just people… increasing the cost substantially, in order to convince Congress it had a purpose beyond zipping people back and forth to a space station.NASA early concept art for the Space Shuttle, pre-cargo-bay, as a “space bus.”Even though a “space truck” was much more expensive to build, to launch, and to maintain than a “space bus,” a truck could get funded, a bus could not—as Ralph explained to me, as a child.One can think of the Space Shuttle as the El Camino of space flight.NASA did have proposals for a replacement space station for Skylab. There was even one approved in the 80s, during the Reagan years called Space Station Freedom, but after many delays, it was cancelled during the George H.W. Bush Sr. administration, and never built (from its ashes came the International Space Station, or ISS).NASA rendering of the unfunded Space Station Freedom concept, complete with Space Shuttle dock.The Space Shuttle was first approved under Nixon, for five shuttles, that were to rotate through about 50 launches a year, almost one-per-week. President Jimmy Carter, a big supporter of NASA, got behind it and the shuttles began construction on his watch.Ultimately the Space Shuttle program was scaled back substantially by Reagan, making only a couple of launches a year for most of their time in service, though a total of five did see flight: Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, with a sixth shuttle named Enterprise, built as a test prototype in the 70s that was never fully space worthy.With the launch of the International Space Station in ‘98, the shuttles would eventually engage with a space station, as conceived, but by this time they were entering the end of their functional lifespan—designed with late 60s / early 70s technology, built in the late 70s / early 80s—by the time of their engagement with the ISS, they were already bordering on the obsolete.As a kid Ralph told me many stories about the development of “the truck,” two that come to mind are the booster rockets and the flight system. From my recollection decades later I’ll do my best to relate these stories.He explained the importance of redundancy in life-or-death engineering.When the computer systems for the Space Shuttle were designed he said that three engineering teams worked in isolation. They tested them and picked the two best designs. The shuttle itself had three systems on board: Duplicate versions of the best design—if one failed it would switch to the backup—then if the clone of the main system failed, it may indicate the error was integral to the system itself, and the shuttle would switch to the alternate backup, based on the second-place design. I may be butchering the technical explanation, but this is the best I can retrieve from rarely accessed long-term memory of our conversations in my childhood. It was the first explaination I recall hearing, on the concept of redundant engineering and backup systems.As for the solid fuel booster rockets, “they were precisely designed to double the width of a horse’s ass.”The solid fuel booster rockets were reusable, and in the design specifications required that they be transportable by train, given that multiple launch sites were being considered. To be viable for train transport they had to be built within the width of a standard US railroad axel. The US rail system axel standard of 4’8.5” was eventually established in the 1800s, after early railroads had competing widths, so that cars and engines could be used interchangeably on different rail lines. The axels used on early train cars were common to the width of axels employed by horse drawn wagons and carriages of the day. Those axels were, in turn, designed to accommodate a yoke for two horses—hence the Space Shuttle booster rockets were designed to be “double the width of a horse’s ass.”diagram of a booster rocket disassembled.Disassembled booster rockets traveling by train.The Space Shuttle booster rockets had their own NASA branded train engine, isn’t it cute?Reassembling a booster rocket.There are many fables surrounding the US standard rail axel width. These fables are alleged to have come into popular lore from soldiers returning from WWII, claiming that U.S. train axels can be traced back to Roman chariot axels, and therefore, “double the width of a horse’s ass.” Ralph fought in WWII, but in the Pacific Theater. He was a man of the WWII / Great Depression era, and was obviously riffing on this old fable. Given that I’ve since read the same variation of this lore tying it to the Space Shuttle booster rockets, many years after his passing, I suspect it must have been a common version shared by NASA veterans of his generation. I heard it first from him.The lineage of US rail axels to Roman chariots is, of course, not true—as anyone with an internet connection and a small degree of curiosity can easily debunk—but Ralph did tell me his version of this story, when explaining the solid fuel booster rockets’ specifications.He used this as a parable to explain to me the intransigent nature of legacy standards.I was a teenager at the time, full of certainty over the wrong and backwards nature of things. In particular, I thought it was stupid that the U.S. was not on the metric system like Europe, and the rest of the modern world. He explained how standards, once adopted, can be difficult to change, not simply due to the “backwardness” of people who refused to change their ways, but because of the interdependent nature of things, and legacy infrastructure in place.By example, in 1992, before leaving office, one of George H.W. Bush Sr.’s last executive orders as President was to convert U.S. Highways to the metric system. Given that executive orders don’t have the power of a Congressional bill, shortly after being sworn into office Bill Clinton signed his own executive order reversing it. Clinton did not do this because he opposed the metric system, he did it because no money had been appropriated. When the CBO released their numbers, it was estimated that moving and/or replacing every highway sign in the U.S. with new signs written in Kilometers would cost many billions of dollars. Just moving the reflective “mile markers” to position as “kilometer markers” on all 160,000 miles of federal highways would cost many hundreds of millions. I guess to make his numbers, Clinton didn’t want to accommodate that funding in his proposed budget, his first year in office. That was in 1992, my grandfather had just passed away—I thought of our conversation about the intransigent nature of legacy standards. Over a quarter of a century later, U.S. highways are still demarcated in miles—just as Space Shuttle booster rockets were double the width of a horse’s ass.Standards, once established, are incredibly difficult to change.So how did I erroneously believe that Ralph worked on the Space Shuttle?As a young boy I spent far more time with my grandfather than with either my own father (whom I didn’t meet until about age 10, and with whom I am estranged)—and certainly more than with either of my brief step-fathers—I looked up to Ralph, candidly, almost in awe—he was the only persistent paternal figure in my youth, he worked at NASA, and given his time overlapped with the era of the first launch of the Space Shuttle, it dominated the conversations we had about his employer, I grew up thinking this was his work. I didn’t have any good reason to think otherwise.So if Ralph Grayson was “Principal Research Scientist, Aviation Safety Reporting Systems,” working at NASA Ames Research Center, what exactly did he do?He did a lot of things.My grandfather took this photo of me at age 11, at a Bay Area airshow in 1981. There is another matching photo of my sister, with a different plane.As silly as it may sound, I was devastated when I first learned that Ralph had not, in fact, worked on the Space Shuttle during his time at NASA, and remained in a bit of denial about it until I did some research.He left NASA when I was 13 and it was 30 years later when I was confronted by a relative that explained I had misunderstood the nature of his work. It wasn’t as though he had in any way misrepresented himself, only that as a child the Space Shuttle had consumed a great deal of our conversation about his employer. After his passing in 1992, I continued to believe that he had worked on the Shuttle project into my 40s.As a kid, even after his departure from his tenure at NASA, I would sometimes go to his home and watch the Space Shuttle takeoffs and landings together. I was in high school in 1986 when the Challenger exploded on liftoff. Specifically, I was in the library taking a test for economics class that I had missed due to a sick day. The library had the liftoff playing on a television set, and I took pause from my test to watch the liftoff. I was devastated to see the explosion. My grandfather was the first person I called after school to discuss the catastrophe.Most embarrassingly, with great pride I had in fact told friends my whole life that my grandfather had worked on the Space Shuttle… I felt like such a liar!This revelation compelled me to become more informed about his life. I spoke to various relatives, collected documents, and news clippings, and did further research online.A little about Ralph Grayson’s backstory—Ralph was born the eldest son to a North Arkansas sharecropper.On their first date, he took my grandmother Juanita to a soda-shop, gave her a nickel to buy a soda, and told her to wait while he went across the street to a pool hall and won the money to take her out to dinner.Juanita’s father owned the ice factory in the town of Newport, Arkansas. She lived in the “good neighborhood.” When Sam Walton moved to town, to open Newport’s five-and-dime, he purchased the house abutting Juanita’s parent’s backyard not for his own home, but as a gift to his parents, Thomas and Nannie Walton… before eventually relocating to Bentonville, to open his first Walmart (this was after their marriage).Ralph’s family lived in a single room house out in the sticks, with no central plumbing—a hand cranked water pump in the front yard, and an outhouse in the back. Juanita’s wealthy father did not want his only daughter dating the son of a sharecropper… so they eloped on December 6, 1941. The day after they wed, Pearl Harbor was bombed.During depression era 1930s Ralph first received his pilot license as a teen, to fly a crop duster, in a plane that would have been perhaps not entirely dissimilar to