AEDC engineer juggles work and busy home life

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Kim Luther received some sound advice early on from an older sister, but never realized where life would lead her as the "middle child" in a large family from a small rural community in Middle Tennessee. 

"I was in the eighth grade when my older sister, who was a senior at that time, told me to go into engineering or computer science," Luther said. "I was good in math; I did well in school in general. Debbie was working on me, pointing me in that direction." 

The Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) mechanical systems engineer said she stuck with engineering and never regretted that decision. 

"I chose mechanical engineering because it was something that's visual - its hands on, tangible," she said. 

While attending Tennessee Technological College in Cookeville, she interviewed with a large number of corporations and organizations. Luther chose Arnold Engineering Development  Center (AEDC) because it was close to home and because of the diverse type of work it offered. 

She wore a business suit for the job interview in the center's four-foot and 16-foot transonic wind tunnels. It would be the first and last time she would wear formal attire to work. 

"Once I took the job, my boss, Howard Hall, told me never to wear that again," she recalled with a laugh. "He said, 'You're not going to be wearing those types of clothes,' and I said that wasn't an issue." 

Looking back to her first year at AEDC, Luther said the experience was definitely a bit overwhelming. She was in awe of the center's large and sophisticated facilities, but she also had to make a more personal adjustment. 

"I was the first female engineer on the floor, to come up here to the Model Installation
Building," she said. "I was told later there was some apprehension - from both salaried
and craft workers - about how well a woman would fit in here." 

Eighteen years later, she has no regrets. She joined AEDC's work force in 1990. Four years later, she married Brad Luther, another engineering student she had dated in college. Before long they were raising a family. She didn't realize it at the time, but the complexities of interpersonal relationships - both personal and professional - would provide the greatest challenges in her life. 

One of her first craft-oriented jobs involved being teamed up with an older machinist to learn more about the equipment used in maintaining test support equipment. She had to follow him around and learn the ropes. 

"It was always enjoyable working with him, but he was one of the most stubborn people I'd ever met," she said. "That was a real test on how to get along with people." 

Luther is responsible for the maintenance and preparatory work on the test support systems in 16T. She said working behind the scenes is just as demanding as what goes on in the wind tunnels before and during a test. 

"What we do goes hand-in-hand with test buildup work," she said. "Our work is so dynamic, you can be involved with so many different things and you don't necessarily have knowledge in all those areas. You're constantly searching for who to talk to or where to get the information so you can make a step forward. It can take everybody to come up with solutions. For example, I work with design engineering if I have some sort of equipment failure issue that repeats. I work with craft on ways to improve how a process works. "I work to locate funding to support all of these efforts. 

"I get involved with the design engineers and we may come up with a fix and then we work with the (model) shop or we'll go and talk to the metallurgist. There are a lot of people I work with on the maintenance side of the house. It's just a constant learning curve." 

Luther said the most enjoyable aspect of her job is the dynamic nature of it. 

"It's not only about a plan for the work you wish to do on your system this year," she said. "It's also what support you need from these other groups to make that plan work. It doesn't all happen at once. I can have three jobs at the shop and two at design and something else that the crafts folks are working on in the meantime. So, you're constantly juggling these jobs - that's what I love, how to be efficient and make it easier on the others in performing their work. 

Since she is also responsible for managing maintenance on the hydraulic system or other systems at 16T during testing, a phone call can come at any time, day or night. 

"Any operational issues in the tunnel - if there is anything that comes up - I'm on call," she said. "If they're running the tunnel through three shifts a day, they can call me at midnight and say, 'hey, what about this or that?' Sometimes you have to come in and at other times you don't." 

Since she works best with a hands-on approach, Luther has spent years being involved in various work, watching jobs being performed to learn how and in what order complex mechanisms are taken apart and reassembled. 

"It's amazing, some things are really complex, it doesn't matter how many times you pull these things apart or put them back together, you can find something that could go wrong almost every time. For instance, I had a gear box for a test cart that had a planetary gear setup with two gears on the same shaft. When we took it apart, we didn't get it indexed correctly. When you take gearing apart it has to match the right way when you put it back together or it won't work." 

It took her a week to figure out the correct sequence to properly reassemble the gear box. Time is not usually on her side since testing is usually going by a tight schedule. 

She has had some high caliber on-the-job help over the years. 

"Since working here, I've had two good mentors, Jerry Reid (now retired) and Bill Cathcart, PWT's test operations system architect," she said. "I've also have great co-workers, like Winfield Stacey, Hubert Black, David Moore, Barry McCann and many others. Howard Hall has provided a great influence on my technical writing development. Learning and growth come through all of the people around you." 

One of those people is Ted Boswell, ATA's working foreman with the Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility's 16T, 16S and 4T tunnels. He considers Luther a valued coworker and a good friend. 

"She's always quick to share stories, accomplishments and photos of her three children," he said. "When it comes to her job, Kim faces many challenges. One good example would be balancing the accomplishment of maintenance work while supporting test requirements at the same time." 

Boswell said Luther brings years of expertise to the job, but doesn't hesitate to ask questions when she encounters unknown territory. He also said she is someone who is always willing to help new employees. 

"One of Kim's strong points is her willingness to help bring the craft personnel's ideas to fruition," Boswell said. "She keeps her marker board full of our ideas so they can later be designed and implemented. Many of these ideas that have been implemented can be seen by taking a glance at the systems that Kim is responsible for. Kim is truly a team player who is always willing to help in any way." 

On the home front, Luther and her husband have worked hard to be good parents to their three children. She has already seen promising signs of what may be on the horizon. 

"Actually my daughter loves math right now and my older son wants to be anything from a scientist to an engineer to a martial artist," she said. "He loves baseball and he's a black belt in Taekwondo, at the age of nine. He has a real passion for handling the structure, discipline and mental challenge it provides." 

Her daughter, Rebecca, is particularly pleased that her younger brother has started school. 

"My daughter loves math and science and is the animal lover in the family," Luther said. "Rebecca aspires to become a vet one day. She loves soccer and participates in instrument ensemble, learning advanced recorder techniques and rhythm instruments." 

Luther said her youngest son, Joseph, has Downs Syndrome. 

"When he was much smaller there were people in and out all the time," she recalled. "There were four therapists that would come each week. We were really busy with that - my husband altered his work schedule. He would go in at six in the morning and get off at 2:30 so he could get home. And I would try to get there so we could meet with the therapist at the house." 

She said Joseph is doing well now and is becoming increasingly socialized. 

"He is in kindergarten this year," Luther said. "He is well accepted by his peers, that transition has gone very smoothly. We're just starting to hear his vocabulary coming in at this point." 

She is also encouraged by reports on Joseph's tenacity in the face of a challenge at school. 

"One of the counselors who works with him after school right now says he's one of the toughest kids he knows because Joseph will run in the hallway, trip up and fall smack on the floor," she said. "And he'll get right up and won't cry a bit. He's a tough little kid." 

Luther said having a child with Downs Syndrome has kept things interesting. 

"Raising a family is always challenging," she said. "Having a special needs child just adds a little twist."