Military Allen received his commission in the
United States Marine Corps at Villanova University in 1977. Following graduation from flight school, he flew
F-4 Phantoms from 1980 to 1983 with
squadron VMFA-312 at
Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort,
South Carolina, and was assigned as Aircraft Maintenance Officer. He was selected by
Headquarters Marine Corps for fleet introduction of the
F/A-18 Hornet, and was assigned to
VMFA-531 in
Marine Corps Air Station El Toro,
California, from 1983 to 1986. During his stay in VMFA-531, he was assigned as the squadron operations officer, and also attended and graduated from the Marine Weapons & Tactics Instructor Course, and the
United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun). A 1987 graduate of the
U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at
Naval Air Station Patuxent River,
Maryland, he was a test pilot under instruction when advised of his selection to the astronaut program. He logged over 6,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. A veteran of three space flights, Allen has logged over 900 hours in space. He was the pilot on
STS-46 in 1992 and
STS-62 in 1994, and was mission commander on
STS-75 in 1996. and landed at the
Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on August 8, 1992. The flight completed 126 orbits covering 3.3 million miles in 191.3 hours.
STS-62 STS-62 was a 14-day mission aboard the which consisted of 5 crewmembers that conducted a broad range of science and technology experiments with Earth applications to materials processing, biotechnology, advanced technology, and environmental monitoring. Principal payloads of the mission were the United States Microgravity Payload 2 (USMP-2) and the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology 2 (OAST-2) package. and landed at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on March 18, 1994. The flight completed 224 orbits covering 5.8 million miles in 335.3 hours. The TSS successfully demonstrated the ability of tethers to produce electricity. The TSS experiment produced a wealth of new information on the electrodynamics of tethers and plasma physics before the tether broke at 19.7 km, just shy of the 20.7 km goal. The crew also worked around the clock performing combustion experiments and research related to USMP-3 microgravity investigations used to improve production of medicines, metal alloys, and semiconductors. STS-75 launched on February 22 and landed on March 9, 1996. The mission was completed in 252 orbits covering 6.5 million miles in 377 hours and 40 minutes. The company was founded in 1968 by his father Dr. Charles Allen.{{cite news|title=Aerodyne continues to build on innovative success ==Awards and recognition==