Discovering Engineering: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet

This week First Book is sharing stories about science and engineering from some of our friends at Lockheed Martin. Today’s guest blogger is Lauren Larimore, an industrial systems engineer with Lockheed Martin in Texas.

Howdy! My name is Lauren Larimore and I graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in Industrial Engineering. I now work at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics supporting production operations.

I chose to major in engineering because I love discovering new things, and finding solutions to problems. From a young age, I enjoyed reading about scientific discoveries and finding out why things happened the way that they did. Throughout my life I had been encouraged to set high goals, and to not be afraid to pursue new things. I had wonderful teachers along the way who inspired me to study hard and – more importantly – find something I was really interested in.

For me, growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, I had an appreciation and respect for fighter jets. The summer after I graduated from high school I saw the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fly. It was from that point that I knew I really wanted to be an engineer at Lockheed Martin.

As an engineer, we consider ourselves to be technical problem solvers. We focus on creating, designing, building or enhancing to a certain extent, something that may never have been facilitated or produced. In my opinion, the best idea turned into reality by an engineer is the development and production of stealth fighter jets. One of my projects explores how to transition the production of the F-35 as production increases in the future. It involves simulating events, developing crew plans, and documenting operations and performance to figure out what works the best.

As an industrial engineer, I help ensure all the different programs build planes in an effective manner to meet the schedule and budget. Here at Lockheed Martin, we like to do it right the first time.