About Mike Ciminera, COA Board Member
Updated: Jul 8, 2022
Mike Ciminera played an integral role at Grumman and Northrop Grumman for 51 years. He began his career as a college apprentice at Grumman beginning at the age of 17 and was hired by Grumman after graduation to work in preliminary design realizing a dream of designing airplanes from the age of 12. After spending several years on the conceptual design of the F-14 Tomcat and working as the assistant to its chief designer for eight years, He then rose through the ranks to become Director of Advanced Systems (Preliminary Design), he then became Vice President managing such areas as Advanced Programs; the Systems Group including Electronics, Space and Joint Surveillance Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) Divisions; Electronic Systems Division; JPATS (Joint Primary Aircraft Training System) program; F-18 A/B/C/D Hornet program; and the Joint STARS (Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System) program in Lake Charles, LA. He then became a Sector Consultant for Northrop Grumman, providing technical and program management oversight of y programs including unmanned autonomous systems namely Fire Scout, UCAS (Unmanned Combat Autonomous System), and the X-47B Demonstrator that has landed and taken off autonomously from one of our nuclear aircraft carriers.
Currently, he has completed his second book about the aircraft designers and teammates who created, developed, and tested aircraft systems for Northrop Grumman (the first book being about the aircraft designers and teammates at Grumman). He also lectures and serves on other boards namely: Chair of the Dean’s Leadership Advisory Council of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; President of the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, CA; board member of the COA (Christian Outreach in Action), a non-denominational center in Long Beach, CA that cares for those in need. He also coordinates the Hot Food Ministry at his church where he and his team have been preparing hot meals for 20 years.
Mike received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from RPI in 1959; a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (NYU) in 1964; and attended the MIT Sloan School of Business program for senior executives in 1981.
Inspiring career story — five decades from the F-14 Tomcat to the X-47B is remarkable, and the COA board is lucky to have that kind of dedication. Off topic, but for cleaning up blurry event photos I use a low quality image maker that sharpens them in seconds.
Interesting read on board member dedication—attention to detail clearly matters in governance too. That same scrutiny applies to quality control in everyday tech, like checking displays for flaws using a dead pixels black screen tool before committing to a purchase. It’s the small checks that prevent bigger headaches later.
Inspiring read — going from a teenage apprentice on the F-14 Tomcat to overseeing the X-47B autonomous carrier landing shows how far dedication takes you, and pairing that with decades of COA service makes it all the more impressive. For anyone who likes to share clean aviation photos, a free AI photo editor makes quick edits easy.
Reading about Mike Ciminera’s five-decade aerospace career, from the F-14 Tomcat to the X-47B autonomous carrier landing, is truly inspiring — especially how he pairs that with decades of community service through COA and his church. On a lighter note, for anyone looking to nail their exact fit when shopping, the Bra Size Calculator makes finding the right size quick and easy.
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