Norman J. Englund was awarded his third patent from the United States Patent Office on December 30, 2008. Englund is an associate technical fellow with Boeing Commercial Airplane in the Mechanical Systems Test Laboratory in Seattle. The USPO granted a third patent to Englund and his Boeing colleague, John Finigan, for the invention of a compliant coupling force control system, a specialized spring that allows precise application of forces in the testing of airplane parts.

The owner of all these patents is The Boeing Company, but Englund has the satisfaction of being one of the inventors. Working with colleagues throughout the Boeing enterprise, Englund is thrilled with the challenges and opportunities for innovation in the field of aircraft testing, provided by The Boeing Company.

Englund is professional engineer with a degree from the University of Washington in mechanical engineering. He is a hands-on engineer, who has had a love of technology since he was a young boy. He obtained his Amateur Radio General Class license at the age of 11 and his First Class Commercial Radio and Telephone License at sixteen. Continuing his early interest in electronics, Englund purchased a personal computer when they first became available and learned to program in numerous programming languages: DOS, C, C++ and C#. All of these skills make him a multi-disciplinary expert in the field of airplane testing.

Englund has deep roots in the Scandinavian community of Ballard. His father's parents emigrated from the Swedish speaking area of Finland in the early 1900's and settled in Everett. Although Norm grew up in the Tri-Cities and first worked as an engineer at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, he moved to Ballard by the early 1970's and purchased a house in the Sunset Hill neighborhood where he still lives.

Englund has always been inventive and forward thinking. At Hanford he developed a remotely controlled mechanism for retrieving hazardous waste. At Marco he developed an oil water separator. At Advanced Machine he provided custom solutions to unusual engineering problems, mainly for the maritime industry.

As an inventor and artist, Englund is a 21st century Renaissance man. It will be interesting to see what he does next.