Major David French is the deputy director of the Air Force Center for Rapid Product Development at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and was commissioned via Officer Training School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama in May 1995. He has held numerous assignments over his 15-year career, including service as an aircraft maintenance officer on the MC-130E Combat Talon I special operations aircraft and as an instructor in the department of astronautics at the United States Air Force Academy. He completed his masters at the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2003 and was selected to take part in the AFIT Civilian Institution program, which allows Air Force personnel to attend universities to receive advanced education and training in highly technical subjects. Major French chose to attend North Carolina State University, where he studied aerospace engineering and recently completed his Ph.D. (less info)