People Category: AIAA Aviation Forum 2020

Pat Schirmer is vice president of Engineering Strategy & Operations for Boeing, a position he has held since December 2019. In this role, he has responsibility for major activities that integrate the company’s Engineering team, such as design practices and processes, deployment of model-based engineering, and talent management and strategic workforce planning.

Schirmer has held a variety of leadership roles during his 35-year Boeing career. Most recently, he was vice president of Engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ Fabrication and Airplane Programs organizations, where he oversaw the engineering teams supporting Fabrication, the 737, 747, 767, 777 and 787, including non-recurring product development efforts (737 MAX and 777X). In that role, he provided strategic direction to the Engineering function for use of common processes and tools and drove integration across programs, people and business units.

Prior to that, he served as vice president of Commercial Airplanes Customer Support, responsible for ensuring the health of the world’s largest fleet of commercial jetliners – more than 14,000 airplanes. He oversaw a complete set of technical resources that helped more than 800 operators maintain their fleets. Resources include service, maintenance and retrofit engineering assistance; round the clock technical support; field service; and maintenance publications.

Schirmer also led Customer Support Engineering, where he oversaw an operations center that provides 24/7 support to airplane customers around the globe, served as 737-900ER deputy program manager, and was fleet chief for the Next-Generation 737.

Schirmer first joined Boeing in the Missile System Division of the defense business, working on the Peacekeeper missile, Hard Mobile Launcher and Short Range Attack Missile as a dynamics and loads engineer.

A graduate of the University of Washington, Schirmer received a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a Master of Business Administration participating in the Executive MBA program. In addition, Schirmer is a graduate from the Seattle University Executive Leadership Program.

Reynaldo "Ray" Gomez III

Reynaldo Gomez started work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in May of 1985 after completing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University. He has worked on a wide range of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications over the last 34 years, ranging from simulations of wind loads on the Shuttle prior to launch through hypersonic reentry flowfields. In addition to reviewing all integrated aerodynamics products for the Space Shuttle Program, he lead the development of wind tunnel tests, CFD simulations, and inflight Shuttle debris transport assessments through the end of the program. He currently works in the JSC Engineering Directorate and serves as the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Aerodynamics Technical Authority, is the co-lead for Space Launch System aerodynamics and is the space applications representative on NASA’s Aerosciences Testing Advisory Board.

Tom Gunnarson

Tom Gunnarson is the Regulatory Affairs lead for Wisk, a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation to develop a self-flying, all-electric air taxi service. He is currently leading efforts to foster progressive regulatory approaches for eVTOL aircraft and the emerging Urban Air Mobility marketplace. Before coming to Wisk, Tom was with the FAA Advanced Technology Branch interfacing with industry and other civil aviation authorities on the development of consensus-based safety standards for small aircraft. While there, he coordinated an FAA regulatory feasibility study on electric propulsion. Prior to FAA, Tom served as President of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association and was chair of the FAA Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee that developed the Light Sport and Sport Pilot rule.Tom is a pilot, flight instructor and has operated several flight schools.

Greg McDougall

Born in California on December 20, 1955, to Canadian parents, Greg spent every summer at his family’s remote, water- or air-access only cabin in British Columbia, Canada. That early exposure to the coast and his first float plane ride at age six, gave Greg the taste of aviation and a determination to one day become a pilot.

Greg’s aviation career began in 1975, earning his Private Pilot Licence to his first pilot job in 1977 in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, to eventually starting his own airline; Harbour Air Ltd. in 1982. Over the years Harbour Air grew from a 2 plane, charter only operation that primarily serviced the forest industry and remote fishing camps, to what it is today; North America’s largest all-seaplane airline that services over 500,000 passengers per year on tours, scheduled service routes and private charter flights using a showcase fleet of more than 40 seaplanes. Harbour Air operates 9 terminals in the centres of British Columbia largest coastal communities, offers 12 scheduled service routes and in 2018 began service between downtown Vancouver and downtown Seattle, WA. Through its dedication to safety, service and innovation, Harbour Air has reshaped the transportation landscape in British Columbia, been recognized as one of the top places to work in Canada, one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies as well as recognized for it’s outstanding contribution to safety.

