RED JENSEN

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Master UAS Technician

Educational Product

Educators & Students Lexile Level: 1010-1200L

Level

3

Lexile Ranges

Level 1: Less than 810

Level 2: 810-1000L

Level 3: 1010-1200L

Level 4: 1210-1400L
visiona

Robert “Red” Jensen is a NASA researcher who 

does a little bit of everything.

Officially, Red is the Master UAS Technician 

for NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center 

in California. UAS is short for Unmanned 

Aerial Systems, which the public calls drones. 

Red helps NASA learn all it can about 

operating drones. 

Red’s “office” is the Armstrong Model Lab. Just 

outside the Model Lab is Rogers Dry Lakebed, 

where some of the most important aircraft 

in aviation flew. That includes airplanes like 

the X-1, which was the first plane to fly faster 

than the speed of sound. Many Space Shuttle 

missions landed there too.

Inside Red’s workshop you will hear 3D printers 

buzzing in one corner, and see shelves full of 

small drones from past and current projects 

packing the walls. The shelves also are filled with 

aircraft parts and raw materials that can be used 

to build new models.

Other members of Red’s team also work there. 

It’s the kind of place that when you walk inside, 

the excitement in the room can’t help but 

inspire you to look for an available screwdriver, 

strap on a pair of safety glasses, and join in by 

getting busy with some hands-on work.

You might think that a guy like Red, who is 

responsible for so much, and who works with 

cutting-edge aviation flight test programs for 

NASA, spent years in school earning advanced 

degrees while writing papers for the most 

prestigious colleges in the nation.

You would be wrong.

It’s an important truth about life: Not everyone 

realizes their dream job by taking the same 

path. Yes, many who work for NASA do follow 

the more typical route of high school and 

college. For most, that kind of formal schooling 

is the best way to train for careers in science, 

technology, engineering or math. 

Others might graduate from high school and 

decide to skip college while they spend a few 

years working before figuring out what career 

path they want to take and how best to do it. For 

Red, it was a case of following his own unique 
ary

journey, bypassing the traditional college-tocareer track, but never straying far from his love 

of flight that started at a young age when he flew 

model airplanes.

Red was always interested in building things 

and figuring out how things worked. Like 

many young people with those interests, he saw 

himself as growing up to become an engineer. 

That made the most sense to him. But after 

getting accepted into an intern program, he 

found that a formal engineering program just 

wasn’t for him. He needed to find a different way 

to get involved with aviation. 

Meanwhile, there still were bills to pay, so Red 

took jobs where he could find them. At one point, 

he swept floors in an auto body shop, then began 

training in an auto paint shop. With a good eye for 

detail, and relying on what he had learned about 

painting radio controlled (RC) airplanes, he soon 

became an expert at custom paint jobs on cars, 

and in working with special paints.

At the same time, he kept up with his hobby of 

flying RC planes, an interest that often brought 

him to his local model shop to buy parts and 

other supplies. Red soon established himself 

there as a loyal customer. He often struck up 

enthusiastic conversations with the model shop’s 

owner. The two became such good friends 

that when the elder owner decided to retire, he 

offered Red the chance to buy the model shop – 

which Red did!

Running a small business, even one as dear to 

him as a model shop, wasn’t exactly a role – or a 

career – Red had envisioned himself doing, but 

it was a chance for him to chase a new direction 

for his life. With some money coming in, and 

not being one to sit still for too long, Red went 

through pilot training and earned his private 

pilot’s license.

At the same time, he started to work as a test 

pilot for a company that built drones, and 

wound up working there ten years while he also 

continued to own and manage his model shop. 

As a drone test pilot, his position sometimes 

required him to fly vehicles at Armstrong, which 

allowed him to get to know the people there 

– and for the people there to get to know him. 

His expert model making skills soon became 

obvious to everyone. So, when an opportunity 
to join the NASA team and get paid to do 

the very thing he loved most came along, he 

applied for the job and won it.

Today, Red oversees many different projects 

in the Model Shop at Armstrong. He also 

manages the technicians and student interns 

who work there. They have never been busier. 

With millions of drones offered as holiday 

presents each year, and major companies 

wanting to deploy their own fleets of drones for 

jobs such as package delivery, new designs must 

be designed and tested. The drones needed to 

support that research often falls to Red and his 

team at Armstrong to build.

At any given time, there are about 20 different 

aircraft in the Model Lab. Some are so small you 

can hold them with one hand, while the largest 

can weigh more than 200 pounds and have wing 

spans more than 20 feet long. Some are small 

scale models of proposed aircraft designs that 

aren’t ready yet to be built full size. Test flying 

these smaller scale models is less expensive 

than building a full-sized airplane, which may 

or may not have some new design features that 

engineers are not ready to risk flying with a pilot 

on board until they prove it’s safe.

All of this activity means it is an exciting time for 

anyone interested in aviation, and Red is thrilled 

to be a part of it. He counts himself lucky that 

his education and career choices gave him the 

hands-on skills, experience and opportunity 

he needed to land his dream job at NASA’s 

premier flight test center.

NP-2024-01-3227-HQ

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Headquarters

300 E. Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

Educators! 

Guide/assessment files 

for this reader are at 

https://www.nasa.gov/

stem-content/

red-jensen/