Year Inducted: 2022
Over the course of his 36-year engineering career, Jeffrey Langhout, has forged a legacy of highly impactful excellence. His sharp mind and rare leadership ability have refined the processes
the United States Army relies on to maintain its stark combat superiority on the world’s military stage.
As director of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Aviation and Missile Center, AvMC, at Redstone Arsenal, Langhout leads more than 11,000 engineers, scientists and researchers – the largest engineering workforce in Alabama – in delivering collaborative and innovative aviation and missile capabilities for responsive and cost-effective research, development, and life cycle engineering solutions.
Langhout is one of the most dynamic and capable engineers of his generation in national security. His successful career has been filled with the most challenging of assignments, where he has led engineers to meet urgent mission milestones, overcome bureaucracy, and collaborate for the total Army solution.
In 1986 he joined the Missile and Space Intelligence Center at Redstone Arsenal as a project director and analyst supporting the organization’s mission of characterizing threat weapons. Significant contributions to critical intelligence programs formed his career’s engineering foundation. Then at the Threat Systems Management Office, he reverse-engineered threat radars for testing of U.S. countermeasures. From there he joined the Army aviation community assuming positions of increasing technical complexity and responsibility. Perhaps most recognizable are his accomplishments while Chief Engineer for the Chinook Helicopter program, where he led the development of a complete helicopter upgrade which saved millions of taxpayer dollars and countless
American lives.
In 2013 Langhout was selected for the Senior Executive Service and joined the AvMC, serving in a variety of leadership roles, including director of Airworthiness, director of Software/Simulation, and acting director. In 2018, he left for Michigan to lead the entire research and development efforts for the Army’s Ground Vehicle Systems Center as well as sustainment engineering for all U.S. Army ground vehicles and fleets from more than 60 allied nations.
Langhout returned to Huntsville as director of the AvMC in early 2021, and he is recognized as the only Army engineer to have led multiple research, development and engineering centers. His knowledge and experience now span across the most critical of Army domains including aviation, missile, combat vehicles, combat support systems, intelligence, and simulation systems. His service to the state includes instrumental roles in helping Auburn University and the University of Alabama in Birmingham secure millions in congressionally directed funding for additive manufacturing and terrain modeling and simulation research.
Langhout received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University in 1986 and a master’s in engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1991. His articles have been included in several professional and technical publications. He earned the top recognition from the National Defense Industrial Association for his leadership on Detroit Arsenal and
impact to the Michigan industrial base. Other honors include the Army’s Superior Civilian Service Medal in 2021, AUSA Civilian of the Year in 2011 (finalist), and the Honorable Order of St. Michael (Bronze) in 2006.
