Ark Galactapedia

Jude “J” Harris Arnold (2742 - 2853) was the lead designer and founder of Anvil Aerospace. Born in 2742, he was the only son of Pax Harris and Ndilimeke Arnold, real estate moguls on Terra (Terra III). He graduated from the Astronautics Laboratory within the Martian Institute of Space Technology (MIST), where he was first exposed to the works of deceased spacecraft designer Leonard Casse, whose portfolio strongly influenced Arnold's future designs. In 2772, he founded Anvil Aerospace, which went on to become one of the United Empire of Earth (UEE) military's premier shipbuilders. Arnold insisted on personally approving every part of his vehicles' designs while he served as CEO. His policies of profit-sharing with his workers and fostering the talents of promising employees at Anvil led to the launch of many successful careers, and made him a popular figure in the often cutthroat spacecraft manufacturing industry. He died of old age in 2853.

Arnold began his career as a junior designer at Aegis Dynamics in 2763, where he would eventually be assigned to assist on Project Monitor, developing the vehicle which would become the Hammerhead. A design of his was selected to be made into one of six prototypes, but it was not ultimately delivered to the UEE Navy (UEEN) after it failed early flight tests. Arnold became demoralized with his job after a lack of feedback from his supervisors, especially after repeated rejections of new designs following his failed prototype. In his spare time, he began to sketch ideas for ships based on the creations of his favorite designer, Leonard Casse.

It became apparent to Arnold by 2770 that he had no path forward at Aegis. He decided to quit his position and accepted a seed loan from his parents to start his own ship manufacturing company, which he planned to operate based on the flat organization style that was used at Casse Aerospace. Under this style of management, everyone's opinions would be given equal weight no matter their status, with all final decisions left to Arnold. Although this would cause a long development process, Arnold felt that worker satisfaction would lead to a stronger final product.

In 2772, construction on his new shipbuilding facility in Nova Kyiv, Terra was complete. Arnold named the new company Anvil Aerospace in reference to former MIST professor Robert Calvin's famous assertion from his book Mechanisms of Empire that military spending "...fuels the furnaces of expansion and strikes the anvils of innovation." Within the first year, Arnold and his team had created a prototype fighter called the Osprey. As an homage to Casse, Arnold included signature elements from Casse's ships such as curved wings and the open circle signet in his own designs.

Using connections he had made during his time at Aegis, Arnold showed the prototype to a small gathering of Navy officials. The ship proved to be a hit and the Navy placed Anvil's first ever order. As word spread of the new manufacturer's successful entry into the military market, it caught the eye of the holding firm that owned the rights to the Casse Aerospace portfolio, which sued Arnold for copyright infringement. Facing a potentially devastating lawsuit, Arnold chose to settle the case by purchasing all of Casse Aerospace's portfolio for an undisclosed sum. Arnold released a public statement that Anvil would continue to utilize Casse's signature elements in their ships as an ode to a talented designer who died far too young.

After the events of the anti-Messer revolution in 2792, the UEE stripped Aegis Dynamics of most of its contracts due to its strong association with the Messer regime. As a part of the UEE Navy's defensive restructure focused on protecting and serving the civilian population, Anvil Aerospace was approached by Vice Admiral Galen Whishaw of the UEEN Research & Development Division, who offered Anvil a direct contract to develop a brand new ship. The result was the U4A-3 Terrapin, a design that Arnold had been working on with lead engineer Allegra Wilsing. The successful deployment of that ship in 2796 helped to make Arnold and his company an indispensable part of the UEE's defense. Over the next few decades, Arnold personally supervised the development of all Anvil's military ships, most notably the F7A Hornet, which replaced the Aegis Avenger as the UEE's standard front-line fighter.

In semi-retirement by the early 2840s, Arnold nevertheless still required that all parts of a ship's development be approved by him. On a trip to MacArthur (Kilian V) in 2850, he is reported to have been evaluating changes made to Anvil's many projects on his mobiGlas in between meetings with UEEN leadership. He served as a guest lecturer at MIST in 2851 and was invited to return the following year, but he declined, citing a desire to return "home" to the Anvil offices in Nova Kyiv. He died at his desk in 2853.