Mike Walsh

United States of America

 

1948 - 2014

Mike Walsh was born on January 20, 1948 in Washington, DC, and grew up in nearby Arlington, Virginia. He earned a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship to the University of Virginia, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1971. After two years in the US Navy, he transferred to the Marine Corps, where he was an aviation supply officer. After separation in 1975, he soon came to the Naval Air Systems Command, eventually serving as the Deputy Program Manager for the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier II, and Marine H-1 Hueys. He worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN/RDA) from 1994-2003 where he was involved in all aspects of naval air programs, including fixed wing, rotary wing, and UAVs, department studies and budgets, and liaison efforts with OSD and other services.

Walsh then served in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OSD/AT&L), Defense Systems, Land Warfare and Munitions – the office responsible for oversight of the majority of vertical lift aircraft programs – until retirement in 2013. As a staff specialist in AT&L, he managed the operations of the Joint Vertical Lift Aircraft Task Force, chartered by the Under Secretary to find ways to improve the programs in the vertical lift sector. FVL was a product of this task force.

Michael J. Walsh passed away on June 8, 2014, after an eight battle with lymphoma. He had been a member of AHS since 2005, and had a major influence on Future Vertical Lift (FVL) and the Vertical Lift Consortium (VLC).

AHS Update: Vertiflite September/October 2014