Captain Miles Palmer
Flight Test Engineer
Air Force Weapons Lab
Kirtland Airforce Base, New Mexico
1981-1986
Flight Test Engineer
Air Force Weapons Lab
Kirtland Airforce Base, New Mexico
1981-1986
Miles Palmer was born in the small town of Roby, Texas in 1953. His mother and father met there in the 1950’s, got married and had Miles. At the age of three, Miles and his family moved to the nearby town of Snyder, Texas where his father was employed as the head mechanic at the local Ford dealership. Miles’ Grandparents moved from Texas to the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and his family would go there to visit during the holidays. Mile’s parents decided they liked the trees and hills of Arkansas over the flat, treeless plains of Texas and at the end of first grade Miles and his parents moved to Green Forest, Arkansas.
At that time the population was 700 but grew to 1,200 by the time Miles graduated from high School. His graduating class had 50 students but surprisingly, the school was able to field a football team. With 15 to 18 boys on the team, most played every minute of every game. “We were in school together from 2nd grade to 12th grade. 50 kids, you get to know them very well.” Miles lettered in track, basketball, and football.
Miles has always had an interest in flying, space exploration and the moon. He recalled watching the Vanguard One explode on the launch pad in December of 1957. He also recalled his father taking he and his mother up for a flight after getting his pilot’s license on the GI Bill after returning from World War 2 in England building gliders. “I remember sitting in the back seat and just being enthralled with the whole experience.”
Later, Miles started reading science fiction books at the age of 10. “I read those and loved them.”
Miles was a very good student and excelled in school. In the 5th grade he took the standardized tests, and his teachers told his parents he was reading at a 12th grade level. They suggested moving Miles into the 12thgrade. His parents said no. “It would’ve ruined my life to have done that. They made a good decision for me.”
In reading his science fiction books, Miles noticed the space travelers would often mention MIT. He decided that was where he was going to go to college. When it came time to apply to college Miles applied to only one school, MIT. He was accepted. Miles graduated from tiny Green Forest High School in the Ozarks in 1972 and headed for cosmopolitan Boston, Massachusetts.
Miles did not have a problem being a small town boy in the big city. “It was like a fish discovering water.” He decided to double major in chemistry and electrical engineering. Miles found time to have a part time job fixing copiers for a local printing company and to join the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. In 1975, when his high school sweetheart Kathy graduated from Green Forest High School, they were married, and she moved to Boston.
While at MIT Miles received a letter from the Draft Board advising him his lottery number was 73 “which pretty much ensured I would be drafted.” Miles decided he would join the Air Force ROTC. Before he could complete the paperwork for the ROTC, he received another letter advising him that the draft had ended.
Miles enrolled in the PhD program in Chemistry at UC San Diego. Miles wanted to be sure he could graduate in four years and searched out the professor that most reliably had students graduate in four years. While he was in San Diego, Miles earned his pilot’s license and he and Kathy enjoyed flying in the clear skies of San Diego. In 1980, in his last year of the PhD program the announcement was made that there would be an astronaut selection process. Miles applied and made it to the final round of interviews. He flew to the Johnson Space Center for a battery of physical exams and psychological evaluations. At the conclusion Miles was brought into a room and was told, “we are sorry Mr. Palmer but you have weird brain waves.” They told him that he could possibly have a brain tumor, but probably not. They also told him that if he reapplied and had the same results next time, he definitely didn’t have a brain tumor and he would pass the exam. Miles asked if there was anything else that would improve his chances of being selected. They told him they would be selecting future astronaut candidates from the military.
