Mansfield Fellow Concludes Fellowship Year at JAXA

June 7, 2018

Mansfield Fellow Chip Taylor is concluding his Fellowship year with two placements at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).  During the month of May Mr. Taylor was placed in the flight research unit at Chofu Aerospace Center, JAXA’s major research and development base.  The flight research unit conducts flight tests to research aviation and space-related technologies. During his placement Mr. Taylor was able to tour JAXA’s supersonic wind tunnel, composite and metal structural testing laboratory, flight hangar, flight simulators, and Nagoya facility.  He and his JAXA counterparts also discussed topics including the regulatory requirements for putting flight data recorders in small aircraft and helicopters and how Japan and the United States handle unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft that are modified to conduct experiments.  The photo above shows Mr. Taylor and the entire flight research unit in front of their full-motion simulator. On May 30 Mr. Taylor, a Principal Maintenance Inspector with the Federal Aviation Administration, began his final placement in the Safety and Mission Assurance Department of JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center.