A native of Massapequa, NY, Mr. John Schmelzle accepted a position with the Naval Air Engineering Center in September of 1986 after earning his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After working with the Tool Control Program for a year, he accepted a systems engineering position in the Support Equipment (SE) Engineering Department.

In June of 1992, Mr. Schmelzle was transferred into the newly created Product Development Department where he worked as a design engineer. During this time, he worked as the lead design engineer for several major SE projects including the KC-130 In-Flight Refueling Hose Reel Test Stand. Mr. Schmelzle also served as the lead SE design engineer on multiple aircraft platforms including the Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18. In addition to performing his design engineer duties during the work day, Mr. Schmelzle attended a two-year night school program, earning his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University.

In June 2004, Mr. Schmelzle was selected as the lead design engineer in the Special Mission Branch of the SE Development & In-service Engineering Division. While in this role, Mr. Schmelzle received the prestigious Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Area Commander’s Award for his work with the H-60 SE program. Two years later, Mr. Schmelzle entered into the NAVAIR Leadership Development Program (NLDP).

During his two years in the NLDP, Mr. Schmelzle attended Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Training and led several teams to increase the efficiency of business processes at the Naval Air Warfare Center. Some of his accomplishments during this time include standing up the only accredited Product Lifecycle Management system at NAVAIR, completely revising the design processes at NAWCAD Lakehurst, and bringing in the first additive manufacturing equipment to NAWCAD Lakehurst. While in the NLDP, Mr. Schmelzle also completed a detail with the Aircraft Launch and Recovery Division where he once again won the NAWCAD Area Commander’s Award, this time, for his work with the catapult water break system.

Upon graduating from the NLDP, Mr. Schmelzle returned to the SE design arena where he was tasked to devise a solution to the V-22 deck heating problem. Given only two weeks to complete this solution before a ship deployment was scheduled to take place, he designed, had manufactured, and tested a new V-22 deck heat shield. This heat shield successfully mitigated the heating problem and the ship was able to deploy on time. Mr. Schmelzle was, for a third time in four years, awarded the NAWCAD Area Commander’s Award. After receiving this esteemed award, Mr. Schmelzle was selected as the head of the Design & Analysis Branch of the SE Engineering Division. Mr. Schmelzle later transitioned to a newly created position, the NAWCAD Lakehurst Additive Manufacturing and Model Based Definition Inititiave Lead. In this role, he is working with a NAVAIR Command-wide team to further explore 3D printing and its potential to rapidly respond to urgent fleet needs.

In addition to his aforementioned NAWCAD Area Commander’s Award wins, Mr. Schmelzle was selected as the People's Choice Award Winner in August 2009, the NAWCAD Innovation Winner in November of 2014 and as NAVAIR’s agency winner of the Federal Engineer of the Year Award in 2013. Mr. Schmelzle is a certified NAVAIR AIRSpeed Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a graduate of the NLDP, and a licensed professional engineer in the state of New Jersey.