Today, still as CEO of Harbour Air, with over 12,000 hours logged, countless National and International awards and, in 2019, an induction into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, Greg McDougall has partnered with magniX, the company powering the electric aviation revolution, to take on a new goal; to build and personally pilot the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft. This latest endeavor of Greg’s successfully launched on December 10th, 2019 with Greg at the throttle and, once again, garnered worldwide attention. Next, Greg plans to work with regulators to convert the entire Harbour Air fleet.

To Greg, that early taste of aviation is still strong and drives him to continue to evolve and innovate Harbour Air. “If we sit here looking out the window, one day there is going to be something out there that’s going to rock your world. I want to be the one flying it, not the one watching it.”

Greg lives in Squamish, British Columbia and when he’s not revolutionizing the future of clean aviation, he can be found biking the backcountry or working with his family on their farm bringing sustainable farming practices to his community.

Lowell Foster

Lowell Foster is GAMA’s Director of Global Innovation and Engineering. Joining GAMA in 2019, Lowell is responsible for developing new paths for the integration of emerging general aviation technologies and assessing technological shifts requiring changes to how general aviation aircraft are designed, manufactured, maintained, and operated. Lowell’s responsibilities are split between supporting the GAMA Electric Propulsion & Innovation Committee (EPIC), which works to enable the certification and operation of hybrid and electric aircraft and supporting existing and new Part 23 certification and implementation issues.

Lowell comes from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where he was responsible for a broad range of general aviation safety, policy and regulatory activities with the Aircraft Certification Small Airplane Standards Branch. In addition to serving as project manager for the Part 23 restructuring and performance-based rule-making, Lowell contributed to numerous policy efforts concerning new aircraft technologies including. He has 30 years of experience as a flight test engineer and was involved in policy development for many new small airplane technologies.

Prior to the FAA, Lowell worked at Mooney Aircraft and was in the Air Force, flying as a flight test engineer on F-16 avionics and weapons integration programs. Lowell has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and is a private pilot with instrument and glider ratings. He has time in more than 60 different airplanes, helicopters, balloons, and one airship.

Luciano Serra

Luciano leads the Systems Integrity Team for magniX. He has significant experience in aerospace gained from working at industry leaders such as Embraer and Bombardier. Luciano’s experience spans different countries including Germany, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and Australia. He has advanced knowledge of the regulatory landscape around the world.

Luciano earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, in Brazil.

Tine Tomažič

Dr. Tine Tomažič (male) was born in 1983 and received B.Sc. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Ljubljana in 2007 and 2014 respectively. His work in systems automation and human machine interfaces ranges from autopilot technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles to electric and hybrid-electric propulsion systems. Tomažič was involved in development of world’s first 2-seat and world’s first electric 4-seat aircraft, the Taurus Electro and the Taurus G4. His current research is in the field of certifiable hybrid-electric propulsion systems and their intuitive user interfaces, where besides being involved in the development, Tomazic is active in the working group with ASTM F44.40 to rewrite current General Aviation design standards to allow proliferation of electric flight. He is also a member of SAE, EASA T4S Technology for Safety and a recognized global expert in the field of electric flight. He is the CTO of Pipistrel.

Steven Barrett

Steven Barrett (@StevenRHBarrett on twitter) is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is director of the MIT Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment and leads the MIT Electric Aircraft Initiative. He is also a Visiting Professor at University College London’s Energy Institute, and at Seoul National University’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Departments. Before joining MIT in 2010 Steven was a faculty member at Cambridge University’s Engineering Department, where he completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in aerospace engineering.

The aim of Steven’s research is to make aviation cleaner and quieter. This includes developing low emissions and noise propulsion technologies for aircraft, improving scientific understanding of the atmospheric impacts of aircraft pollution, and evaluating the sustainability of biofuels and electric aircraft. Steven also has research interests in ground vehicle electrification and broader climate change and air pollution topics. His work in these areas spans fundamental technology development through to environmental policy assessment.

Steven has written approximately 85 journal publications and is current or former supervisor of about 60 graduate theses. Steven’s current teaching at MIT includes the undergraduate jet and rocket propulsion course, and a graduate-level course on aerospace, energy, and the environment. He has contributed to STEM outreach activities since 2003.