Miles went back to San Diego where he completed his PhD and was hired as a research chemist at Eastman Kodak doing lithium battery development for cameras. After six months Miles concluded that Kodak has the best digital photography in the world at the time (1980). “They had cameras, sensors, optics, memory storage, Kodak did it all top of the line, best in the world.” Miles knew that is where he wanted to work. What Miles couldn’t find was a program to commercialize the digital photography, which he thought would eventually replace film photography. There was no such program because the management at Kodak did not think digital photography would ever displace film, because Kodak was heavily invested and had the leading worldwide market share in film. Miles made several presentations to senior management showing why they should fund a program to commercialize this technology. The answer was a resounding no. Possibly one of the worst strategic decisions in the history of business. With that Miles decided it was time to move on.
Miles was still thinking about trying to become an astronaut. He thought if he joined the Air Force and applied as an Air Force officer that would improve his odds of being selected. He and Kathy discussed it and they decided he would give it a maximum of five years. This was a big decision because Miles would be taking a 60% pay cut. Miles enlisted and headed for three months of officer training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Much to Miles surprise, he had trouble learning to march and failed his marching exam. There was no way he could advance to a 2nd Lieutenant or apply to the space program if he didn’t pass marching. Miles attended special after hours instruction in marching. “I retook the test and passed it, but just barely.” Having mastered the fine art of military marching Miles and Kathy headed for the Air Force Special Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When Miles arrived the Air Force was working on laser weapons. They were having failures with the mirrors being used in those weapons. Water that was pumped through the mirrors was causing corrosion. The summer before Miles arrived, they tried to shoot down a sidewinder missile and it failed in a very public way. When Miles arrived, he let everyone know he believed he could solve the problem. During his time at MIT, he had a part time job at a corrosion lab in addition to fixing copiers. Word of Miles’ claims traveled around the lab and found the ears of the colonel in charge of the project, Col Demos T. Kyrazis, who was also an MIT graduate. The colonel invited Miles and his wife for dinner, and they discussed the project well into the early morning hours when the colonel told him to solve the problem. Six weeks later it was solved. The colonel had Miles brief the two star general overseeing the project on how he solved the problem. He was very impressed with Miles and ultimately provided him with a letter of recommendation to the Air Force Astronaut Selection Board. This was a big deal because the Air Force had never previously nominated anyone below the rank of major. It was 1984 and 1st Lieutenant Miles Palmer headed back to the Johnson Space Center.
Miles passed the physical including the brainwave testing this time around. Relieved he did not have a brain tumor, Miles was looking forward to advancing in the program until the chief astronaut, John Young, a former Navy Captain, pulled Miles aside and gave him some bad news. “I’ve got some bad news for you. I’m going to send you and all of the other Air Force guys home. The Air Force is fighting us on the Titan IV missile program, and they shouldn’t fight us on this. You’re young and can come back.” He then walked away. Despite his ability to march and his normal but unusual brain waves it looked like the astronaut program was just not meant to for Lt Palmer.
There were more changes in the space program and for Miles to try again meant he would have to extend his tour of duty beyond the five years he and Kathy agreed to. Kathy was willing to let Miles extend, but Miles decided he wanted to pursue new launch technologies beyond the Space Shuttle, and decided to focus on rail guns. Miles believed that rail guns would lead to low cost space launch and open space flight up to everyone.
Miles began looking for jobs outside of the Air Force and found he was a hot commodity. He applied for seven jobs and received seven offers. He decided to take a job working at Livermore Labs working for Lowell Wood, the protégée of Edward Teller the inventor of the hydrogen bomb. At Livermore he would be working on a third generation of nuclear weapons. “That was pretty sexy. The physics were very interesting. It really appealed to me.”
It was 1986, Miles was 33 years old, and he and Kathy were looking to start a family. Before he could report to Livermore Labs, representatives from SAIC, one of the jobs he turned down, came to visit him to try and convince him to come and work with them. After listening to the lucrative salary and stock option package Miles realized he couldn’t pass up the opportunity and said yes to SAIC. He rescinded his acceptance with Livermore Labs and headed to Florida to work on rail guns for SAIC.