the one in the photo he took of me above.When in high school, Ralph first took an aptitude test—subsequently the Arkansas Board of Education provided him a bus ticket to come down to Little Rock for further testing. He scored 165… and a letter from the board sent to his parents stating he had the highest IQ ever recorded in the state.The father of one of Ralph’s friends offered to pay Ralph’s college tuition in exchange for tutoring his own son through engineering school at Arkansas State Teachers College (where he continued to earn pocket money, pool sharking). After completing his degree he enlisted, and briefly served in the South Pacific. With his engineering degree, he was put in charge of a radio communication tower, where he also spun records as a jazz DJ, broadcasting on the Armed Forces Radio Service.Ralph had a large collection of these oversized 16” Armed Forces Radio Service “VDISC” records, in their government issued plain paper sleeves, relics from him time spinning big-band during the war.He returned after the war and got a job in Memphis as an air traffic controller, while using the G.I. Bill to go to night school, earning a law degree. By the time he had completed law school he had risen to Associate Commander, Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center. He practiced law on the side, and remained active in the Army Reserves.By the early 60s he was sent around the country by the FAA training air traffic controllers. In 1966 he was elected President of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, an international body representing all air traffic controllers in “the free world” (this was Cold War era). He also took a leave of absence when he won a private contract with the FAA to install computer systems in U.S. air traffic control centers.Juanita was a Head Start teacher, one of only three white teachers who taught in the Memphis black school system, in the segregation era.In the early 70s Ralph provided an office at the control center in Memphis to a young Fred Smith, so he could study air traffic patterns for his Federal Express business plan.When the Commander of the center retired, Ralph was passed over for his promotion from Associate Commander to Commander. The promotion was given to the fellow who had served in the position during Ralph’s prior leave of absence. Most whom I’ve inquired with have suggested to me this was due to a professional grudge on the part of the Commander. With his lucrative FAA contract, his law practice on the side, as well as the Presidency of the Air Traffic Controllers Association, Ralph was both more financially successful, and more known and respected in the industry than his boss. When Ralph learned he was passed over for the promotion, he gave his resignation and went career military.Many years later—after Ralph’s passing—a former associate of his in the FAA leaked a letter to my grandmother from the former Commander of the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center, written to Alexander Butterfield, then Director of the FAA, recommending that Ralph be passed over for the promotion. His boss went all the way to the top, to block Ralph’s promotion.As a full bird colonel in the reserves, Ralph went career military with aspirations of making general, but was told by the brass that “there are too many men in line ahead of you.” He had made the career pivot too late. As a consolation prize they gave him early retirement, and full pension at the O-7 pay grade of Brigadier General, to which he had aspired.At this point in the 1970s he retired on a double pension from the FAA and the Army, bought an RV, and my grandparents began a tour of National Parks (as a child in the 70s I went on a couple of these trips with them), with the intention of filling in the gaps of every state he had never been to, until he had visiting all the lower 48 contiguous states. I’m not certain if he achieved that goal, as he came out of retirement during that period.That is when NASA came calling.So what did Ralph Grayson do at NASA?Nothing to do with the Space Shuttle at all. Nothing close to that glamorous.He oversaw the Beacon Project.With the increase in commercial aviation, there was also an increase in opportunities for catastrophic aviation failures (crashes and midair collisions). With lives on the line, it was decided that the FAA should not monitor itself regarding the reporting of these errors, particularly human errors—that there was too great a risk that an agency would protect itself, and needed external oversight. It was decided that NASA was the most viable home for such a project, and given Ralph’s extensive experience in air traffic control and flight safety, training air traffic controllers, establishing protocols, writing training manuals, and setting up air traffic control computer systems, that he was ideal to oversee this project.Beacon set up a system to report such errors, and study them to recommend new procedures to avoid future aviation catastrophes.As crazy as it sounds, it was initially devastating to me to learn that my grandfather’s role was nothing of what I thought and had believed my whole childhood. There are several passages in Billy Robbins’ Air Cops: A Personal History of Air Traffic Control that name drop my grandfather (the author knew him personally, and we spoke twice on the phone. His most notable anecdote was that Ralph was the best poker player he ever knew.).Information Transfer Problems in the Aviation System is one notable Beacon Project document available online from the NASA’s archives. Several chapters are either authored or coauthored by my grandfather:During his time at NASA he was nonetheless a local character in Silicon Valley, mostly because he was president of the NASA Electric Car Club.Photo taken at a meeting of the NASA Electric Car Club.He owned two electric cars, both Sebring-Vanguard CitiCars, in bright orange (the second one he bought to use as a “parts car” for the other). He drove his CitiCar to work each day from his home in Sunnyvale to his office in Mountain View. When I would visit, he would take his CitiCar to run errands and everywhere we went people seemed to know who he was, he was the guy with the strange little orange car. The CitiCar had a maximum speed of 35 mph, but Ralph had made many modifications to his, and he could get it up to almost 45 mph on a straight-away. The thing about electric cars is that they have incredible torque—note how today an unmodified Tesla can beat almost any supercar in 0–60 (2.28 sec.). Ralph’s little CitiCar may have capped out at 40 to 45 mph, but 0–40 it could beat absolutely anything off the line. To entertain himself (or perhaps to entertain me as a kid) he’d drive about Silicon Valley looking for guys in fancy sport cars to embarrass. He’d pull up beside them at a stop light and challenge them to a race. I never saw him lose one.On one of my visits, he took me on a tour of Moffett Field Airbase where his NASA office was located. For the occasion he wore his military dress uniform. He said it would help get us into places.As he walked me about the grounds holding my hand, every military personnel we passed would snap to attention and salute him. As a full bird colonel, they’d have to be a general to be of higher rank. We didn’t run into any generals. As a small child I didn’t know anything about military ranks (hell, as an adult I don’t know much about military ranks), but the respect he was given around the base, it certainly gave me the impression that my grandfather was a very important man.He had clearance to go anywhere on the grounds. He got me in almost everywhere. Besides everyone saluting him, the thing I remember most was the one place he couldn’t get me into. He said, “they may not let us in here, but I’ll try…” We wandered through a labyrinth of make-shift hallways, and arrived at a security door. We went through the door, and pulled back a clear plastic curtain opening into a large space with a very high ceiling. It may have been inside Hanger One, but I don’t know for sure. In any case, from across the room there was a huge rocket engine, thruster tilted on its side. The thing was massive. As soon as we entered, a guy in a white lab coat approached us quickly. He told Ralph, “the kid cannot come in.” Ralph introduced me to him, explained that I was his grandson and he was giving me a tour, but the guy didn’t budge. We had to leave. I stared in awe at the huge rocket engine across the way. We left back through the plastic drapes and out through the security door. Ralph apologize that he couldn’t get me in. He tried.No, much to my disappointment, Ralph Grayson had no involvement in the Space Shuttle program at all. He still accomplished quite a lot, and as a child he seemed larger than life.He went on to raise four children, as well as support his own father, the former sharecropper, and his father-in-law—the once wealthy ice-factory owner who went bankrupt after the commercialization of refrigeration.I also learned from my uncle that he was a 32º Freemason… and somewhat in contradiction to that, he was also the first openly atheist person I knew (Freemasons are required to believe in a “higher-power,” Ralph believed religion served an important role in society, but was not a “believer” himself.).He was a pilot, a jazz DJ, an attorney, an air traffic controller, the associate commander of a prominent air route center, president of the international air traffic controllers’ association, a full bird colonel, and oversaw the beacon project at NASA. He also drove an electric car, and he was my grandfather.He may not have worked on the Space Shuttle as I believed most of my life, but still not bad for a sharecropper’s son.

