All Consulting work performed outside of full time job with non competitive products / no conflicts of interest
Fly Corvair (2005 – 2008, 2014)
Web Links http://www.flycorvair.com & http://www.flycorvair.net
Once William meet me & got to know my skill sets and background he immediately knew how it could advance his product line.
Everyman Day Access to CNC processing had come of age in the early 2000’s, I was well versed in multiple CAD programs & CNC processing. William knew the fit / form / function / interfaces / materials etc but needed a detail designer with an Aircraft Manufacturing background to detail design in CAD / work with the CNC vendors for the CAM efforts on the next generation of parts.
Working with William the engineering effort was to the point, Idea to Product Cycle was lightening quick and is the closest experience I have had to what it must of been like to work for Kelly Jhonson @ Lockheed or Burt Rutan @ Scaled compared to being a number at a huge company.
An overview of some of the parts I worked on: all photos from the fly corvair web sites
Standard Vans 13″ spinner “metal prop crush plate” First part I detailed in CAD for Fly Corvair
http://www.flycorvair.com/hangar1006.html
The part most people are familiar with the 1st generation Gold Prop Hub with integral pulley groove.
Purchase info at: http://www.flycorvair.com/prophub.html
1st generation Oil Manifold, has outputs for the Oil Filter, instrumentation, & aux port for 5th bearings.
Purchase info at: http://www.flycorvair.com/goldoilsystem.html
To see Corvair powered aircraft in action check out Dan’s Panther @ the LSA expo 2014
Inverted.US (Jason Newburg) Jamaica Mistaka Race # 68 Winner of the 2006 Reno National Air Races in the Silver Biplane Class:
(Summer / Fall of 2006)
In the mid 2000’s Edgewater Florida’s Airport was a hot bed of Grass roots Aviation Development & Activity. Jason’s hanger was a few down from William, he learned about my plane and the simple but effective Aerodynamic features on the plane and wanted my help on his Silver Class Racing Biplane.
Overview shot of the finished Jamaica Mistaka at Sun N Fun
Jason in the Jamaica Mistaka at Reno
Fitting the wing tips, they where hot wired blue Poly S foam (same stuff as a Long Ez or Velocity), Aero Poxy & e-glass.
Jason had a dream hanger at Edgewater with an Apartment up above, it was the ultimate man cave.
The bragging rights photo, notice the name on the cowl, at Reno all the competitors ask who is this Spencer & how do I contact him.
Overview shot of the lower wing tip. its a sharper sweep back from the SP-500 but shares the same DNA.
basic Idea is it improves the Efficiency of the wing. if you remember back to Aerodynamics 101 a Rectangular platform wing has an “e” around 0.7 an Elapse is at the top with a “e” = 1.0, these tips bring it to the “e” ~ 0.8 to 0.85. the other benefit is for high alpha its like gluing a small delta wing to the end of the main wing, the high energy leading edge vortex keeps the flow engaged & working at High AOA.
Helical Robotics (2010 -)
One of my Closest Friends At Embry-Riddle Daytona and well past college Keith Schlee Partnered with his Brother Bruce and started a Custom Use Robotics Company. After His Finishing his Masters degree @ ERAU he got Hired by Cessna in Kansas, after that He got into Orbital for quite a few years at the Cape in Florida, then a move to Washington DC, there is where he sparked the Idea for the Robotics company, eventually moving up Wisconsin to work on Helical 24/7 with his brother.
http://www.helicalrobotics.com/
Among the technical side we both flew RC Planes at ERAU, where active in Aircraft Design classes, Wind Tunnel and other Technical adventures. I’ve been on again / off again Consultant with Helical from the early days.
1st item was a Low cost / High Performance Cad system. I looked into all the Cad systems out there vs. what they needed and after doing the research found that Alibre was the best solution. They Purchased the package and have been using it as there Main Cad system.
There was various Shop setup, capital equipment down selects & shop HR brain storming sessions.
Gould Aero 