Travis Taylor

Morgan County native Travis Shane Taylor (1968- ) is a scientist, engineer, author, and television personality. Taylor has served in various roles at NASA and in the Department of Defense, and he has authored more than 20 books, including numerous science fiction titles as well as several nonfiction books. He is best known for his roles in the television shows Rocket City Rednecks and Skinwalker Ranch.  

Taylor was born on July 24, 1968, in Decatur, Morgan County, to Charles Taylor and Mary Ann Taylor. His father worked as a machinist for Wyle Laboratories, where he was part of a team who subcontracted with NASA to assist Wernher von Braun in launching the nation’s first satellites. As a child, Taylor took an early interest in engineering and often disassembled various household appliances to see how they worked. In his teenage years, the family moved to Somerville, a nearby town in Morgan County.

In 1986, Taylor’s final year at Albert P. Brewer High School, he built a radio telescope in his backyard, enabling him to detect radio waves from black hole remnants and supernovas. The project won a statewide science competition and caught the attention of the U.S. Army, which selected him for a cooperative education program. The program allowed him to fund his electrical engineering studies at Auburn University while working for the Army on directed energy weapons technology as part of Pres. Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1991, Taylor moved to Huntsville and began working for the Army full time. In the ensuing years, he would continue to study part-time, earning five advanced degrees while working for the Department of Defense and NASA in various roles. At the University of Alabama in Huntsville, he earned master’s degrees in physics and mechanical and aerospace engineering and doctoral degrees in optical science engineering and aerospace systems engineering. He also earned an online master’s degree in astronomy from the University of Western Sydney. For this master’s, he built a basic observatory in his backyard using commercially available telescope equipment and with it discovered two planets that orbit outside our Solar System.

An avid reader of science fiction, Taylor had grown dissatisfied with the lack of hard science in the genre. He began writing his own novels in 2001 and published his first, Warp Speed, in 2004. Since then, he has published more than a dozen science fiction novels, typically with military plotlines and themes of heroism. He has also written several non-fiction books, including introductory textbooks on rocket science and laser science, as well as two books outlining potential responses to an extra-terrestrial invasion.

Taylor initially sought out television appearances as a means of promoting his books, and with the hope of finding opportunities to bring popular attention to science. He first appeared on the History Channel shows The Universe (2009-10) and Life After People (2010). Soon after, Taylor conceived the idea for the National Geographic Channel series Rocket City Rednecks, which is set on the Taylor family’s land in Somerville and stars Travis, his father, his nephew, his brother-in-law, and his best friend. His wife, Karen, filmed the pilot episode, which he successfully pitched to National Geographic. The series follows the group of men as they solve engineering problems in their garage using makeshift materials, all with an unapologetically backwoods attitude. Some of their more notable feats include a bomb-proof pick-up truck, an Iron Man suit, a lightning gun, and a doomsday shelter. Travis has noted in interviews that he embraces the term “redneck,” which he associates with hard work, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and dedication to family. The show ran for two seasons between 2011 and 2013.

Taylor holds a deep interest in unexplained phenomena and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, and he often makes television appearances to discuss these topics. He appeared in dozens of episodes of the series Ancient Aliens (a show that has been criticized for touting pseudoscientific theories), as well as in many episodes of William Shatner’s series The UnXplained. Since 2020, Taylor has starred in the popular History Channel series Skinwalker Ranch, which documents an investigation of unexplained phenomena on a ranch in the Uinta Basin of Utah. Residents and visitors of the ranch have reported seeing strange lights and experienced animal mutilations and electronic interference, among other strange occurrences. The show’s methods have sometimes been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor, with commenters noting that investigators often fail to rule out more plausible explanations.

Alongside his prolific writing and frequent television appearances, Taylor has continued to work in various science and engineering roles within NASA and the Department of Defense, as well as for defense contractors. From 2007-22, he served in the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. Beginning in 2019, he played a leading role in the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force, a group of scientists assembled by Congress to investigate 144 events and write a report summarizing the evidence, with the end goal of determining whether they present a military threat. (Because of the popular association of the term “UFO” with alien spacecraft, government intelligence now uses the more neutral UAP to describe such anomalies.)

Taylor also engages in a variety of hobbies that include scuba diving, mountain bike racing, marathons, and martial arts. In addition, he is a private pilot and has sung and played rhythm guitar in several rock bands. Taylor and his long-time wife Karen continue to reside in Somerville. They have two children.

Selected Works by Travis Taylor

Warp Speed (2004)

Von Neumann's War (2006)

Vorpal Blade (2007)

Manxome Foe (2008)

Claws that Catch (2008)

Introduction to Rocket Science and Engineering (2009)

The Science Behind the Secret (2010)

Alien Invasion: How to Defend Earth (2011)

One Day on Mars (2013)

The Quantum Connection (2014)