When I lived in Bangalore, I frequently saw commercial planes landing at old airport near Marathalli. Now that airport area is exclusively used by HAL to manufacture jet planes like Tejas and its testing. I also saw many HAL buses plying on the roads carrying PSU employees and also empty HAL buses stopping near bust stands and picking up commuters for a fee. Many times I travelled on empty HAL buses from office to home paying nominal bus fare. So, for me, HAL is more of a bus service in Bangalore than Aeronautics manufacturing PSU! Meanwhile Bangalore has been renamed as Bangaluru. Does this improves HAL’s performance? Since year 2008, old HAL airport is closed for civil flights as civil flights shifted to bigger and better Kempegowda International Airport north of the city. This is revenue loss to HAL and its employees are agitating to revive civil flights to earn revenue. HAL approached NDA II defence minister Manohar Parikar for bailout and he asked commercial airliners to use Bangaluru HAL airport partly for some revenue generation for HAL. HAL should realize that civil flight operation management is under jurisdiction of AAI (Airport Authority of India) and HAL should focus on its core competency of manufacturing defence jets and helicopters.HAL however has few success stories also. In a short span of nearly 15 years, HAL has developed attack helicopter call LCH (Light Combat Helicopter). It is one of the best in it’s class compares well with USA Russian European or Chinese attach helicopters. Japan is keen to buy LCH. LCH need was felt in 1999 Kargil war where bulky Russian utility helicopters were shot down and failed to deliver punch at high altitude to holed up Pakistani soldiers. LCH got initial operational clearance in 2015 & demonstrated bomb dropping and other missile firing at Iron Fist IAF exercise at Pokharan in 2015. Final operational clearance is expected by 2017 followed by serial production. LCH production is expected to start from 2018 but how many LCH per year can be expected from this plant each year. China has production base of its attack helicopter ZH-10. And recent news published by Chinese media that all Army divisions Corp has been provided with a regiment of ZH-10 chopper. To counter this threat, India must produce huge volume of LCH per year and not merely 2-3 choppers per year. IAF has given 64 LCH order to HAL and if past performance is any indication, HAL will take 40-45 years to make these 64 LCH! A recent good news is HAL wants to give technology to an Indian company who can make large numbers of ALH Dhruv choppers.HAL LUH takes first flight in 2016. HAL LCH is a great helicopter that needs bulk production on priorityAnother success story of HAL is development of LUH (Light Utility Helicopter) derived from previously developed Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv . Dhruv is first indigenously developed chopper by HAL and relatively successful. More than 200 Dhruv was made by 2013 but it cannot be called a complete success as there few are crashes in IAF and in Equador, which is the only country outside India who ordered Dhruv. Few Dhruv chopper in Equador crashed and they cancelled entire export order of 6 choppers. Hope new HAL LUH will be a better chopper and gets off the block soon and sufficient quantity serial production starts as early as possible. IAF needs 400 LUH type planes and already India and Russian signed a contract to manufacture 140 out of 200 Russian Kamov 226 model chopper in India. Can HAL handle all these load? HAL is making (or just assembling) Sukhoi 30 MKI under licence and its maintenance, Tejas fighter jet, British jet trainer Hawk under license and chopper LCH. Manufacturing speed, however, is extremely slow 2-5 planes per year. HAL is made 4 Tejas jet in year 2016 and 3 Tejas made flypast during Republic Day parade 2017. HAL plans to ramp-up production to 8 by year 2017-18 and 16 by 2018-19 and 24 by 2020. A second HAL factory is up at Tumkuru near Bangaluru for helicopters and a third factory for Tejas (second Tejas factory produced its first plane SP5 in January 2017) is considered by government and HAL started outsourcing critical components from private sectors to speedup assembly. If the current slow speed continues, India’s immediate requirement of small single engine planes and choppers will be available in 50 years! China producing 200 jet planes per year and its Aeronautics industry is 7 times bigger than India. Then what is the solution? In the original Raphel MMRCA proposal, 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 in India in collaboration with the HAL. It was later discovered that the cost of 108 fighters would go up by about Rs 150 crore per plane since the labour man hours in India (read HAL inefficiency) were 2.7 times higher than in France, raising questions about the French firm being the lowest bidder. On December 2016, Admiral Sunil Lanba, India’s chief of naval staff (CNS), caused a minor flutter in the media by suggesting that the Navy was doing a rethink on the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, India’s premier light fighter jet program. In an article in July 2016, Admiral Arun Prakash (retd.), a former chief of naval staff, outlined three reasons why the military leadership was apprehensive about the project. Firstly, Prakash pointed out that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the huge public sector firm manufacturing the LCA, is a monolithic, indolent giant with a work ethos that struck dread in the hearts of air-warriors. The company’s unionized employees were a cause for low productivity and poor production engineering standards that created many maintenance and inter-changeability problems on aircraft. Secondly, there was a high failure rate of HAL manufactured components and systems that didn’t inspire confidence among military aviation managers. And lastly, Prakash pointed to the suboptimal production support, which often left HAL customers high and dry.HAL’s unionised employees stand behind trophies for Lalbagh Garden (Bangaluru) flower show. Is HAL is supposed to be doing this? (photo from HAL website). HAL’s first jet Marut was born obsolete. It was used only for colourful flypast and gallery shows.Maruti Automobile may know nothing about Aeronautical engineering but they are good at just-in-time Automobile production. Maruti has developed large ancillary industry in Gurugram and Manesar belt near Delhi which help them produce more than 14 lakhs (2016) cars per annum. HAL must adopt this type of production model instead of do-everything-yourself which produces few jets, few helicopters per annum.HAL has huge history of failure. Marut, the first indigenous jet plane before Tejas was made by HAL in collaboration with German company. Marut project disappeared without a trace. German designed Marut was supposed to fly with maximum speed of Mach 2 but its maximum speed was barely Mach 1. Soviet Union provided a blueprint for its popular jet Mig-27 when it was state-of-the art jet for serial production in India. HAL failed to raise to the occation to copy Mig-27 when it has all the blueprints and knowhow. Tejas jet took 35 years to clear initial operational clearance which was developed by DRDO & HAL. Government given go ahead to Tejas mark 1 for 20 jets and 80 Tejas mark 1A to make HAL production up and running despite auditor CAG listed 52 deficiency in Tejas mark 1 before it can be engaged in a hostile dogfight. HAL promised they will resolve most of these deficiencies in Tejas mark 1A which is expected to be operational by 2019. Question remains by when IAF will get its due 80 Tejas mark 1A jets? And will they be obsolete once all 80 planes are operational in year say, 2027? Every taxpayer Indian has right to know what is being manufactured at HAL’s 19 manufacturing plants and at what speed. China, on the other hand, producing defence jets and helicopters at volume which is 20 times bigger than India, thus creating a huge technology gulf between two countries. If Tejas jet fails, it can still be used as advance jet trainer but that 40-45 year money and time waste experience of slow learning of every Aeronautical engineering from scratch will be eye opener for Indian politicians and burrocrats. These decision makers should learn from Indian Metro Rail projects. First Metro project was done at Calcutta (now Kolkata) with Indian engineers with the objective of do it yourself mode in order to learn new technology. That project of 16 KM metro rail was completed in 32 years. Second metro rail project was Delhi Metro which was started with speed of execution in mind and in initial phase, all works were executed by foreign consultants but Indians learned technology vary fast. After a decade, Delhi Metro third phase was mostly done by Indian consultants and even TBM (tunnel boring machine) operators were Indian. So, which process is better? India should follow Delhi metro route for Aeronotical engineering development by allowing Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sukhoi etc. to deploy production centres with Indian private sector as JV for faster development of this industry. Private sector productivity and efficiency will drive speed and efficiency in Indian Aeronautical industry. We should remember HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools) was big PSU in India in 1980’s with multiple factories and assembly line in Bangalore, buses for employee commute and lost benefits for PSU employees. HMT was called time keepers of the nation as it has near monopoly in wrist watch market segment in 1980s. That changed after Tata group launched Titan wrist watches after economic liberalization in early 1990s. By 21st century HMT became sick PSU due to cost plus manufacturing inefficiency, burro-cracy, lack of marketing & inability to adapt to new technology. By 2016, PSU HMT was dissolved. Hope PSU HAL will not have same fate.IAF inducted two LCA Tejas mark I in 2016 for Flying Daggers squadron before Final Operation Clearance and Tejas made first Republic day parade on 26 January 2017 with three jets. These included two LCA Tejas mark I and a trainer version. On a routine flight from Leh to Bangalore, a Tejas jet landed at Bhopal due to rains (or bad weather). It was reported that water was seeping inside the cockpit. The plane was covered with a tarpaulin sheet to prevent water seepage and photographers were not allowed to take pictures. This proves how poorly designed DRDO / ADA / HAL Tejas jet is. Rain water seepage do not happen even from a Rs 2 lakh rupees Maruti 800 car (it is called Japanese quality). The Tejas has by one account produced One of the single worst fighter projects that has ever been conceived of in the history of aviation. Even as it enters service, the aircraft is already obsolete. However, march past of 3 Tejas for the first time in Republic day parade 2017 gives hope Tejas will survive technological obsolesce. The engine on the Tejas mark I presently is the US-built GE-404, the radar is the Israeli Elta 2032, the ejection seat is British, and the weapons are a mix-and-match from around the world. Many of these imported systems need to eventually be developed in