The research on rail guns did not produce a product that worked. Eventually the funding dried up and Miles needed to find another project. During his career at SAIC, Miles worked on developing ignition systems for racing cars and weapon systems for the Marines. In 2000 Miles got involved developing drone technology. “It was basically a robotic, hunter-killer drone. Then 9/11 happened. The next day Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sent an email to the CEO of SAIC asking if they could accelerate the killer drone technology for use in Afghanistan. The answer was yes and SAIC entered an emergency war effort. President Bush signed an Executive Order starting a number of war emergency projects, including Miles’ hunter-killer drone. The following year the DOD and the Armed Services Committee created an ad hoc line item appropriation in the amount of about $300M to fund the production of the vehicles. “This was a big deal….there wasn’t any politics. It’s a war. So, in a war, politics goes away. But the war ended, and politics came back. Lockheed Martin lobbied against and killed the whole the program. So by that time, I was looking at a hundred million dollars a year and it went to zero in three weeks.”
Now Miles was in search of another source of funding. He thought about the future “and that’s when it clicked.” He wanted to work on solving the world’s energy problems. He thought coal would be the energy source, but it needed pollution controls. If he could solve this problem, he could help the rest of the world to industrialize to reach a better standard of living. “It dawned on me that SAIC and government were not a way to solve the energy problems…the government just isn’t good at doing that.”
Miles talked with his wife Kathy and said he wanted to start his own company. In 2008 Miles found a MIT fraternity brother to help him 8 Rivers. After 15 years of hard work, 8 Rivers is now about to break ground on the first commercial plant to produce clean zero carbon energy.
Looking back over his time in the Air Force, Miles commented, “I joined the Air Force primarily to become an astronaut, but it was also that I felt guilty that I didn’t have to go to Vietnam and other people I knew, friends, did.” I asked Miles about his career. “Never stressful. No, always fun. I’ve been privileged to have a career where it’s almost been 100% undiluted fun. I had disappointments…I didn’t get selected to be an astronaut. All of my drone projects were killed by Lockheed Martin. Suddenly rail guns didn’t work. But those are the exceptions.”
For the kid from a tiny, rural town to attend MIT, go on to qualify for the astronaut program while serving in the Air Force and then to develop drones for the war in Afghanistan and now working on developing clean coal technology for developing countries, what a long, strange trip it’s been.
Thank you, Miles, for the sacrifices made by you and your family while serving your country. Good luck with the new plant!!
At that time the population was 700 but grew to 1,200 by the time Miles graduated from high School. His graduating class had 50 students but surprisingly, the school was able to field a football team. With 15 to 18 boys on the team, most played every minute of every game. “We were in school together from 2nd grade to 12th grade. 50 kids, you get to know them very well.” Miles lettered in track, basketball, and football.
Miles has always had an interest in flying, space exploration and the moon. He recalled watching the Vanguard One explode on the launch pad in December of 1957. He also recalled his father taking he and his mother up for a flight after getting his pilot’s license on the GI Bill after returning from World War 2 in England building gliders. “I remember sitting in the back seat and just being enthralled with the whole experience.”
Later, Miles started reading science fiction books at the age of 10. “I read those and loved them.”
Miles was a very good student and excelled in school. In the 5th grade he took the standardized tests, and his teachers told his parents he was reading at a 12th grade level. They suggested moving Miles into the 12thgrade. His parents said no. “It would’ve ruined my life to have done that. They made a good decision for me.”
In reading his science fiction books, Miles noticed the space travelers would often mention MIT. He decided that was where he was going to go to college. When it came time to apply to college Miles applied to only one school, MIT. He was accepted. Miles graduated from tiny Green Forest High School in the Ozarks in 1972 and headed for cosmopolitan Boston, Massachusetts.
Miles did not have a problem being a small town boy in the big city. “It was like a fish discovering water.” He decided to double major in chemistry and electrical engineering. Miles found time to have a part time job fixing copiers for a local printing company and to join the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. In 1975, when his high school sweetheart Kathy graduated from Green Forest High School, they were married, and she moved to Boston.
