Laura Kushner is the Lead Systems Engineer and Vehicle IPT Lead for X-57 Maxwell, an experimental electric aircraft. She is also the Lead Systems Engineer on the Community Test Planning and Execution Subproject. Laura was previously a Systems Engineer on the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD) Project where she focused on the Life Support and Crew Escape Subsystems integration and test requirements, environmental qualification of subsystem components, and airworthiness qualification of the aircraft. She has a background in development and implementation of flow visualization and optical techniques over a wide range of applications from lab to wind tunnel to flight test. Laura has made major contributions to the research, data analysis, planning, and execution of numerous projects including Orion, the Space Launch System (SLS), Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD), the Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project, and Commercial Supersonic Technology (CST) Project. Laura received her BS in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Washington.
