49th Wing, NMSU turn Airmen’s challenges into engineering solutions
What began as an effort to solve a maintenance challenge at Holloman Air Force Base is evolving into a broader partnership connecting 49th Wing Airmen with engineering and innovation capabilities at New Mexico State University.
Leaders from the 49th Wing visited NMSU and the Aggie Innovation Shop Sept. 28, 2026, to explore opportunities to apply university engineering capabilities to real-world challenges affecting maintenance, logistics and warfighter readiness.
The Aggie Innovation Shop is a student-managed makerspace that provides access to engineering tools, emerging technologies and mentorship developing and prototyping innovative solutions. Its capabilities include additive manufacturing, electronics, robotics, and computer-aided design.
For the 49th Wing, the partnership provides something difficult to generate within an operational environment: dedicated time and technical expertise to research, design, test and evaluate solutions to problems by Airmen-identified operational challenges.
“Our base is built to keep aircraft flying and the mission moving,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Davion Dale, 8th Aircraft Maintenance Unit support section chief. “Our Airmen know how to identify problems, but we don’t always have the time or engineering resources to sit down and design, build and test a solution. That’s where NMSU can help.”
The partnership already has an operational proof of concept.
An initial collaboration focused on OMNI seals, also known as the ShinkaSeal project, after maintainers identified challenges associated with managing more than 200 legacy cap-and-seal part numbers. The number of individual components increased inventory requirements, contributed to supply challenges and created additional foreign object debris considerations on the flightline.
Through the partnership, maintainers brought their operational experience to NMSU engineering students, who applied computer-aided design, materials expertise and iterative prototyping to the problem. The collaboration resulted in a five-size seal concept intended to simplify the existing system and reduce inventory complexity.
“The OMNI seals project is a textbook example of how academic engineering and military operational needs can align to solve readiness issues,” said Dale. “Our Airmen defined the operational problem and boundaries, while NMSU brought the engineering capability needed to rapidly design, iterate and test a potential solution.”
During the Sept. 28 visit, wing leaders toured the Aggie Innovation Shop and discussed lessons learned from the seal project, university capabilities and additional Holloman challenges that could potentially become NMSU capstone projects or other research and innovation efforts.
“Watching student engineers design a custom mechanical mount on a CAD computer, 3D-print it on a nearby machine and immediately wire it with sensors and microcontrollers at an adjacent electronics bench highlighted a capability we need at Holloman,” said Dale. “Integrating those disciplines in one space can help move an idea toward a functioning physical prototype much faster.”
For NMSU, the partnership gives students an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to problems with real-world consequences.
“These are not textbook problems with predetermined solutions,” said Dr. Gabe Garcia, NMSU College of Engineering associate dean of academics. “Students must work with a client, understand operational needs and constraints, evaluate alternatives, design and build solutions, and ultimately demonstrate that those solutions work.”
Garcia emphasized that experience exposes students to the types of challenges, expectations and decision-making they will encounter in the engineering workforce while giving faculty insight into current operational needs.
The long-term objective is to move beyond individual projects and establish an innovation pipeline connecting operational challenges with NMSU engineering teams.
“What is particularly exciting about this partnership is its potential to grow beyond individual projects,” said Garcia. “Holloman personnel have ideas based on problems and needs they encounter every day, but turning an idea into a tangible solution requires engineering, design, fabrication, testing and iteration. NMSU can help provide that pathway.”
Under that model, Airmen would identify operational challenges from the flightline, maintenance shops and other mission areas while university teams provide the research, design and testing needed to develop potential solutions. Airmen could then evaluate those concepts against operational requirements.
Dale said the wing hopes to establish recurring student engineering capstone projects focused on 49th Wing mission requirements and eventually build an ecosystem connecting academia, military operators and industry as ideas mature from operational problems into tested solutions.
The approach also encourages Airmen closest to the mission to take an active role in identifying and eliminating operational inefficiencies.
A solution does not have to alter an aircraft or overhaul an entire process to have an operational effect. Reducing the number of parts that must be stocked, shortening the time required to produce a tool or simplifying a recurring maintenance task can return time and resources to mission execution.
The partnership comes as the wing looks for creative ways to maintain readiness and generate combat power within available resources to accomplish the mission.
“I’d love to tell you there’s more money, more people and more parts coming through the gate,” said Col. Michael Mullin, 49th Wing commander. “There’s not. So now we have to figure out creative ways to get there.”
Mullin encouraged Airmen to recognize opportunities to optimize mission processes, experiment with solutions and share successful ideas beyond Holloman.
“It’s about trying something new, and we’re in a really awesome spot in our Air Force and especially in ACC,” said Mullin. “We have great leaders who empower us to find creative solutions. When you find something that works and helps our brothers and sisters accomplish the mission, share it. Get it into their hands, because that’s what builds credibility.”
For the 49th Wing, the Sept. 28 visit represented another step toward turning one successful project into a sustained partnership connecting Airmen who understand operational problems with university teams that have the tools and technical expertise to help solve them.
By strengthening those connections and developing Airmen as problem-solvers, the collaboration supports the wing’s mission to train and empower combat-ready Airmen.
“At the end of the day, what’s our currency?” said Mullin. “Sorties.”
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