HWHAP Ep389 Runway to the Stars
JSC · 2025-06-13
Courtney Beasley Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center. Episode 389, Runway to the Stars. I'm Courtney Beasley, and I will be your host today on this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of human space flight. Ellington Field is a historic airfield located just southeast of Houston, Texas and just up the road from Johnson Space Center, from its beginnings in World War One as a training ground for pilots to its role in space exploration, Ellington has seen it all, whether you're into aviation history, military heritage or NASA's reach beyond Earth. This episode is for you. We're thrilled to talk to David Johnson, also known as DJ, the deputy chief for the Aircraft Operations Division. So buckle up. We're about to take flight into the fascinating history and evolving mission of Ellington Field. Let's fly. <Intro Music> Courtney Beasley You. All right, DJ, thanks for coming on. Houston, we have a podcast today. David Johnson Thanks for having me. Courtney Beasley We're happy to have you, and we're excited to talk about Ellington operations today. But before we dig into that, we'd love to get to know a little bit more about you. So can you start by telling us a little bit about your background and how you first got into aviation. David Johnson Yeah, absolutely. So I'm retired from the Air Force. Retired in 2009 I was a pilot there. And as far as how I kind of initially got into flying, my father was a pilot in the Air Force, so I was kind of always around airplanes. And I can remember seeing an F15 at an air show go straight up. And I remember watching that, thinking, I want to do that. So anyway, went through college, graduated from RPI with an engineering degree and then went into the Air Force as a pilot. Then, after I retired, my best friend from high school, Dom del Rosso, actually worked here, and he said, Hey, our pilots seem to really like it here, so you gotta consider applying. So I ended up doing that. Initially, they were not looking for pilots out at aircraft ops, so I actually got a job as an engineer on the Orion Program, and then a year and a half later, I ended up moving out to aircraft ops. Courtney Beasley Wow. So how many years have you been with NASA Now, David Johnson since 2009 wonderful Yeah. Courtney Beasley So you were that little boy who dreamed about being a pilot and grew up to be a pilot. Yeah. That is awesome. What types of roles did you have before stepping into the current position you're in now David Johnson out at Ellington. I initially started out as the engineer in the aviation safety office, and then I ended up becoming a pilot. So initially I was actually in a non flying position. I ended up becoming a pilot out there. I was the I started flying T38 and then the WB57 and then also, eventually got checked out in the G5 so I fly all three of those right now. And then I went back to the safety office as the aviation safety officer, eventually the chief of that office, and then into the deputy chief of the division. Courtney Beasley And what does your role as deputy chief for the division entail on a day to day basis? David Johnson Go to a lot of meetings. No, it's basically, you know, trying to take after, you know, look after the division with the the chief and the Associate Chief. There's a lot of different meetings that we do have to go through. Go to both to support, you know, the Flight Operations Directorate and the center, but also within our own division. If we're going to deploy and go do a mission somewhere, we have what's called an operational readiness review. So we review all aspects of that mission to make sure that we can accomplish that safely and effectively. If we're going to put any kind of new equipment on our aircraft, whether it be for a science mission or whether we are modifying the aircraft itself. We have to do different engineering reviews for those. And of course, it takes division leadership in order to ultimately sign off on all that. Courtney Beasley And it sounds like you still get to fly. A little bit too Right? David Johnson Absolutely. Courtney Beasley So which aircraft do you get to fly? David Johnson I get to still fly all three, the T38 The WB57 and the G5 which is, it's a really diverse group of aircraft and really a lot of fun to be able to have the opportunity to fly all three. Courtney Beasley We'll get into the details of all three of those a little later in the podcast. But which one is your favorite to fly? David Johnson Just from a pure joy of flying the T38 it is, you know, it looks like a little sports car, it flies like a little sports car, and it is, it is just a joy to fly. I had the opportunity to fly it in pilot training as well, and I loved it then, and I still love it today. And I, I really enjoy instructing as well. Courtney Beasley I love seeing them flying over JSC, it's really cool