India, but more time will be needed to build up the technology base. The Tejas is never going to re-define the words "state-of-the-art." At the same time, the development of the Tejas is a fairly positive indicator of where India stands in its ability to manufacture fighter aircraft.According to IAF assessments, the Tejas LCA, when compared to Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen and Lockheed Martin’s F-16, boasts reduced airborne endurance — 59 minutes versus three hours for the Gripen and nearly four hours for the F-16. The Tejas can also only carry a weapons payload of around three tons against nearly six tons by the Gripen and seven tons by the F-16. Maintenance requirements for the Tejas LCA are also higher than with foreign combat aircraft. The Tejas LCA requires 20 hours of serving for every hour of flying against six hours for the Gripen and 3.5 hours for the F-16. In addition, the service life of the Tejas LCA is also half that of the 40 years found in both the Gripen and F-16. But this is not a true picture. Tejas is much smaller than Gripen or F-16. Large number of Tejas can fight and win air battles if they fight like wild dog. Wild dogs are often found in jungles of Peninsular jungles and they hunt in a team. Even a much bigger tiger do not confront a group of wild dogs as tiger knows that tiger may kill few wild dogs but ultimately a group of well co-ordinated wild dog group will easily kill a solitary tiger. This should be the game-plan for Tejas. A large number of smaller Tejas needed to target bigger enemy jets. Tejas due to its small size is stealthy by birth and if more composites are added on its surface it will become more stealthy and a game changer!There could, however, also be surprise entries into the Indian competition from the US, with Raytheon, which manufactures the AESA radar for the F/A 18 Super Hornet and the F 16 also showing interest. While in the past, US firms had limited options to offer to New Delhi, with India now gaining Major Defence Partner status, transfer of sensitive technology and licences have been made easier. The integration of an AESA radar was a key parameter for the Air Force to clear the order for 83 LCA Mk 1A fighters, after years of blocking the indigenous fighter on concerns that it would not be combat worthy.Navy refusing HAL Tejas naval versionAs far back as the early 1990s, the navy had initiated a study for examining the feasibility of adapting the LCA to shipborne use. While confirming feasibility, the study had revealed some major problem areas, which included lack of engine thrust, requirement of an arrester hook and stronger undercarriage, and need for cockpit/fuselage re-design before the LCA could attempt carrier operations. Undaunted, the navy re-affirmed its faith in the programme by contributing over Rs 400 crore as well as engineers and test pilots to the project.The prototype LCA (Navy) had rolled out in July 2010, raising great hopes. However, it is obvious that the DRDO failed to address the problems listed above with any urgency, leading to ultimate rejection of this ambitious project. By its failure to deliver on the LCA (Navy), the DRDO has let down its most steadfast supporter amongst the armed forces, the Indian Navy. A little introspection by those at the helm of this organisation would reveal to them three reasons for its abysmal performance despite a wealth of talent and a network of sophisticated laboratories - an exaggerated opinion of their capabilities; a lack of intellectual honesty in denying obvious failures, lazy speed and an unwillingness to seek external help when required.Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada is considered one of the most realistic and challenging aviation warfare exercises. IAF participated in Exercise Red Flag with its Su 30 MKI in 2016 to take on USAF F-16 jets. This game IAF exposure in handling F-16 which is used by Pakistan Air Force (PAF). Exercise Red Flag from January 23 to February 10, 2017 was pitched between USAF 5th generation stealth jet F-35 and 4th generation F-16 jets. F-35 got Impressive 15:1 kill Ratio at Red Flag War Games over F-16. If this is the state of affair, how will a 4th generation Tejas will handle USAF F-35 or Chinese J-20? It will be a fight between a falcon and a sparrow.Until the Tejas arrived, India had lacked a locally built jet fighter since the 1970s when it had the Marut and Gnat/Ajeet, but were retired quickly because the IAF wanted to only import foreign fighters to bridge the technology gap between Marut and USA supplied Sabrejet of PAF. India thus lost development continuity. This blunder must not be repeated because airpower in the 21st century will reflect India’s manufacturing strength. With warplanes growing in complexity and costs, and hostile stealth aircraft about to debut in India’s neighbourhood, imports are certainly not an option.Indian scientists haven’t gained much hands-on experience in joint development of PAK-FA T-50 with Russian as the project PAK-FA T-50 is a fairly mature aircraft for India to get substantial work share. In fact, HAL – which initially hoped to get some development work from Sukhoi – has surrendered much of its quota of work. When India and Russia inked the FGFA deal in December 2011, HAL had only 15 per cent of the work share but was paying 50 per cent of the development cost. But India’s share in research-and-development was limited by its domestic industrial capabilities. The country had no expertise in stealth, which has taxed the world’s leading armament companies.After Modi government in place, there seems to be some positive movement to speed up production rate. Modi lay foundation for a new helicopter factory at Tumkuru near Bangaluru in January 2016 to make LUH, LCH and ALH Dhruva. During Aero India 2017, defence minister Manohar Parrikar declared that a new plant will be up and running in next 18-24 months and will have the capacity to manufacture 8 LCA-Tejas aircraft per year. HAL chief T Suvarna Raju said in March 2017 that HAL will deliver 8 LCA jets in year 2017 and start an annual delivery of 16 jets from 2018-19 onwards. He also said "we are going to build around 1,000 helicopters including Kamov 226, LCH (Light Combat Helicopter), ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter) in the next 10 years,". This is a tall order. Can Modi magic transform HAL? HAL in collaboration with BAE upgraded the jet trainer Hawk Mk132 into light attack aircraft Hawk-I for low intensity conflicts. Hawk-i is capable of delivering precision Munitions including Air to Ground and close combat weapons, self defence capabilities through Electronic Warfare systems, digital map generator and operational reliability through new Dual Hot stand-by Mission Computer Avionics architecture supported by indigenous high accuracy and high Altitude Radio Altimeter, IFF MKXII, Data Transfer system, CMDS and RWR. Such "light attack aircraft" are adept at several missions that high-performance fighters are ill suited to perform. Flying slower, their pilots get more time to identify targets, especially over jungle terrain, or when targets are camouflaged. In mountains, accuracy is extremely important because even narrowly missing a target on a sharp ridgeline means the bomb or rocket strikes harmlessly, hundreds of feet below. Light attack aircraft allow greater accuracy. One can hope all existing Hawk Mk132 to become light attack aircraft in a specified timeframe. Can Modi bring aache din for Indian Aeronautics industry and HAL? HAL needs more assembly lines for Tejas, LCH, Hawk-I etc. or completely handover production to private sector players who can produce jets in large numbers like Maruti.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) willhave to scale up production of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), asserting that the government has not "ditched" the project for any other fighter jet.Seeing speedup of performance, Delhi is now making extra demands to Moscow when it comes to the joint production of a Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). India may go in for this joint venture only under the condition of a full-scale technology transfer and if Russia provided help in the development of the indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). According to media, the Indian side bases such demands on the experience of the Sukhoi-30MKI jet acquisition programme, which cost India Rs 55,717 crore ($8.4 billion) without any tangible help in developing indigenous fighter-manufacturing capabilities. The recipient company Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) is still unable to manufacture the Sukhois on its own.HAL / DRDO Tejas took first flight in 2001 but Final Operational Clearance (FOC) received in December 2018. NDA defence minister Manohar Parikar checks AMCA model. HAL AMCA is still in models for twenty years (1995-2015) and DRDO’s ADE / ADA labs are still conducting wind tunnel tests. With this speed it may take more than 100 years to fly this jet.

