Paul David Wilde

About Paul David Wilde

Dr. Paul Wilde currently serves as the Senior Technical Specialist at the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation where he develops innovative concepts and approaches to resolve technical and policy issues, guides research and development efforts, facilitates educational outreach and training internal and external the FAA. As tri-chair for the Common Standards Working group, he directs the coordination between USG agencies to establish and maintain common public safety requirements and compliance evaluation standards for space transportation at Federal and non-Federal launch sites. Dr. Wilde is a founding fellow and President of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety with ~30 years of experience in safety standards development, launch and reentry safety evaluations, explosive safety analysis, and operations safety. He is a former chairman of the Range Commanders Council Risk Committee, which is responsible for the development of national standards on risk analysis and acceptability for launch and re-entry operations. He has performed leading roles for multi-organization projects in high-profile situations, such as investigations of the Columbia and SpaceShipTwo accidents as well as flight safety evaluations for the maiden flights of the many launch and reentry vehicles. He was a leader in the development of several major US regulations and standards on launch and re-entry risk management, including the new performance based 14 CFR 450, RCC 321-20 Standard and Supplement. He co-edited a graduate level textbook entitled “Safety Design for Space Operations,” and he has published over 100 technical reports and papers. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Range Commanders Council in 2021, the Secretary of Transportation Safety and FAA Administrator\'s Award\'s for Safety in 2018, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Special Congressional Recognition, and several other awards include AST awards for safety leadership and technical excellence. He is a licensed professional engineer with degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Specialties: Safety standards development, launch and reentry safety evaluations, explosive safety analysis, launch and reentry operations.

Experience

1. Chief Engineer

   Federal Aviation Administration

   Jul 2019 — Present · Washington, DC, US

Education

• UC Santa Barbara

  Ph.D.

  1984 — 1994

Skills

• Defense
• Safety Analysis
• Risk Management
• Proposal Writing
• Military
• Systems Engineering
• Aerospace Engineering
• Space Systems
• Analysis
• Flight Safety
• Explosives
• Engineering Management
• Safety Management Systems
• Requirements Management
• Aeronautics
• Aerospace
• Risk Assessment
• Human Factors
• Integration
• Standards Development
• Avionics
• Flights
• Safety Engineering
• Regulatory Requirements
• System Safety
• Public Safety
• Program Management
• Dod
• Accident Investigation