Passion Meets Precision at NASA’s Flight Research Lab
Long before they helped shape NASA’s future aerospace breakthroughs, Derek Abramson, Justin Hall, and Justin Link were building radio-controlled aircraft in their garages and homes, testing ideas, and flying their creations at hobby events. That early passion now fuels NASA’s Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, where the team turns lifelong enthusiasm into mission-focused innovation.
The laboratory supports research ranging from advanced navigation systems for future landings on the Moon and Mars to emerging aeronautics concepts that need quick, low-cost evaluation. NASA’s small, remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft allow engineers to explore ideas that could be difficult, risky, or expensive to test at full scale.
Abramson serves as the laboratory’s chief engineer, Hall is the chief pilot, and Link is a drone pilot. Together, they integrate emerging aerospace technologies with the lab’s subscale aircraft fleet and, when needed, design and build aircraft or flight experiments to evaluate new concepts. Abramson’s expertise, built through service in the U.S. Navy and the aerospace industry, centers on technical oversight, management, and system design. Hall is known for creative approaches to problem solving and uses practical methods to address technical challenges and maintain flight safety. Link specializes in designing and fabricating research vehicles and draws on extensive hands-on experience to understand what works, and what does not, in flight.
On weekends, the team often tinkers in garages or hangars building radio-control aircraft, researching hobby trends, or exploring new technologies, and may be seen flying their creations at hobby events or attending trade shows. Their shared passion for flight brought them together years before they joined NASA more than a decade ago, though each discovered that spark differently. Abramson’s interest began as a child with rubber-band powered stick-and-tissue aircraft and radio-controlled models; his early aviation pursuits led to his first solo flight while in high school and a pilot’s license. In the Navy, he worked on multiple aircraft, including the EA-6B and F-18, as an avionics technician, and as an engineer he supported B-1 and CV-22 Osprey aircraft flight tests. As an intern at NASA Armstrong, he used his operational and engineering experience on remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft. Hall’s interest grew after seeing historic aircraft including the Mach 3 SR-71 fly over his elementary school playground and watching Space Shuttle Challenger land from above his dad’s shoulders; he has built and flown model and remotely piloted aircraft for as long as he can remember.