Dr John Wissler is PAI’s Vice President for Business Development. A retired USAF Colonel, his 30-year Air Force career included being the Deputy Director of Engineering at Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, MA and Director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Air Vehicles Directorate and Chief of AFRL’s Battlespace Environments Division. He taught fluid mechanics and thermodynamics analysis and design at the US Air Force Academy and directed the Academy’s Aeronautics Laboratory. John also served as a flight test engineer at Kirtland AFB, NM. After the Air Force, he worked at Aurora Flight Sciences for almost 11 years winning and managing ground-breaking aviation and autonomy programs, retiring in 2022 as Aurora’s Director of Business Development.
John has a PhD in Aeronautics from Caltech, an MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, a Master’s of Strategic Studies from the Army War College, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of Sigma Xi, the Air Force Association, the Military Officers Association of America, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He has earned numerous awards for leadership, including Company Grade Officer of the Year in 1993 for Kirtland AFB, and especially enjoys mentoring and teaching.
He is an FAA-licensed private pilot who is working on his instrument rating, flying out of Hanscom Field outside Boston.