Lee Noble Director, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate NASA

Lee Noble is responsible for the overall planning, management and evaluation of the directorate’s efforts to conduct experimental flight research, and to test the most promising concepts and technologies from across the ARMD portfolio at an integrated system level.

He supports the ARMD associate administrator in a broad range of mission directorate activities, including strategic and program planning, budget development, program review and evaluation, and external coordination.

Previously, Noble was the deputy director for the Integrated Aviation Systems Program within ARMD at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. In collaboration with the program director, Noble was responsible for day-to-day operations in the program office, including coordinating with NASA and industry personnel to ensure that program efforts were aligned with ARMD strategy and complementary to other ARMD initiatives.

Noble served as chief engineer for ARMD’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project. Prior to this position he was the ERA project’s lead systems engineer, where he established a formal systems engineering process and led a team of systems engineers.

Noble began his NASA career in 2009 as a systems engineer in the Mechanical Systems Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He supported Orion Water Impact Testing at Langley, including development and check-out of the water basin, as a lead systems engineer. Following Orion, he served on project teams for several small research efforts. His final position prior to coming to NASA Aeronautics was to serve as the deputy project manager for the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment – 3 (IRVE-3) -- that launched from the Wallops Flight Facility and successfully demonstrated sub-orbital flight and re-entry.

Prior to NASA, Noble worked for the Triumph Group in Newport News, Virginia, where he developed wind-tunnel models for aerospace customers and led turbomachinery projects to produce hardware for advanced propulsion technology demonstrations. He later joined the Triumph management team, serving as director of turbomachinery programs, director of engineering, and director of business development.

Noble has been awarded two NASA Group Achievement Awards as well as the ARMD Associate Administrator Award for Technology and Innovation, and was recognized as a member of the ERA project at the 59th Aviation Week Laureate Awards. The ERA project was the selected winner in the “Technology” category for developing and demonstrating performance-improving technologies that could be used to make the next generation of civil aircraft more efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly. While at the Triumph Group, Noble received the President’s Award for innovation and outstanding leadership. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Noble received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California in Irvine, California.

Official Bio