While at MIT Miles received a letter from the Draft Board advising him his lottery number was 73 “which pretty much ensured I would be drafted.” Miles decided he would join the Air Force ROTC. Before he could complete the paperwork for the ROTC, he received another letter advising him that the draft had ended.
Miles enrolled in the PhD program in Chemistry at UC San Diego. Miles wanted to be sure he could graduate in four years and searched out the professor that most reliably had students graduate in four years. While he was in San Diego, Miles earned his pilot’s license and he and Kathy enjoyed flying in the clear skies of San Diego. In 1980, in his last year of the PhD program the announcement was made that there would be an astronaut selection process. Miles applied and made it to the final round of interviews. He flew to the Johnson Space Center for a battery of physical exams and psychological evaluations. At the conclusion Miles was brought into a room and was told, “we are sorry Mr. Palmer but you have weird brain waves.” They told him that he could possibly have a brain tumor, but probably not. They also told him that if he reapplied and had the same results next time, he definitely didn’t have a brain tumor and he would pass the exam. Miles asked if there was anything else that would improve his chances of being selected. They told him they would be selecting future astronaut candidates from the military.
Miles went back to San Diego where he completed his PhD and was hired as a research chemist at Eastman Kodak doing lithium battery development for cameras. After six months Miles concluded that Kodak has the best digital photography in the world at the time (1980). “They had cameras, sensors, optics, memory storage, Kodak did it all top of the line, best in the world.” Miles knew that is where he wanted to work. What Miles couldn’t find was a program to commercialize the digital photography, which he thought would eventually replace film photography. There was no such program because the management at Kodak did not think digital photography would ever displace film, because Kodak was heavily invested and had the leading worldwide market share in film. Miles made several presentations to senior management showing why they should fund a program to commercialize this technology. The answer was a resounding no. Possibly one of the worst strategic decisions in the history of business. With that Miles decided it was time to move on.
Miles was still thinking about trying to become an astronaut. He thought if he joined the Air Force and applied as an Air Force officer that would improve his odds of being selected. He and Kathy discussed it and they decided he would give it a maximum of five years. This was a big decision because Miles would be taking a 60% pay cut. Miles enlisted and headed for three months of officer training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Much to Miles surprise, he had trouble learning to march and failed his marching exam. There was no way he could advance to a 2nd Lieutenant or apply to the space program if he didn’t pass marching. Miles attended special after hours instruction in marching. “I retook the test and passed it, but just barely.” Having mastered the fine art of military marching Miles and Kathy headed for the Air Force Special Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
When Miles arrived the Air Force was working on laser weapons. They were having failures with the mirrors being used in those weapons. Water that was pumped through the mirrors was causing corrosion. The summer before Miles arrived, they tried to shoot down a sidewinder missile and it failed in a very public way. When Miles arrived, he let everyone know he believed he could solve the problem. During his time at MIT, he had a part time job at a corrosion lab in addition to fixing copiers. Word of Miles’ claims traveled around the lab and found the ears of the colonel in charge of the project, Col Demos T. Kyrazis, who was also an MIT graduate. The colonel invited Miles and his wife for dinner, and they discussed the project well into the early morning hours when the colonel told him to solve the problem. Six weeks later it was solved. The colonel had Miles brief the two star general overseeing the project on how he solved the problem. He was very impressed with Miles and ultimately provided him with a letter of recommendation to the Air Force Astronaut Selection Board. This was a big deal because the Air Force had never previously nominated anyone below the rank of major. It was 1984 and 1st Lieutenant Miles Palmer headed back to the Johnson Space Center.
