Jennifer H. Cole

Jennifer H. Cole is the deputy mission integration manager for the NASA’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP). She supports long-range strategic technical planning and coordination of SFNP projects across the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD).

Cole served NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, for more than two decades, bringing a wide range of technical and management experience to her current position. From December 2021 to October 2022, she was acting deputy director for the center’s Programs and Projects directorate, supporting the development and execution of the center’s mission activities. Prior to that role, she was the branch chief for Aeronautics Projects at NASA Armstrong, beginning in 2019, when she provided management and technical direction of the center’s aeronautics activities to ensure the effective and timely support of flight research projects. At the same time, she was the center’s deputy Aeronautics Research Director, serving as a conduit for communication and representation between the center and agency ARMD.

Cole’s previous roles at NASA Armstrong also included senior flight advisor to the Advanced Air Transport Technologies project; center ARMD chief engineer; chief of the center’s Aerodynamics and Propulsion branch; and project chief engineer for several projects, including Department of Defense research efforts looking at throttles-only control and using propulsion as control mechanisms. As an aerospace engineer, she worked on a variety of projects, including the X-38 prototype crew return vehicle, X-43 hypersonic scramjet vehicle, and Predator B unmanned aerial system as well as NASA Armstrong’s F/A-18 mission support aircraft projects, including autonomous formation flight and automated aerial refueling. As chief engineer of the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft recovery project, she oversaw a study in which alternate forms of control were investigated for aircraft that had lost their primary flight control system.

Cole’s aerodynamics research resulted in several technical papers, including “Exploratory Investigation of Transport Vortex-Induced Performance Benefits on a Fighter Aircraft” in 2008; “The Gliding Experiments of the Wright Brothers: The Wrights and Flight Research 1899-1908” in 2007; “The C-17 Throttles-Only Control Evaluation and Simulation Validation” in 2006; “The NASA Dryden Flight Test Approach to an Aerial Refueling System” in 2005;  and “Induced Moment Effects of Formation Flight Using Two F/A-18 Aircraft” in 2002.

Cole first came to NASA Armstrong in 1998 when she participated in the center’s summer internship program, working in the Aerodynamics and Propulsion branch. She participated in the program again in 1999.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania.  She served as a wind tunnel assistant in 1996 and 1997 at the university’s Low-Speed, Low-Turbulence Wind Tunnel. While enrolled in Penn State’s master’s program, she taught freshman and sophomore engineering courses within the College of Engineering.

Cole is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Penn State Alumni Association.