Frank W. Batteas

Frank W. Batteas was the associate director for Flight Operations at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, until 2018. In this role, he was responsible for assisting the director in managing all aspects of flight operations, operations engineering and maintenance of all NASA aircraft at Armstrong. He also assisted the director with technical, operational, resource and policy issues affecting flight operations.

A NASA research pilot since 1998, Batteas flew a variety of NASA research and mission support aircraft, including F/A-18, F-15, King Air, B-747, DC-8 and C-17 aircraft. He also served as chief of the Flight Crew Branch.

Batteas accumulated more than 8,000 hours of military and civilian flight experience in more than 50 different aircraft types. His past NASA projects include the B-747 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) flight and telescope testing, Mars Science Laboratory radar development testing, X-48 high angle-of-attack limiter assaults, autonomous air refueling demonstration, C-17 and B-757 throttle-only control, F-18 low boom/no boom supersonic project, and F-15 intelligent flight control system.

Batteas previously served as project pilot on the NASA B-52B launch aircraft, including airborne launches of the X-38 Crew Recovery Vehicle demonstrator and launches of the hypersonic X-43A Hyper-X vehicle. Batteas deployed worldwide to support a variety of research studies, including atmospheric physics, ground mapping and meteorology with NASA’s DC-8 airborne science laboratory and G-III research aircraft.

Batteas came to NASA Armstrong after a 21-year career in the U.S. Air Force, serving initially as an engineer working on the Peacekeeper and Minuteman missile programs at the Ballistic Missile Office, Norton Air Force Base in California. After attending pilot training at Williams Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona, he flew operational flights in the KC-135 tanker aircraft and then was assigned to research flying at the 4950th Test Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. Batteas graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in December 1988. He served more than five years as a test pilot for the initial C-17 development. As a KC-135 test pilot, he also was involved in aerial refueling certification tests on a number of other Air Force aircraft. His last assignment was at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where Batteas led the two-year B-2 Systems Test and Evaluation effort.

Batteas earned a Bachelor of Science in nuclear engineering in 1977 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was awarded a Master of Science in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1980 and in mechanical engineering from California State University Fresno in 1991.