Emmanuel E. Antimisiaris
NASA Pilot
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Emmanuel E. “Manny” Antimisiaris was a research pilot and navigator from 2001 to 2018 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
An employee of NASA contractor Integration Innovation Inc. (i3 Corps), Antimisiaris was assigned to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747SP and the world’s largest airborne astronomical observatory. He also flew Armstrong’s Beechcraft B200 King Air and was a mission navigator on the DC-8 airborne science laboratory.
Antimisiaris joined NASA as a systems safety engineer, evaluating upcoming test flights and analyzing the hazards involved and mitigations to make those flights safer.
He transferred to flight operations as a navigator on the DC-8 in 2008 and deployed on several airborne science campaigns, including Operation IceBridge over the Antarctic and the intercept of the Hayabusa space probe re-entry near Australia. He improved the mission planning process for upcoming flights of the DC-8 by incorporating automated flight planning and eliminating the tedious task of manually building flight plans. With many hours of 747 experience during his airline career, he was assigned as a SOFIA pilot in 2010. He flew several of SOFIA’s “first light” and early science missions.
Experience
Before joining NASA, Antimisiaris flew various aircraft for several airlines, including 747s for Southern Air Transport, DC-8 and DC-9 aircraft for Airborne Express, 737s for American Airlines, the LR-45 for Flexjet and A-320s for JetBlue Airways.
Antimisiaris was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force through the Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1983. His initial assignment was as a navigator on B-52 bombers. He was selected for undergraduate pilot training in 1988 and returned to the B-52 as a pilot. He also flew the E-3 AWACS on more than 40 combat support missions during Desert Storm.
After service as a human factors engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, he concluded his military career as a reservist managing Predator unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) production and deliveries for the Air Force Reconnaissance Systems Program Office.
Education
Antimisiaris earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and human factors from Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, and logged more than 10,000 flight hours.