Aerospace engineering major Amber Hiscock completed an internship with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Fleet Readiness Center SouthEast in Jacksonville, Florida during the summer of 2023.
Undergraduate senior in aerospace engineering Amber Hiscock spent the summer in Jacksonville, Florida working for Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Fleet Readiness Center SouthEast (FRCSE). NAVAIR provides full life-cycle support of every aircraft flown by the United States Navy, currently NAVAIR services 43 different aircraft and employs 40,000 civilians.
During her time with NAVAIR, Amber worked on Northop Grumman’s F-5 Tiger with the structural engineering team. As a member of the team, Amber helped to ensure the structural integrity of an older jet, produced in the early 1970s, with a significant amount of flight hours. As a NAVAIR intern, Amber’s typical day started at 7 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m. The work included various different activities: desk work on assigned projects, going down to the production line to look at different structural issues on the jet, and going to the on base material lab to analyze different parts.
As an intern at FRCSE, Amber also had the opportunity to go on two different trips set up by the NAVAIR coordinators. This included going to Naval Station Mayport to tour USS Cooperstown, a Littoral Combat Ship. The second trip was to Kennedy Space Center where she and the other summer interns got a behind the scenes tour of NASA labs and the Vehicle Assembly Building.
This internship provided Amber with the opportunity to experience working for the department of defense. This opportunity also opened Ambers eyes to the many different career avenues of aerospace engineering, particularly with the US Department of Defense (DOD). Amber graduates in May of 2024 and has accepted a job with the Defense Intelligence Agency.