Rogers E. Smith was one of the leaders in the development of integrated thrust vectoring as test pilot on the X-31 and F-15 projects. He was Chief Test Pilot at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base from 1993 to 2000. Smith served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1955 to 1963.
After he came to the United States, he instructed for Cornell Aero Lab at the Air Force and Naval Test Pilot Schools. He was a fighter pilot in the US Air National Guard from 1970 to 1994. Smith began his test pilot career by working for the National Research Council of Canada.
In 1967 he became a research pilot at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. He spent 14 years as an engineering test pilot for Calaspan Corporation in Buffalo, N.Y before coming to NASA at Edwards Air Force Base in 1982. He has logged more than 10,000 flight hours.