Nothing. Mills just provided, August, 2019, the fourth item that the theory allowed to be developed, and the second item being scrutinized for procurement or lease by the USA Department of Defense."Department of Defense has a Suncell running on its premises as a licensee":by July 21, 2019:according to Navid Sadikali(CEO at The End Of Petroleum) in the first segment at time stamp 0:00 to 17:45 on a talk show at r/BrilliantLightPowerthen scroll down to "End Of Petroleum talks Hydrino Energy - Live on Freedom Talk Live July 21, 2019"UPDATE: I (Frank Acland Moderator at E-Cat World.com) have received the following message from Navid Sadikali:“Request: please modify the article. My interview stated these facts.1) The SunCell is running.2) The DOD is a licensee through ARA.3) The DOD was onsite to see the SunCell.”It is finally happening, the Suncell is being scrutinized towards being leased by a commercial or military client.I communicated with Navid, several months ago. In a radio cast, he mentions something about Brett's book about Mills: "Randell Mills and The Search for Hydrino Energy" at time stamp 2:36 "we wrote about him"..:One of several books about Mills and the Grand Unified Theory-Classical Physics.I have been asked what I am doing to get GUT-CP accepted by the academics in physics. Navid is the one who might be actually doing something about that. By joining forces, that is what will break through the impasse formed by the physics community against GUT-CP and the device on Brilliant Light and Power and on sites such as Evaco LLC as well.GUT-CP is not cold fusion. CF and LENR try to explain their mechanisms using Standard Quantum Mechanics and are all full of various hypotheses that lead nowhere. GUT-CP is purely classical and has three items fully developed1)in 1986 the explanation for the DoD for how their Free Electron Laser works2) in 2007 developed process for manufacturing accordingto the predictions of GUT-CP, diamond thin film for such uses as as a scratch proof cover on cell phones or tablets and as a heat sink substrate on circuit mother board for chip components3) 2012 developed the Millsian® molecular modeller, available for free trail use by download, 100 times more accurate than any similar app made using SQMand at least 3 more items in development, one of which is the Suncell, which is being scrutinized by the USA DoD:4) finished proof of pronciple for the SUncell in 2000, and thefully functional and finely tuned and controlled version in May 2020, the Suncell the second item being considered by the DoD for procurement or lease, which item is being developed based on the predictions of GUT-CP,5) the Hydrino, fully validated in April -May 2020 is patented in many processes and devices since 2000 and is used as the mechanism that drives the Suncell:Randell L. Mills Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications6) the end point device using the Suncell’s ash, Hydrino’s or dark matter, from which indestructible plastics are being developed for us in the structure of that end point item and which end point item is to be powered by the first viable antigravity device, which is being developed by Huub Bakker of Massey University, NZ , in collaboration with Randell L. Mills, which device was patented as :FIFTH-FORCE APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROPULSIONWO1995032021A1 - Apparatus and method for providing an antigravitational force - Google Patentswhich antigravity device is mentioned in general terms in a university lecture at time stamp 00:29:08:20161019 Introduction to the Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics_001What are all those patents validations and experiments and fully developed and commercially used items, if not proof or at least some indication of the accuracy of using GUT-CP and the Hydrino as a subset or prediction made since 1999, under that theory?The case for Millsian physicsNASA Takes a Flyer on Hydrinosfresno state lecture randell millsAs an update, this answer was flagged by someone hostile to the theory of Mills and tried to have this answer collapsed. This answer was eventually allowed to stay un-collapsed, since the one complaining did not provide a specific reason to have the answer censored.This attempt at censoring this answer begs the question, why? If the theory is as bad as some claim, or even a scam, why are not other, equally suspect theories not being attacked so strongly. Yet Mills theory is the only theory so singled out for strong censoring. The reason is that GUT-CP presents a threat to the some that are using SQM to make large incomes or gaining prestige, as in developing such devices and or related experiments, as controlled fusion and quantum computing. Both are dead end projects since the physics used, to develop these, is itself a dead end. In the Sun it is gravity that draws nucleons together, exactly centre on centre, very easily to very successfully attain fusion, while the nucleons in Earth based devices are pushed together, using magnetic confinement, which ends up doing something like trying to push wet noodles together; in quantum qbits, these particles always de-cohere a fraction of a second after the device starts to “compute” actually ending in non-computing anything. This is due to all devices using SQM, as a guide, which guide is based on imagined then assumed and therefore, at based are non-existant mechanism of waves. This was a mechanism that was then just a lucky guess about a seemingly viable mechanism that seemed to explain the 2 slit experiment. Then, using what was basically a wild guess, to be the base on which SQM has laid its foundation on. It seems to explain the 2 slit experiment, in the same way that square wheels might have been considered towards building a car, at at a time when wheels were an unknown. Then, finding the square wheels seemed worked ok if pushed hard enough, was decided on for use in building a car on top of that. Later, when industry was starting to get under way, cars were seen as having the potential of being developed for rapid transportation, but the cars are found to be difficult to move at the required speeds. Instead of looking back through its development, to find where the problem might be, the wheels are considered as off limits for such scrutiny and instead the motor is considered as the most likely place for finding the problem. The motor is looked at to see how to make it more and more powerful to make the car go as fast as the transportation needs require. This is similar to what is being considered currently, to find out why qbit are decohering, then using the qbits in a different, more robust way. This, as if the problem started with the qbits themselves, and not at an earlier development in SQM when waves were an assumed mechanism, that was assumed to exist in trying to explain the 2 slit experiment. The solution, in SQM, is then to attempt to make the qbits ever more robust, with current efforts ending making large complex devices that try to ensure the qbits do not decohere.This has resulted in quantum computing having purported successes in developing all of the peripheral items, such sotware, fudiciary concerns, building being funded and built for research into quantum computing, andall the rest, except for the hardware, circuit try in electronic chips that houses and makes up the q-bits themselves. It might be better to look all the way back to where the problem is known to have a big assumption involved, when waves were accepted as the best explanation for just one particular experiment. That was at the time when qbits and their use was not even dreamed of, but the waves were ok'd for use everywhere and in an inviolable way.I did all of the surveying of the topic completely independent of Mill and his associates. I read copies of all the original papers and people at the institutions where all of the original data and records and peer reviewed papers involved originate then read those papers and communicated with theose weho were closest related to those papers or who had access to the original records relating to such sources, to get at their side of the story in all this.The sources I have used are:L. A. Rozema, A. Darabi, D. H. Mahler, A. Hayat, Y. Soudagar, A. M. Steinberg, “Violation of Heisenberg’s Measurement-Disturbance Relationship by Weak Measurements,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 100404 – Published 6 September 2012; Erratum Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 189902 (2012)Thomas E. Stolper, mathematician and Political analyst and Author of “America’s Newton, The reception of the work of Randell Mills, in historical and contemporary context”,Herman Haus, Institute profesor of Electronic Engineering,(1986). "On the radiation from point charges". American Journal of Physics. 54 (12): 1126–1129. Bibcode:1986AmJPh..54.1126H which paper was given to Mills by Haus used to develop the same model of the electron as developed by HausThe USA Department of Defense, and physics academia which accepted the FEL explanation provided by Haus,Philip Payne, Principal Scientist, Princeton University, Physicist in charge of using the topological predictions of the Grand Unified Theory-Classical Physics for use in developing the Millsian Molecular Modeller,Brett Holverstott: Science Philosopher, head of the development team of the Millsian Molecular ModellerGerrit Kroesen, Professor of Plasma Physics, Eindhoven Technologicl University, independently tested the Hydrino reaction and found no explanation for the reaction using SQM,NASA independently tested the hydrino reaction by sub contract to:Anthony J. Marchese, a mechanical engineering professor specializing in propulsion at Rowan University, with the conclusion being indeterminate of the cause of the reaction. “ From what I can tell from BlackLight's studies – and they've been pretty good about letting others outside verify their excess energy – there are some things going on that people are having trouble understanding.”Marchese, a PhD engineer from Princeton, says NASA granted him the money to study the feasibility of the BlackLight Rocket for six months. None of the NASA money will go to Mills or BlackLight Power, Marchese says, and his work will be done independently.Marchese's colleague at the Rowan College of Engineering, associate professor of electrical engineering Peter Mark Jansson, researched the BlackLight process while employed by Mills' backer Atlantic Energy, now part of the utility Conectiv.Besides Conectiv, Mills other subsidiaries using the theory are Evaco LLC, and Millsian Corp. The main company Brilliant Light and Power is growing exponentially since then.Scams just die out and disappear after getting a few million dollars and its perpetrators also disappear.Mills is still around and has all the earmarks of someone very successful, and well liked by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, who themselves granted him a few million dollars. Chambers of commerce are made up of people who are not known to be taken in by any kind of scams, but are on the other hand always ready to promote any business that has shown great promise in producing successful goods and services to the local community, over a long period of time and which businesses are headed by equally good willed people. In the case of BrLP those people are:DAVID BENNETTMr. Bennett was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2018.Consultant – Strategic management consulting for growth businesses in aerospace, transportation and alternative energy field. Focused on startups through mid-sized firms.Mr. Bennett was CEO of Proterra electric bus startup and led the firm from prototype design through national validation and successful commercial launch. Raised funds from key investors, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GM Ventures, and Mitsui & Co. Global