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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
John D. Rezabek Family

Richard A. "Rick" Rezabek began to show his aptitude as a budding engineer at an early age. When asked by his father why he was lugging a tool box weighing nearly as much as the youngster himself, Rick replied that he was going to take the car apart to see how it worked. This would be one of the few times Rick's thirst for knowledge would be thwarted, even if only temporarily. The third son in a family of five boys growing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Rick and his brothers enjoyed many of the adventures brought into their lives by their parents, Jack and Maryann Rezabek (including hunting and fishing, music and drama) but the biggest passion that thrived in the Rezabek household was the love of aviation and it was here that Rick excelled and left his mark.

Rick's sojourns into aviation were always ambitious adventures surpassing the efforts and expectations of others. As a teenager he built a radio controlled model of a Bell P-39 Airacobra complete with a museum quality scale cockpit. In the end the model turned into such a showpiece that Rick couldn't bring himself to risk it to an inaugural flight and chose to sell it instead. As a student in aerospace engineering at Iowa State University Rick set his goal on winning a national paper airplane contest he saw advertised in a magazine. The rules stipulated the aircraft could only be constructed of paper and tape so Rick met the challenge by building a hand-launched glider consisting of a rolled paper tube fuselage and a wing constructed of individual paper ribs and heat-shrunk tape for covering. The Iowa weather prevented adequate flight testing before the airship had to be mailed off for the competition, thereby becoming Rick's first hard lesson in being "on time and under budget."

With the completion of his undergraduate degree drawing near, Rick set his sights on finding a job in the aerospace field. Here again, his goals were set high. Rick's intentions were to work for the famed Lockheed "Skunk Works," a secretive operation that had produced some of aviation's most innovative and record-breaking designs. Undaunted when he learned Lockheed was not coming to Iowa State to recruit, Rick wrote a letter to the company expressing his admiration for them and his long-standing desire to be one of their elite engineers. Rick's ability with the written and spoken word is second only to his analytical prowess, and his letter inspired Lockheed to interview him for a position. In the summer of 1980 he left Iowa's Midwest plains for California's sunny skies as a Skunk Works Aerospace Engineer.

Rick's first eight years with Lockheed were shrouded in secrecy and it was only after The Air Force revealed the F-117 Stealth Fighter was Rick able to admit that he had been involved with the aircraft's weapons delivery system. Subsequent work on the F-117 and later the F-22 Raptor found Rick assigned to Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter project. The Joint Strike Fighter contract promised to be the largest awarded in the history of the Department of Defense. The new aircraft would replace aging designs for The United States Air Force, Navy and Marines as well as some of her closest allies. More than being just one engineer amongst many, Rick was selected to be Chief Engineer on the now-designated X-35.

The goals of the Joint Strike Fighter were three-fold. The design would have a standard variation for the Air Force, a navalized version with strengthened undercarriage for carrier launch and recovery and a version capable of short take off/vertical landing (STOVL). In order to meet the Department of Defense's requirements, all three variations would need to possess a great deal of commonality packaged in a stealthy airframe. Rick's engineering team developed a single engine, twin tail design that utilized a revolutionary lift-fan for the STOVL variant. Critics claimed the lift-fan would be unable to withstand the rigorous flight testing and would prove to be Lockheed's undoing. Rick's team felt otherwise.

The competition narrowed the pairings down to Lockheed Martin's X-35 and the newly renovated Boeing Company's X-32. Once the Lockheed demonstrators were completed Rick received a further nod of approval by being named X-35 Project Manager. Rick had reached this pinnacle at the young age of 43. During fly-offs the X-35 served as a testament to its engineering and development teams as it time and time again met its goals and exceeded expectations while the seemingly more conservative X-32 was plagued with problems throughout the competition. In the end it would be Lockheed Martin's X-35 that would be declared the winner and ensure the company's place atop the aerospace community at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Unable to top his crowning achievement at Lockheed Martin, Rick joined Black Ram Engineering as a partner shortly after the Joint Strike Fighter contract was awarded. As of this writing he continues to serve as a consultant on the newly designated F-35 Lightning II as well as projects by other leading companies in the defense industry. The fruits of his labor have manifested themselves in many forms, not the least of which being a pair of vintage and antique airplanes: a 1947 Stinson 108 Voyager and a 1937 Stinson SR-9F Reliant.
Rick's accomplishments in aerospace have brought his family a great deal of pride and admiration over the years. It is our pleasure to bestow upon him this small honor in return.

Jack, Maryann, John, Mike, Steve and David Rezabek Christmas 2006