Creating Aerospace Leaders at the Genius Garage

By Casey Putsch

How many smart young people dream of doing great things with their career and life only to one day realize that it takes more than dreams and drive? Luck isn’t good enough for pilots and it isn’t good enough for young people who don’t get a choice what circle they are born into. Even a young creative prodigy needs caring mentors to invest time and needs the right environment to grow. This is exactly why the Genius Garage Racing, Aerospace, and Design Programs were created.

More and more over recent years we see a growing criticism on our American educational system to prepare young people for careers and industry. As is often the case many people try to simply solve the problem with “more”. More school, more degrees, and more programs with catchy acronyms to help get the attention of state and federal funding for said schools. There always seem to be hands out, but no real solution given in return.

Whenever I have conversations with industry leaders and hiring managers a common theme arises. They don’t have a problem finding the best students on the academic level to hire. The missing component however, is the “behavioral side”.

Put simply, it has become difficult to find driven young people with real world hands-on abilities. Those who can problem solve, think critically, work with a team, and hands on fabricate without detailed instructions are hard to find. Young talent that are driven to succeed, can do complex engineering in their minds, fly by the seat of their pants, or become real leaders have become the exception today.

These valuable traits flat-out cannot be cultivated in a classroom and industry doesn’t have the time to train and groom young people. I have heard it noted that young engineers need a year or two once hired just to break even for companies. This is a quantifiable loss for our industry and a stumbling block to the future.

The question arises. How do you create the engineering leaders of tomorrow when the heads of young people today all but explode when you point that the SR-71 Blackbird was laid out on drafting tables and designed in the minds of engineers who used slide rulers? THIS at a time when average Americans drove carbureted automotive “battleships” (with seat belts as an option) to watch Ann Margret singing and dancing with Elvis Presley at the drive-in theater! It’s time to bridge the gap that is more than generational and academic, but cultural.

When I was a young person in college I knew what my peers and I were capable of, but we were never given an opportunity to show it or to grow and there was always a ceiling. Finding a caring mentor or genuine leadership was just as rare and without that, too much of life is left to chance. We received our degrees, but might have preferred a road map instead.

That burr under my saddle turned into a vision while standing alone in my shop 6 years ago. “I have a facility to create and engineer, the proverbial Rolodex full of amazing people with a lifetime of wisdom to share, and am involved with professional level racing cars and airplanes. Why don’t I put that together in a way to give young people the chances I never had and in a structure that will kick start their careers?” Genius Garage was born!

Even then I knew that the formula would work in the aerospace industry and aviation world, but professional level racing cars and automotive design was my professional wheelhouse and a place to start. The first Genius Garage started with reengineering an actual Indy Car for competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard Invitational. No small feat for college kids indeed.

The Genius Garage Racing Program’s successes set the stage to launch our Aerospace and Automotive Design programs in 2018. If you happened to see a full scale Sopwith Camel painted in the one off Egyptian paint scheme in the WWI area at AirVenture in Oshkosh this year, you saw what young people can do if given a chance and a little mentorship. Already our Aerospace students are gearing up see that Camel fly in 2019, to build a BD5 for static display, restore a Long Ez, and start designing a Formula One Reno Air Race plane that will initially be tested in 1/3 scale. These kids aren’t playing around and they are hungry for the future and an opportunity to shine. Can you say “talent pool”?

The formula worked from the first year and proved to be both repeatable and scalable. When our racing program students regularly find employment in the most competitive engineering jobs at places like General Motors, Tesla, Fiat Chrysler, Goodyear, and Honda you’re on to something. When the students say that the interviewer focussed on their growth experiences at Genius Garage, you know you’ve got something. When managers from car companies fly in to our shop in the middle of “Cornfield Ohio” to meet students to hire, it’s rewarding!

Many of our racing program students (engineers aged 18-22 typically) had never changed their own oil or could even drive stick when we met them. With opportunity, inspiration, and mentorship these students are able in a few short months to come together as a team and accomplish what was previously impossible to college kids while still in school. They completely rebuild or reengineer professional level racing cars and regularly stand on the winner’s circle at tracks like Mid-Ohio or Indy (yeah, the big one).

College students having the foresight and confidence to bring cookies and glasses to the podium at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway may verge on being cocky, but it’s pretty awesome to see a bunch of kids dip their cookies in well earned victory milk. This all while blossoming as people, young engineers, and the industry leaders of tomorrow.

Genius Garage mentors are the key! They range from global level manufacturing CEOs, a Cold War and Vietnam era military pilot, various professional engineers, designers, and yours truly. Career field trips range from NASA facilities, Pratt and Miller, and the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Let us not forget the value of real world “out of their league” competition for the students. Birds must be able to fly when they leave the nest.

Teaching them to think is another component. Traditional academia teaches information, but rarely how to think for themselves. As an example; each year I have them write the paper of their life like they never had to in school. One year, students had to take an impartial look at world history as it related to aviation. There they had to think on new levels. Micro focused engineering and business logistics to create an airplane such as a B1 Bomber are one thing, but changing to a relating macro focused look at how global cultural and political relations and climate gave rise to a need for such an engineering feat is an important ability for any leader. I ask them; what was the effect and now that you understand the chess game, what is your personal perspective, values, and opinion? What would you do as a global leader today with this perspective and finally what have you learned that you can do as an individual? Heavy stuff, but you would be amazed by the results from students who originally came together to build a race car or airplane!

Genius Garage believes that young people are capable of great things and being great individuals. That is at the heart of our structure. Young people today get a bad rap and “Millenial” is usually used as an insulting descriptor. People at the core don’t change from generation to generation, but cultures and environments do. Only by understanding the values and mechanics of different generational cultures can we hope to pass on and cultivate the best in the future while upholding the strengths of the past. These kids are driven to overcome adversity, to create, and to win. While that may not be normal for our modern pop culture, it is for Genius Garage. Our students who come from different backgrounds thrive here.

By nature young people aren’t driven to get a grade and we don’t give those out. A large wall of previous team successes and awards help set a standard. We do though give exciting educational experiences as rewards for students who have been truly exceptional. Our most driven students have gotten to ride in performance cars on race tracks, fly in a B-17 bomber and Boeing Stearmans from a grass strip, drive a priceless pre-war car to exhibit in the Concours d’Elegance of America, and have even been flown to Germany to crew a car in an endurance race at the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife track. An incredible side effect of this is that our students find a meaningful connection to history and the interest to learn and experience more.

The Genius Garage 501(c)3 public educational charity is quickly growing and is focused at building a flagship location to set the standard. There all of our projects may also exist to inspire the public. High-school level and lower programs are already lined up and we are gearing up to start a YouTube channel to share valuable learning lessons with young people around the world.

We hope that you will become a fan of Genius Garage and we are always looking to form new relationships in industry for the betterment of our program, our students, and the future of industry. If you are one of those people with a lifetime of incredible wisdom to share, we want our students to meet you! Together we can create the aerospace leaders of tomorrow with Genius Garage.

To find out more, go to: http://geniusgarageracing.com.