John Koelling

John Koelling is the Director, Aeronautics Research at NASA’s Langley Research Center. He is responsible to secure and execute aeronautics programs and projects for research and technology development supporting the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. Prior to this role, Mr. Koelling served as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for Langley’s Research Directorate (RD) where he led strategic initiatives for both RD’s front office and the more than 20 branches within the Directorate. In his NASA career, John has served as researcher in Crew Systems, the Head of the Projects, and Advanced Concepts Branch, and in Project Management for NextGen Airportal and SMART-NAS as well as being the Project Manager for the System Wide Safety Project. Before joining NASA, he was the Airbus Fleet Specialist at US Airways and was Chief of the Space Software and Requirements Section at HQ USAF Space Command.  He also served as an Aircraft Commander and Instructor pilot in the Air Force where he taught low level tactical reconnaissance and air combat maneuvering. John holds a B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from the US Air Force Academy and an M.S. in Systems Engineering.