Business and Program Management- Made the day-to-day operations and strategic business decisions of an aerospace startup for nine years, including business development, hiring and employee oversight, funding, teaming, contracting, DCAA-compliant accounting, regulatory compliance, security compliance, and public outreach- Shared program management responsibilities for multiple programs including proposals, project planning, scheduling, budget, customer interface and reporting- Negotiated the sale of the company in May 2018 and transitioned to new owners with plans to put our aircraft into production in support of US government customersVanilla Aircraft VA001- Designed, fabricated and tested two 36-foot wingspan 10+ day endurance unmanned aircraft under NASA and Department of Defense funding- Chief engineer with overall responsibility for all technical aspects of the program, from initial concept, requirements definition and configuration selection through risk reduction testing, detailed design, test and evaluation, and flight test- Conducted ten test flights, including a 5-day unrefueled flight, landing with 3 days of fuel remaining on-board due to range-imposed weather limits. Achieved the world endurance record for non-solar unmanned aircraft- Systems lead responsible for avionics, power electronics and harness design, custom board designs, autopilot tuning and testing- Propulsion lead- Chief flight test engineerOther Programs- Designed and tested a miniature low-cost delta wing glider leveraging 3D printing and mobile phone system-on-chip technology for NASA.- Designed and tested a 40-pound rail-launched electric UAV for NASA- Completed a concept design of a 4800-pound 16-day endurance aircraft for AFRL- Completed a concept design of a silent fuel-cell-powered aircraft for a prime contractor- Advised NAVAIR on performance improvements to a fielded UAV

Systems Engineering- Project Engineer and Propulsion IPT lead for Aurora’s Excalibur turbine-electric hybrid VTOL UAV program (first flight 2009)- Principal Investigator for a DARPA-sponsored turbine-electric manned aircraft Phase II SBIR- Performed concept design, formal vehicle configuration trades, and supporting analyses for multiple UAV programs- Defined requirements for vehicles, subsystems, and qualification and acceptance testingSimulation- Designed a vehicle physics model for flight controls validation, which became the basis for simulations of several Aurora aircraft- Developed a VTOL/CTOL ground dynamics model and incorporated it into vehicle hardware-in-the-loop simulationsAircraft sizing and performance- Performed formal sizing optimizations of unique UAVs including development of parametric mass, structure, and performance models- Modeled the performance of the IAI Heron to evaluate the impact of re-engineing the aircraft, adding external stores, and increasing takeoff weightAerodynamic analyses- Conducted preliminary aerodynamic design of conventional and VTOL UAVs- Developed Vortex-Lattice and Navier-Stokes CFD models for multiple aircraft programs- Led all phases of development and test of a powered, automated wind tunnel model for turbine-electric VTOL flight controls development, including requirements definition, design, fabrication, test planning, test, and data reductionAutomated Test- Developed a test bench for automated functionality, performance, and regression test of custom flight-critical embedded systemsMechanical Design- Developed the requirements for, designed, and successfully tested a lightweight gearbox for a 15-kilowatt electric ducted fanTechnical Communication- Experienced in proposal writing and review, technical report writing, and technical presentation for internal review, customer review, and business development