Investment.Mr. Bennett worked with Eaton for ten years in a series of operating and corporate roles. His most recent roles were VP Business Development Industrial Sector and President Eaton’s Vehicle Group in Asia Pacific. The Vehicle Group AP business, headquartered in Shanghai, has operations in five countries providing full design, product development, production, sales and service solutions for a wide range of automotive and commercial vehicle customers.Previously, Mr. Bennett held a variety of general management positions in Europe and North America for the Truck business. He was also a general manager in Eaton Aerospace.Prior to joining Eaton in 2001, Mr. Bennett worked with Honeywell (formerly AlliedSignal) and General Electric in a variety of general management, operational, program management and technical roles for high technology aerospace and industrial businesses.Mr. Bennett holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and materials from Duke University and a master’s degree in business administration from Drexel University.Emilio Icaza ChavezMr. Icaza Chavez was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2018.Mr. Icaza Chavez is a co-founder and current Chairman of the Board of Aspel, a Mexico-based company which is the market leader in small business accounting software both in Mexico and in Colombia. Telmex bought an initial stake in Aspel in 2000; since then the relationship has evolved and Grupo Financiero Inbursa now owns a majority stake in Aspel.From 1989 to 1996, Mr. Icaza Chavez worked at GBM, one of the top brokerage houses in Mexico, where he was Co-Executive Director, in charge of Corporate Finance, Research and Investor Relations.In addition to his continued role at Aspel, Mr. Icaza Chavez co-founded Fusion de Ideas in 2008, a Private Equity investment vehicle with current investments in Energy, Software, Real Estate Development, Food, and other industries.Mr. Icaza Chavez is the main shareholder of Enextra Energía, a Mexican corporation which has signed a licensing agreement with Brilliant Light Power, Inc. to serve energy customers in certain industries within the Mexican Territory.Mr. Icaza Chavez was awarded a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City.JEREMY HUXMr. Hux was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2016.Mr. Hux is President of HCP Advisors, based in San Francisco, California. For nearly 20 years, he has advised Technology and Clean Technology companies on equity, debt, and strategic transactions.Prior to HCP Advisors, Mr. Hux spent nine years with Credit Suisse. He was a Managing Director and Global Head of Credit Suisse’s Clean Technology Investment Banking practice. In addition to running the Clean Technology effort at Credit Suisse, he worked extensively with semiconductor and storage companies. Mr. Hux joined Credit Suisse after approximately eight years with Morgan Stanley. At Morgan Stanley, he was Head of West Coast Clean Technology and also advised companies across the technology spectrum, including storage, networking, hardware, semiconductors, and contract design and manufacturing. Prior to Morgan Stanley, he advised Media and Entertainment companies at SG Cowen.Mr. Hux earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History from Vanderbilt University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.DR. RANDELL L. MILLSDr. Mills, Founder and principal stockholder of Brilliant Light Power, Inc., has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer and President since 1991.Dr. Mills has authored nine books, participated in over 50 presentations at professional meetings, and authored and co-authored over 100 papers regarding the field of energy technology that have been published in peer-reviewed journals of international repute. Dr. Mills has received patents or filed patent applications in the following areas: (1) Millsian computational chemical design technology based on a revolutionary approach to solving atomic and molecular structures; (2) magnetic resonance imaging; (3) Mossbauer cancer therapy (Nature, Hyperfine Interactions); (4) Luminide class of drug delivery molecules; (5) genomic sequencing method, and (6) artificial intelligence. A thorough description of the Company’s technology and Dr. Mills’ underlying atomic theory is published in a book entitled The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics.Dr. Mills was awarded a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Franklin & Marshall College in 1982, and a Doctor of Medicine Degree from Harvard Medical School in 1986. Following a year of graduate work in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Mills began his research in the field of energy technology.Roger S. Ballentine – CEO Green Strategies Inc.William Beck – Managing Director and Global Head of Engineering and Sustainability Services Credit SuisseH. McIntyre Gardner – Chairman of the Board, Spirit Airlines, Inc.Dr. Ray Gogel – President, Avanti EnterprisesJim Hearty – Former Partner of Clough Capital PartnersPhil Johnson – Former SVP – Intellectual Property Policy & Strategy of Johnson & Johnson – Law Department, Former SVP and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Johnson & JohnsonMatt Key – Commercial Director Charge.autoBill Maurer – SVP ABM IndustriesJeffrey S. McCormick – Chairman and Managing General Partner of SaturnDavid Meredith – Chief Operations and Product Officer at Rackspace Hosting, Inc., President of Private Cloud & Managed Hosting at Rackspace Hosting, Inc.Bill Palatucci – Special Counsel Gibbons LawAmb R. James Woolsey – Former Director of the CIA under President Bill ClintonColin Bannon – Chief Architect BT Global ServicesMichael Harney – Managing Director, BTIGStan O’Neal – Formerly Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Former Board Member of General Motors, Currently on the Board of ArconicRoger S. BallentineRoger Ballentine is the President of Green Strategies Inc., where he provides management consulting services to corporate and financial sector clients on sustainability strategy; investment and transaction evaluation and project development execution in the clean energy sector; and the integration of energy and environmental policy considerations into business strategy. He is also a Venture Partner with Arborview Capital LLC, a private equity firm making growth capital investments in the clean energy and energy efficiency sectors. Previously, Roger was a senior member of the White House staff, serving President Bill Clinton as Chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force and Deputy Assistant to the President for Environmental Initiatives. Prior to being named Deputy Assistant, Roger was Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs where he focused on energy and environmental issues. Before joining the White House, Roger was a partner at Patton Boggs LLP.Over the years, Roger has acquired a wealth of experience and knowledge of the energy sector, financial markets, and environmental business practices as well as the politics, players and trends in the energy and environmental space. Using his expertise and deep relationships, Roger has helped clients develop better business strategies, make better investment decisions, negotiate new business partnerships, build critical alliances with stakeholders, and devise impactful government and public affairs strategies.Roger currently serves on the Advisory Boards of the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Clean Capital LLC, 8 Rivers Capital, and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), where he was a founding Board member in 2001. He is a member of Ingersoll Rand’s Advisory Council on Sustainability. Roger also serves on the Selection Committee for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Zayed Future Energy Prize and is the Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Clean Energy Forum.In addition to being a frequent speaker, media commentator and writer, he has been a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School teaching in the area of energy and climate law and a Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington D.C.Roger is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Connecticut and a Cum Laude graduate of the Harvard Law School. He is a member of the Connecticut, District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court bars.William BeckWilliam Beck is a Managing Director within the Group Business Support Services (GBSS) Department of Credit Suisse. William is the Global Head of Critical Engineering & Sustainability, based in New York. He leads a team responsible for developing and implementing strategy and governance for the Bank’s Innovation, Energy management, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing & Fire (MEPF) design, Engineering Operations Maintenance, Environmental and Sustainability integration as well as the Data Center Strategy programs. His mandate also includes the bank’s Global Energy Strategy and Procurement integration. Bill has 25+ years of experience including the strategic planning, development, design, construction and operations of mission critical and non-mission critical facilities. William is a licensed Professional Engineer, Master Electrician and Energy procurement specialist. He holds a BSEE degree and a MS degree in Management, both from Fairleigh Dickenson University.H. McIntyre GardnerMr. Gardner was the head of Merrill Lynch’s Private Client business in the Americas and also the Global Bank Group within the firm’s Global Wealth Management Group until early 2008. As head of Private Client Americas, Mac was responsible for the region’s extensive network of more than 600 advisory offices; private banking and investment services to ultra-high net worth clients; the group’s middle markets business; investment and insurance products; distribution and business development; and corporate and diversified financial services.For the Global Bank Group, Mr. Gardner was Chairman of Merrill Lynch Bank USA and responsible for Merrill Lynch’s consumer and commercial banking and cash management products. This included distribution and sales of all bank products and services primarily delivered into the marketplace through Financial Advisors. These activities encompassed retail deposit products and services, credit and debit cards, commercial cash management, residential mortgage lending, securities-based/small business/high-net-worth