Patrick C. Stoliker

Patrick C. Stoliker was the deputy center director at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, retiring in February 2022. He assisted the center director in the management of the NASA field center, focusing on strategy, business processes and institutional management.

Stoliker held several increasingly responsible management roles at NASA, including briefly serving as acting associate director for Operations at NASA Dryden (now Armstrong), responsible for coordinating the efforts of the Flight Operations, Test Systems, and Research and Engineering directorates in the conduct of flight research and flight testing of new and unique aircraft. He also served five years as director for Research and Engineering; assistant director for Programs and Projects; associate director of Research Engineering; project manager of the implementation team for the Integrated Financial Management System; and six years as chief of the Controls and Dynamics Branch.

Earlier, Stoliker was chief engineer for the Digital Flight Control System upgrade for F-16XL Aircraft 1 and was principal investigator for flight testing the JAS39 control stick in an F/A-18 research aircraft. While detailed to NASA Headquarters, Stoliker worked in the Crew Exploration Vehicle project office during formulation of the request for proposals and award of the development contract. He has participated in all aspects of the airworthiness process, including serving as chair of the X-43 Vehicle 1 and X-38 Vehicle 132 flight readiness reviews.

Stoliker first came to NASA in April of 1992 as a senior aerospace engineer for PRC Inc., and became a civil servant in 1994. Assigned to the X-31A Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability project, he worked as a lead flight controls engineer during the project’s high angle-of-attack envelope expansion, the close-in-combat evaluations and the quasi-tailless experiment. Before coming to NASA, Stoliker was employed for 10 years by Northrop Corporation. He was the lead flight controls engineer and a principal in flight testing of the Tri-Service Stand-off Attack Missile. He also managed the guidance, navigation, and control organization at Northrop’s Newbury Park, California, site.

Stoliker is the author of several technical papers. He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his contributions to flight control system development in 1999; was the recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2009; and received an Exceptional Service Medal in 2016 for innovative approaches to safe and effective management of the center. In 2016, he received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service.

Stoliker earned a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering in 1978 from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and a Master of Science in aeronautics and astronautics in 1979 from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.