Miles passed the physical including the brainwave testing this time around. Relieved he did not have a brain tumor, Miles was looking forward to advancing in the program until the chief astronaut, John Young, a former Navy Captain, pulled Miles aside and gave him some bad news. “I’ve got some bad news for you. I’m going to send you and all of the other Air Force guys home. The Air Force is fighting us on the Titan IV missile program, and they shouldn’t fight us on this. You’re young and can come back.” He then walked away. Despite his ability to march and his normal but unusual brain waves it looked like the astronaut program was just not meant to for Lt Palmer.
There were more changes in the space program and for Miles to try again meant he would have to extend his tour of duty beyond the five years he and Kathy agreed to. Kathy was willing to let Miles extend, but Miles decided he wanted to pursue new launch technologies beyond the Space Shuttle, and decided to focus on rail guns. Miles believed that rail guns would lead to low cost space launch and open space flight up to everyone.
Miles began looking for jobs outside of the Air Force and found he was a hot commodity. He applied for seven jobs and received seven offers. He decided to take a job working at Livermore Labs working for Lowell Wood, the protégée of Edward Teller the inventor of the hydrogen bomb. At Livermore he would be working on a third generation of nuclear weapons. “That was pretty sexy. The physics were very interesting. It really appealed to me.”
It was 1986, Miles was 33 years old, and he and Kathy were looking to start a family. Before he could report to Livermore Labs, representatives from SAIC, one of the jobs he turned down, came to visit him to try and convince him to come and work with them. After listening to the lucrative salary and stock option package Miles realized he couldn’t pass up the opportunity and said yes to SAIC. He rescinded his acceptance with Livermore Labs and headed to Florida to work on rail guns for SAIC.
The research on rail guns did not produce a product that worked. Eventually the funding dried up and Miles needed to find another project. During his career at SAIC, Miles worked on developing ignition systems for racing cars and weapon systems for the Marines. In 2000 Miles got involved developing drone technology. “It was basically a robotic, hunter-killer drone. Then 9/11 happened. The next day Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sent an email to the CEO of SAIC asking if they could accelerate the killer drone technology for use in Afghanistan. The answer was yes and SAIC entered an emergency war effort. President Bush signed an Executive Order starting a number of war emergency projects, including Miles’ hunter-killer drone. The following year the DOD and the Armed Services Committee created an ad hoc line item appropriation in the amount of about $300M to fund the production of the vehicles. “This was a big deal….there wasn’t any politics. It’s a war. So, in a war, politics goes away. But the war ended, and politics came back. Lockheed Martin lobbied against and killed the whole the program. So by that time, I was looking at a hundred million dollars a year and it went to zero in three weeks.”
Now Miles was in search of another source of funding. He thought about the future “and that’s when it clicked.” He wanted to work on solving the world’s energy problems. He thought coal would be the energy source, but it needed pollution controls. If he could solve this problem, he could help the rest of the world to industrialize to reach a better standard of living. “It dawned on me that SAIC and government were not a way to solve the energy problems…the government just isn’t good at doing that.”
Miles talked with his wife Kathy and said he wanted to start his own company. In 2008 Miles found a MIT fraternity brother to help him 8 Rivers. After 15 years of hard work, 8 Rivers is now about to break ground on the first commercial plant to produce clean zero carbon energy.
Looking back over his time in the Air Force, Miles commented, “I joined the Air Force primarily to become an astronaut, but it was also that I felt guilty that I didn’t have to go to Vietnam and other people I knew, friends, did.” I asked Miles about his career. “Never stressful. No, always fun. I’ve been privileged to have a career where it’s almost been 100% undiluted fun. I had disappointments…I didn’t get selected to be an astronaut. All of my drone projects were killed by Lockheed Martin. Suddenly rail guns didn’t work. But those are the exceptions.”
For the kid from a tiny, rural town to attend MIT, go on to qualify for the astronaut program while serving in the Air Force and then to develop drones for the war in Afghanistan and now working on developing clean coal technology for developing countries, what a long, strange trip it’s been.
Thank you, Miles, for the sacrifices made by you and your family while serving your country. Good luck with the new plant!!