structured/middle-market lending, and community development lending and investing.Mr. Gardner’s 13-year career at Merrill Lynch also included roles in strategy, Finance Director for the corporation, and as an investment banker specializing in high yield finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring.Mr. Gardner has also served as the principal of a financial advisory services firm and as the president of two consumer products companies. He has served on the Board of Directors of Spirit Airlines, Inc. since 2010 and has served as Chairman since August 2013. He also serves on the North American Strategic Advisory Board of Oliver Wyman. Mr. Gardner is a 1983 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion.Dr. Ray GogelDr. Ray Gogel started his career in academia, where he obtained his PhD with distinction in philosophy from Drew University after studying for four years in Germany with leading Continental philosophers. Ray’s background in philosophy has permeated the rest of his career, driving a strong and abiding interest in forward-thinking leadership and business models, as well as innovation and disruptive technology. Ray moved from academia to a career in the utility and power industry, progressing through a variety of operational, leadership and business development roles at Public Service Electric & Gas Co in New Jersey, before he left to join IBM as a solution architect, where he designed, sold and delivered IBM’s first Business Process Outsourcing transaction (PG&E Energy Services). Gogel progressed within IBM to become VP—Client Services, responsible for IBM’s largest utility customer and P&L, before joining Xcel Energy, headquartered in Minneapolis.At Xcel, Ray reported directly to the CEO as CIO and later in the expanded role of CAO and President of Customer and Enterprise Solutions, where he managed the core areas of IT, Customer Care/Marketing, Human Resources and Utility Innovation. During his tenure, Xcel received recognition as a premier IT organization in InformationWeek’s Top 500 Awards, placing in the Top 20 for 3 years and twice winning their Business Technology Optimization award. Ray was featured in ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders. Xcel’s unique outsourcing model and use of Strategic Advisory Boards has been the subject of various publications and an early driving force for transformational outsourcing in the utility industry. In 2006, Xcel was awarded the prestigious Edison award from the Edison Electric Institute for its ‘Utility of the Future’ initiatives in IT, as well as Utility of the Year in 2009 from EnergyBiz Magazine for its unique and pioneering ‘SmartGridCity™’ efforts.Ray left Xcel Energy to serve as President and COO of Current Group, an innovative US-based start-up Smart Grid company specializing in cutting-edge smart grid operations and analytics with clients in NA, Europe and AP. He also served as Global Head of Smart Grid for Nokia-Siemens Networks as they explored entry into the Smart Grid adjacency. Ray spent two years as a Managing Director in Accenture’s Resources Group, working as a market-maker for strategic pursuits.In 2014, Ray co-founded USGRDCO with Jay Worenklein and David Mohler and served as President and COO. USGRDCO’s objective is to upgrade the distribution systems of America’s utilities and accelerate the benefits of grid modernization through commercial microgrids and distributed energy resources, thereby offering utilities alternative paths to more efficient, reliable, resilient and secure power systems. Ray and his team pioneered a series of microgrid archetypes and designs, suitable for utilities, private communities and smart cities, which USGRDCO believes represents the future of the North American grid. Ray left his COO role at USGRDCO to found his own consulting group, Avanti Enterprises, Inc., where he provides strategic consulting and business planning to companies in the power sector.During his career, Ray has served on IBM’s Strategic Advisory Board, The World Economic Forum, the Colorado Smart Grid Task Force, EEI’s Smart Grid Workshop Group, the Board of MedicAlert International, Denver’s United Way and Goodwill.Jim HeartyGraduate of Williams College and The Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School.Jim began as a bond trader at First National Bank of Boston, where he eventually ran the Bond Department, (the largest underwriter of Tax Exempt Debt in New England with a significant business in US Government and Agency Securities and Money Market securities). In the early 1990’s, Jim was the Assistant Secretary of Administration and Finance for Governor Bill Weld and responsible for all Bond Financings for the Commonwealth and Agencies and Authorities where the Governor served on the Board.Over the course of his career he also served as: Board Member of the Public Securities Association and a Board Member and Chairman of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, Board Member of the Mass HFA, The Mass Industrial Finance Agency, The Massachusetts Land Bank and the Pension Reserve Investment Management Board (The State Pension System) among others. Remained on the Board of the Pension System and co-through the terms of Governors Weld, Cellucci, Swift and Romney.Working at Lehman Brothers as a banker in the Tax Exempt Division, Jim was responsible for Business in New England and grew the franchise substantially, lead managed significant issues in all New England State. Became the Head of Public Finance in 1998, and Co-Head of the Tax Exempt Division including all trading and underwriting in 2000, and grew the Business substantially.In 2002, he was the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Pension Reserve, and served for two years as ED and CIO of the $70 Billion Pension Fund. Then in 2005, Jim was a Partner of Relational Investors, one of the original “Activist” Institutional Investors, and grew the business from $1.5 Billion to $5 Billion Dollars in AUM. Significant Engagements included Home Depot, Sovereign Bancorp, Hewlett-Packard and Sprint. In 2008, he became a Partner of Clough Capital Partners and was responsible for fundraising in the Institutional Market, where he grew the AUM in our long/short fund from $500 Million to $2.0 Billion.Jim is married to Doris Blodgett since 1975, 3 sons, Resident of Boston.Phil JohnsonPhil is currently a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (“IPO”), Co-Chapter Editor of the Sedona Conference WG10 biopharmaceutical patent litigation project, and member of the board of the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Phil recently retired as Senior Vice President – Intellectual Property Policy & Strategy of Johnson & Johnson – Law Department. Prior to April of 2014, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of Johnson & Johnson where he managed a worldwide group of about 270 IP professionals, of whom over 100 were patent and trademark attorneys.Before joining Johnson & Johnson in 2000, Phil was a senior partner and co-chair of IP litigation at Woodcock Washburn in Philadelphia. During his 27 years in private practice, Phil counseled independent inventors, startups, universities and businesses of all sizes in all aspects of intellectual property law. His diverse practice pertained to advances in a wide variety of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, consumer products, semi-conductor fabrication, automated manufacturing, materials and waste management. During his time in private practice, Phil served as trial counsel in countless IP disputes, including cases resolved by arbitration, bench trials, jury trials and appeals to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, many of which resulted in reported decisions.During his tenure at Johnson & Johnson, Phil served terms on the Medical Device & Diagnostics and Pharmaceutical Group Operating Committees responsible for managing J&J’s many businesses in these fields, while also serving on the senior management team responsible for J&J’s legal organization, which has now grown to over 450 attorneys located in 70+ locations in 35+ countries.Phil’s has previously served as the Chair of the Board of American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation, as President of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, as President of INTERPAT, as President of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, as President of the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation, as co-founder and member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, as Chair of PhRMA’s IP Focus Group and as Board Member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.Phil’s has previously served as the Chair of the Board of American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation, as President of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, as President of INTERPAT, as President of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, as President of the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation, as co-founder and member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, as Chair of PhRMA’s IP Focus Group and as Board Member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.Phil has frequently testified before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees about patent law reform and, more recently, abusive patent litigation. Phil served as a member of Chief Judge Michel’s Advisory Council on Patent Reform, and was recognized in the Congressional Record as a member of the Minority Whip Jon Kyle’s “Kitchen Cabinet” for the America Invents Act (“AIA”). Thereafter, Phil served as IPO’s representative on the ABA-AIPLA-IPO committee of six experts (“COSE”) formed at Director Kappos’ request to propose regulations to the USPTO for implementing the PGR-IPR post-grant proceedings created by the AIA.Phil co-authored “Compensatory Damages Issues In Patent Infringement Cases, A Pocket Guide for Federal District Court Judges,” published by the Federal Judicial Center, and has served that Center as a faculty member on its IP-related judicial education programming. Phil was also featured in the Landslide Publication March/April 2013 issue. Most recently, Phil authored “The America Invents Act on Its Fifth Anniversary: A Promise Thus Far Only Partially Fulfilled,” published on 9/15/2016 in IP Watchdog.Phil’s awards include the Woodcock Prize for Legal Excellence (1997); the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association’s