I was born in Philadelphia and raised in Springfield, Delaware County, PA. I attended West Catholic High School in West Philly. Then it was off to Villanova University to study mechanical engineering.

After my tenure at Villanova, I went to work for the Boeing Vertol Company in Morton, PA as a liaison engineer. My function there was to resolve minor fit problems of the helicopter parts during final assembly. The subsequent changes/modifications were then coordinated with the primary design group for permanent incorporation into the manufacturing process.

After two years in this position, I was transferred to Airframe Design where I could originate the mistakes I used to fix. It was in this design group that I decided design engineering was not for me. I needed something more diverse, yet still be able to utilize my engineering background.

Vietnam was starting to build-up and created more opportunities within Boeing Vertol. I transferred to a group called Weapons Systems Analysis. This function involved every facet of the helicopter system from "cradle to grave". It was in this group where I developed my skills in cost estimating. My engineering background was a plus. My career in developmental programs cost estimating was launched.

Now as Manager of Materiel Cost estimating I was involved in all developmental and production Navy/Marine program proposals and subsequent contract negotiations.

One of the most challenging estimating tasks I encountered was the V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor program. This air vehicle design was all new - pushing the state of the art to the max. No historical data and no parametrics were available for this estimating task.

Briefly, this aircraft is constructed of resin coated graphite fabric material as opposed to traditional aluminum for greater strength and weight savings. The aircraft is fly-by-wire; i.e., no mechanical connections to the control surfaces. The heart of the V-22 Osprey is a triple redundant flight control system (three computers) with multiplex signals being sent to the control surfaces actuators and all other systems simultaneously.

After several false starts, this proposal was submitted to the U.S. Navy, and then negotiated resulting in a developmental contract award. This aircraft is in production today and still going strong. Its popular description is "It takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane". It should be noted that the word "materiel" in my job title is not spelled incorrectly. The "el" signifies that subcontractor (purchased) aircraft systems are included in the estimating/ procurement process along with raw material, assembly hardware, etc.

Concurrent with my employment at Boeing Helicopters, I was a weekend warrior, flying P2V-7 anti-submarine patrol aircraft for the U.S. Naval Air Reserve based at NAS Willow Grove in Horsham, PA. The reserves never had regular use of the latest aircraft . If it was good enough for WWII it was good enough for us.

I am an avid recreational skier, and a film photography buff. I am dabbling in digital photography, but I feel that the overall quality, by comparison to film, has a long way to go. This is especially apparent when attempting to do any major enlargements and still keep the detail sharp. However, with Canon digital SLR cameras on the scene you can bet I'll eventually be a full convert to digital photography.

My major hobby interest is model railroading. I've been in this hobby forever. Some will say this is not just a hobby, it borders on the obsessive compulsive. Sometimes I think that they may be right. My modeling scale of choice is S scale. This is a scale proportion of 1:64. S scale is approximately one third larger than the ever-popular HO scale model trains.

I'm a life member of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). My local model railroad club is the Lehigh Valley S Gaugers. We meet on a monthly basis and rotate our meetings between members' homes. I'm a member of the National Association of S Gaugers (NASG). I'm also a life member of the Friends of the East Broad Top ( Link: FEBT.org ). This group is dedicated to preservation and restoration of the EBT Railroad, a narrow gauge RR, located in Orbisonia, PA approximately 40 miles south of State College, PA.

The Boeing Company was responsible for introducing me to the Mac. All of Boeing's major proposals are published via Macintosh computers. A dedicated proposal publishing team that is available to all divisions, company-wide, accomplishes this.

In the mid 1990's, as I recall, I came across a flyer during a visit to Micro Center. The flyer described the Main Line Macintosh Users Group along with an invitation to come to a meeting. It sounded interesting. The first meeting I attended was in a classroom in the Radnor High School. I signed up for MLMUG at that meeting and now the rest is history. The Mac I currently own is an iMac G4 swing arm "dome" 900 MHz with 1GB of memory. It was pretty fast at the time (2002). The electronics industry has always fascinated me. One day you go out and purchase a Rolls Royce and six months later you're driving a Model T Ford !

— Matt Lacko