Dr. T.N. (Mike) Mikel is currently the Chief Engineer, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Bell Helicopter Textron. The roles & responsibilities of this position include leading and managing the System Engineering Process for all Bell UAS activities, supervision of all UAS design activities, maintaining an effective risk management program, configuration management of all UAS products, oversight of all UAS-related research and development activities, and serving as the primary technical interface with all customer and government agencies. He additionally serves as the UAS Staff Member and Program Integrator for Engineering. He has previously served at Bell Helicopter as Group Engineer of Operations Analysis and as a Staff Engineer in the Bell Engineering organization.

At Bell Helicopter since 1982, Dr. Mikel\’s responsibilities have addressed all aspects of of Bell\’s military products. In addition to contributions to the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and V-22 Osprey Programs, he has been involved throughout this time in all upgrade activities associated with the H-1 family of USMC helicopters. He has served as an Integrated Product Team Leader on both V-22 Osprey and H-1 Upgrade Programs.

Dr. Mikel received his BS in Industrial Engineering (1969) and MS degrees in Industrial Engineering (1977) and Mechanical Engineering (1982) from Texas A&M University. He received his PhD in Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering (1996) from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Prior to joining Bell Helicopter, he was a US Army Infantry Officer. In addition to being an Airborne Ranger and a Rotary Wing Aviator, he graduated from a range of US Army schools, including the US Army Command and General Staff College.