FPP206 - Delivering the Future: Aviation Acquisition
Fighter Pilot Podcast
E. Vincent "Jell-O" Aiello, Retired U.S. Navy Fighter Pilot
4.9 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The future of airpower is not decided in the cockpit—it’s decided by the acquisition process.
In this episode, U.S. Air Force Colonel Tim “Ivy” Spaulding joins new FPP host Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton to break down modern aviation acquisition from a fighter pilot’s perspective. They explore why innovation so often struggles to reach the flight line, how risk and incentives become misaligned, and what it really takes to deliver capability at speed.
This candid conversation dives into trust, culture, and people—why acquisition works when operators, engineers, and decision-makers are aligned, and why it fails when they’re not.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-fighter-pilot-podcast/donations
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Fighter Pilot Podcast, the Internet radio show that explores the fascinating world of air combat, the aircraft, the aircraft, the weapon systems, and most importantly, the people. |
| 0:18.5 | My name is Vincent Aiello, call Sangello. I founded the show and hosted it for |
| 0:22.5 | the first eight years, but if you caught our 2025 end-of-year wrap-up episode last month, then you |
| 0:28.7 | know that beginning this month, January 2006, I have turned over hosting duties to the far younger, |
| 0:35.6 | much better looking and imminently more qualified past guest |
| 0:38.9 | of episodes 78 and 148, Mr. Tucker Hamilton. |
| 0:43.6 | What's up, Cinco? |
| 0:44.6 | Jello, how are you? |
| 0:46.0 | I am doing well. |
| 0:47.0 | Good, good, glad to hear that. |
| 0:48.7 | How was your end of year holidays? |
| 0:50.5 | It was fantastic. |
| 0:51.5 | Thank you for asking. |
| 0:52.5 | Good. |
| 0:53.5 | We had an enjoyable, cold New England Christmas. Oh, very good. Hopefully a white Christmas. All right, terrific. Well, I don't know about you, but when we did air that end of year wrap up episode, I received all kinds of feedback just thanking me for again doing the show and congratulating me on finding you to turn it over. And have you heard from any of feedback, just thanking me for, again, doing the show and congratulating me on |
| 1:11.9 | finding you to turn it over. And have you heard from any of your network? Is anyone like, |
| 1:16.2 | hey, dude, what the heck are you doing? I think people have been pleasantly surprised that there |
| 1:20.7 | is life still in the fighter podcast and that it is not dead yet. So I think they were |
| 1:26.9 | excited about the prospects of folks getting |
| 1:29.7 | interviewed, though I will say that folks going to miss you and, you know, conveying how much |
| 1:36.1 | you meant to this show and I got big shoes to fill. Oh, good. Well, I'll come back from time to |
| 1:41.5 | time and I wanted to just show up on this one because if anyone missed that one, if all of a sudden they just heard your voice, they might wonder what happened to me. So here we are. We're doing our safe for solo check ride for you. And we'll get to who you've got lined up in just a second. But I do want to give you a little feedback because we did a bunch of feedback on that episode. I did have one person |
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