Delta Promotes Their PMA Guru, David Linebaugh

Many of our members know David Linebaugh.  He has also served as Lead Engineer of the Parts Manufacturing Authority (PMA) Approval Engineering Team at Delta, and has helped build an industry-leading PMA program at Delta.  During this same time, he has been a tireless supporter of the Association, having served as a past Chair of the Air Carrier Committee, and he has continued to volunteer his time in support of the industry, and as an industry leader in efforts at continuous improvement.

Delta TechOps has released a memo announcing that Linebaugh has received a much-deserved promotion to Manager of the PMA Approval Team.

We all remember when the Delta PMA team consisted solely of Linebaugh.  The fact that there is a team to manage is a reflection of Linebaugh’s efforts to build that team.  The fact that Delta has allowed him to build that team is also a reflection of the success of the PMA industry, which has demonstrated again and again their ability to support their air carrier partners through a double-benefit of reliability improvements and cost savings.

Members of Linebaugh’s team have presented at MARPA conferences in recent years about the significant reliability improvements that they have achieved at Delta, and about the important role that PMA parts have played in these improvements.  We are looking forward to more data on their success, and on how that success can serve as a model in the aviation industry’s continuous effort at safety improvement, at the MARPA EMEA Conference in Dublin in May.

David has been with Delta since 1993 and involved with PMA since 2006. Prior to starting with PMA, he worked various roles within Delta’s engineering organization including Powerplant, Fleet Engineering and Reliability. He started his career with McDonnell-Douglas in Huntsville, Alabama working on SpaceLab and Space Station programs before he joined Flight Test for the MD-80/90. David has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee.  He joins Component Engineering managers Brian Gialloreto and Brad Hanson and Enabling Technologies manager Jeff Peiter in making up the leadership team of the Operations Support Engineering organization.

Congratulating, David!  We look forward to many more years working closely with you to maintain and improve airline safety and reliability.