Stacey Kelly graduated with honors from The University of Texas with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 1985. She accepted a position with Bell Helicopter, Textron, and is currently a principle engineer in Flight Technology, specializing in rotor dynamics and structural design criteria. She has contributed to the pre-design, detailed design, wind tunnel model design and testing, and flight testing of many of Bell’s current fleet, including the V-22 Osprey, the Huey and Cobra upgrades, the M407, M427, M430, and Kiowa helicopters, along with experimental variations that have not made it to production status.

In her current position, she is the project /technical manager for the V-22 SAFE (Structural Appraisal of Fatigue Effects) program, which will assess fatigue life expended based on how the aircraft was actually flown. In addition, she investigates fleet anomalies to determine root causes of unexpected aircraft behavior and component failures.

Stacey has been a member of the international working group for FAR 27/29.351, the yaw maneuver, in an effort to coalesce the American and European regulations so that there is one industry standard.  She has negotiated technical and contractual agreements with the armed forces for Air Worthiness Requirements. She is a drill sergeant for the Bell Boot Camp, a week-long program for engineering juniors that introduces them to helicopters and real world project experience. She has published two papers, one on the dual frequency characteristics of elastomeric dampers, and another on the FAR 27/29.351 yaw maneuver, and holds a patent for the development of design loads for commercial aircraft. She is also a graduate of Leadership Texas 2008, offered by the Foundation for Women’s Resources.

Stacey resides in Argyle, Texas, with her husband, five children (only one left at home now), three horses, two dogs and three cats.