Jefferson Medal (2013); the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Association’s Distinguished Intellectual Property Practitioner award (May, 2017), induction into the international IP Hall of Fame by the IP Hall of Fame Academy (June, 2017) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association “Carl B. Horton President’s Distinguished Service Award” (September, 2017).Phil received his Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude with distinction in biology from Bucknell University, and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.Matt KeyMatt has been changing business through the innovative use of technology throughout his career. He has successfully transformed how businesses approach the market and enabled the creation of repeatable and sophisticated services and solutions whilst bringing in many new clients.Prior to Everynet and now Charge (a new connected electric truck manufacturer) he ran the Global IoT Business for Vodafone and before led the Enterprise division in Cable & Wireless Worldwide. Other experience includes working for Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Capita and Barclays.Bill MaurerBill Maurer is the Senior Vice President of ABM Industries. Mr. Maurer is responsible for managing the Energy portfolio for ABM. ABM Industries is a best-in-class provider of Integrated Facility Services which include – Energy Solutions, Mechanical Service and Construction, Facility Management, Janitorial, Security, and Parking Services for building owners and operators in North America and selected international locations. ABM is one of the nation’s most successful single source providers of high value facilities management and building optimization services.Mr. Maurer has over 20 years of experience in the Energy Industry where he has held various and increasing levels of management and responsibility. Most recently, Mr. Maurer joined ABM in 2006. Under his guidance, the Energy Solutions division has maintained exponential growth year after year. To do this Mr. Maurer had to completely re-organize and re-structure the existing energy division. There were significant changes made in personnel, market focus and overall strategy towards the Energy Business. Through the changes that were made in Energy offerings, ABM is now able to offer to their clients a unique program to provide cost savings that allow them to fund needed improvements to reduce energy consumption, reduce environmental impact and comply with government regulations. Not only has the revenue increased substantially in the Energy division, but the unique solutions delivered by ABM and the markets in which were focused on has also increased dramatically.With a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Maurer’s career path began at the Systems and Services Division of Johnson Controls, an internationally renowned building technology and manufacturing leader. At Johnson Controls, he spent nearly 8 years in sales and management positions where he was a top performer with a track record of consistent top performances in growth, sales achievement, profitability and leadership.Over the past 21 years, Mr. Maurer has been involved with over $900M in Energy Saving Programs to customers. He is a recognized leader in the industry by his co-workers and competition alike. He is involved with leadership positions in multiple industry related organizations – NAESCO (Board Member), BOMA, ASHRAE (Former Treasurer) and Energy Services Coalition. Mr. Maurer has been involved in multiple speaking engagements at industry/ market events and The White House. Mr. Maurer is also involved with and holds leadership positions within 2 Cancer Fund Organizations.On a personal note, Mr. Maurer has a wife of 20 years and two children (16 old boy and 14 old girl). They have lived in Milford, MI area for the past 11 years. He enjoys playing competitive hockey, soccer and golf. He is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting – specifically pheasant and duck. Reading financial, motivational and educational books is a daily practice.Jeffrey S. McCormickJeffrey is the Chairman and Managing General Partner of Saturn. He founded Saturn in 1993 and began financing early stage companies including, the extremely successful business to business e-commerce company, FreeMarkets (FMKT, acquired by ARBA); the largest U.S. biodiesel company, Twin Rivers Technologies (acquired by FELDA); email marketing company, Constant Contact (CTCT); and the extremely popular Boston Duck Tours. Saturn Partners II and III, have invested in cutting-edge technology companies in healthcare, education, energy, IT and environmental businesses.Jeffrey has over 25 years of experience as an investment banker, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He currently serves on the boards including BioWish, Knopp Biosciences, Third Pole, and XNG Energy.Jeffrey is a graduate of Syracuse University, where he received an MBA in Finance and a BS in Biology. He was a Collegiate Scholar Athlete, first year team All-American lacrosse player, and a captain of Syracuse’s first NCAA championship lacrosse team.Jeffrey is a Vice Chair of the CitiCenter for the Performing Arts. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Committee of the School of Management at Syracuse University and is Founding Principal Financier of the Sean McDonough Charities for Children. He is actively involved with the Trinity Church in Boston.Jeffrey is married with three children.David MeredithDavid Meredith has been Chief Operations and Product Officer at Rackspace Hosting, Inc. since January 2018. Mr. Meredith’s responsibilities include P&L oversight of the vision, operational and administrative direction of Rackspace’s product lines, operations, technology and service delivery functions. Mr. Meredith has been the President of Private Cloud & Managed Hosting at Rackspace Hosting, Inc. since June 1, 2017. Prior to joining Rackspace, Mr. Meredith served as the President of global data centers at CenturyLink. He has led international managed hosting businesses in roles including senior manager, president, Chief Executive Officer and board director. His experience spans a range of industry verticals from venture-backed firms such as NeuPals in China to business units of large public companies such as Capital One, CGI and VeriSign. He served as Senior Vice President and Global General Manager for Technology Solutions at CenturyLink, Inc. As an industry thought leader, he has provided insights for leading media outlets such as BusinessWeek, USA Today and The Washington Post. CIO Magazine, Wireless Week and The Huffington Post have published his articles. He has spoken on industry topics for NBC’s Carson Daly Show, NPR’s Morning Edition, Seoul Broadcasting System, PBS’ Nightly Business Report and at analyst forums such as Gartner, Bloomberg, Yankee and Cantor Fitzgerald. In December 2016, the respected Uptime Institute recognized his contributions to the Industry by selecting him for their Change Leader Award. He was named “Top 40 under 40 – Best and Brightest Leaders” by Georgia Trend Magazine in 2008. Mr. Meredith graduated with honors from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and he earned a Masters in IT management from the University of Virginia, where he serves on the UVA advisory board.Bill PalatucciBill Palatucci is one of the state’s most prominent and widely respected attorneys, with a reputation for strategic planning and advice regarding complex public policy and communications initiatives. He has been named among NJBIZ’s “100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Business” every year that the issue has been published.Most recently, following the Republican National Convention through Election Day, Mr. Palatucci served as General Counsel to the Presidential Transition Committee of President Donald J. Trump. In this role, he was responsible for all legal matters related to ethics compliance and contracts and agreements between such agencies as the U.S. Department of Justice, General Services Administration, and the White House. Mr. Palatucci coordinated extensively with internal and external members assisting the transition, providing all necessary legal advice and guidance to facilitate the Transition Committee’s interactions with the Trump-Pence campaign, federal departments and agencies, local, state, and federal officials, think tanks, outside experts and consultants, and various other entities and individuals with whom the Transition Committee engaged with during the pre-Election Day time period.Mr. Palatucci also served as General Counsel to Governor Christie’s presidential campaign. In 2013, he served as Chairman of the Governor’s reelection campaign and as Co-Chair for the Governor’s Inaugural Committee.In 2010, Mr. Palatucci was elected the Republican National Committeeman for New Jersey, and, for the past 30 years, he has had a hand in some of the most important state and federal elections in New Jersey. Over this time, he has led the reelection campaigns of President Ronald Reagan, President George H. W. Bush, and Governor Tom Kean, and he served as a senior advisor to Governor George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000. Mr. Palatucci was also the principal consultant for Christine Todd Whitman’s run for the U.S. Senate in 1990.Amb R. James WoolseyAmbassador R. James Woolsey was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1993 to 1995. He’s been appointed by Presidents to positions of leadership during the administrations of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. In a town riven by partisan divisions, Ambassador Woolsey is widely respected on both sides of the aisle.A national security and energy specialist, he is the Chancellor of the Institute of World Politics and Chair of the Leadership Council of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Chairs the United States Energy Security Council. He is also a Venture Partner with Lux Capital and chairs the Strategic Advisory Group of the Paladin Capital Group, a multi-stage private equity firm.He is a frequent contributor of articles to major publications, and gives public speeches and media interviews on the subjects of energy, foreign affairs, defense, and intelligence.This just a partial list of the high powered personnel sources I have used. Mills himself is just one of the thousands involved so far.