Mr. Mutzman spent over 35 years in the Aerospace and Defense Industry. He currently serves as an airworthiness and systems engineering consultant for the Air Force Research Laboratory. His last assignment prior to retiring from government service was as the Chief Engineer and Technical Engineering Authority for the Aerospace Systems Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, providing advice and counsel to the Director on systems engineering and programmatic matters, and developing and implementing SE processes and practices across the Directorate. After graduating from The Ohio State University, and prior to entering government service, Mr. Mutzman spent time in industry working as a Flight Test Engineer for the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company, and as a Preliminary Design Engineer with Gulfstream Aerospace. During his career with the Air Force, Rich worked on such major and high visibility programs as the B-2 Bomber and the F-22, during their design, development, and flight testing. He was the lead for the Integrated Flight-Propulsion Control IPT during the Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstration Program, and also served as the Air Vehicle Platform Chief for the Global Hawk Program during its transition to operations. Prior to his selection as the AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate Chief Engineer, Rich was the Chief Engineer for AFRL’s highly successful X-51 Scramjet Engine Demonstrator where he had overall technical responsibility for the design, development, and flight testing of the hypersonic X-51 scramjet powered research vehicle.
People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2020
Brian German
Brian German is Director of the Georgia Tech Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility (CURAM) and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Langley Associate Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Aerospace Engineering. He specializes in configuration design of electric aircraft, battery electric propulsion modeling, and operations research problems for innovative scheduled and on-demand air services. His work focuses primarily on new types of electric regional aircraft and eVTOL aircraft for urban air mobility. Prof. German is a founding member and former Chair (2014-2016) of the AIAA Transformational Flight Program Committee, which was chartered to explore the opportunities of emerging aircraft electric propulsion and autonomy technologies, and he is a member of the AIAA Aircraft Electric Propulsion and Power Working Group. Prof. German received the NSF CAREER award in 2012, and he is an Associate Fellow of AIAA.
Scott Morton
Dr. Scott A. Morton manages the Air Vehicles component of the U.S. DoD HPCMP Computational Research Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) Program. The project, CREATE-AV, produces a suite of three major products, ADAPT, an aircraft design and optimization tool, Helios, a helicopter virtual aircraft simulation tool, and Kestrel, a fixed wing virtual aircraft tool, delivering capabilities to the U.S. Defense Aerospace Industry in response to prioritized needs of the U.S. Armed Services. These products are architected to exploit current and future High Performance Computing (HPC) systems to enable use of multi-disciplinary, physics-based simulation software to generate actionable engineering data in support of Defense Acquisition. Dr. Morton has specialized in the areas of high angle of attack aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, and computational stability and control in his 34+ year career developing DoD software. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Eric Nielsen
Eric Nielsen is a Senior Research Scientist with the Computational AeroSciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech and has worked at Langley for the past 25 years. Dr. Nielsen specializes in the development of computational aerodynamics software for the world’s most powerful computer systems. The software has been distributed to thousands of organizations around the country and supports major national research and engineering efforts at NASA, in industry, academia, the Department of Defense, and other government agencies. He has published extensively on the subject and has given presentations around the world on his work. Dr. Nielsen is a recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Achievement and Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medals as well as NASA Langley’s HJE Reid Award for best research publication.
Douglas Kothe
Douglas B. Kothe (Doug) has over three decades of experience in conducting and leading applied R&D in computational applications designed to simulate complex physical phenomena in the energy, defense, and manufacturing sectors. Doug is currently the Deputy Associate Laboratory Director of the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate (CCSD) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Prior positions for Doug at ORNL, where he has been since 2006, were Director of the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, DOE’s first Energy Innovation Hub (2010-2015), and Director of Science at the National Center for Computational Sciences (2006-2010).
Before coming to ORNL, Doug spent 20 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he held a number of technical and line and program management positions, with a common theme being the development and application of modeling and simulation technologies targeting multi-physics phenomena characterized in part by the presence of compressible or incompressible interfacial fluid flow. Doug also spent one year at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the late 1980s as a physicist in defense sciences.
Doug holds a Bachelor in Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri – Columbia (1983) and a Masters in Science (1986) and Doctor of Philosophy (1987) in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University.
David Van Wie
Dr. David Van Wie is the Head of the Air and Missile Defense Sector of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where he is responsible for strategic planning, execution, and performance of more than $350M in annual funding in programs advancing the ability of the nation to defend itself and its allies against airborne and ballistic threats. Prior to his current appointment, he served as Mission Area Executive for Precision Strike focusing on advanced weapon development, electromagnetic spectrum dominance, and novel long-range detection and targeting systems through revolutionary application of technologies in the areas of hypersonics, adaptive coordination of discrete kinetic and non-kinetic systems, and upstream data fusion. Dr. Van Wie is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the AIAA, and a recipient of the Air Force Award for Meritorious Civilian Service. Dr. Van Wie has been an active member of the U.S. science and technology community, and has published more than 140 papers in the fields of hypersonics, high-temperature fluid dynamics, airbreathing propulsion, and plasma aerodynamics. Dr. Van Wie earned his Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude), Master of Science, and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland as well as a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Frank D. Boensch
President, FDB Associates – Jan/1992 – Present
Mr. Boensch provided the Air Force Research Laboratory with Technical Assistance in the areas of High Temperature Structures, Structural Health Management, Program Management and Program Development for advance metallic structures, hypersonics and aging aircraft. He developed and executed a plan for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Technology Division to expose their technology to and partner with the aerospace industry utilizing those available at Oak Ridge. Mr. Boensch also provided a hypersonic state of the art review to the Institute for Defense Analysis. Currently he is the DARPA structures lead for the Advanced Full Range Engine (AFRE) propulsion system for hypersonic vehicles.
USAF Structures Engineer – 1958 – 1992
Previously, Mr. Boensch was in the initial cadre of the National AeroSpace Plane Joint Program Office. As the Deputy Director of Airframe, he was responsible for the adequacy of the initial contractor developed configurations. He later became the Director of Consortia responsible for a $135M program which developed the structures, materials and manufacturing technologies necessary to build the X-30. Finally, he became the Director of Technology.
Mr. Boensch was Program Manager for the X-24C, a joint USAF/NASA research vehicle. He was Project Engineer on a series of hypersonic vehicle (FDL-5) structural concepts. He successfully developed ceramic nose caps, leading edges and reusable metallic heat shields for high L/D vehicles.
Early in his career, Mr. Boensch was a test engineer in the USAF Structures Test Facility. He was Project Engineer for the most complex elevated temperature test ever done in the test facility by heating a wing-fuselage section of the original USAF Aerospace Plane to 2000F using fuel simulant and loads simulating lift off to orbit and re-entry. Additionally, he was the heating test engineer for the X-20 (2000F) as well as the B-58 (250F over 70% of the aircraft exterior).
Charles McClinton
Mr. McClinton has been an independent aerospace Consultant from 2007 to today. During this time he supported several DOD, DARPA, USAF, NASA and NATO hypersonic airbreathing programs/activities. The most active current contract is with PERIKIN Technologies in support of High Speed Systems Test (HSST) and Hypersonic T&E Investment Program (HyTIP) at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC).
Charles (Chuck) McClinton retired from NASA in July, 2005 after 38 years service. His last position (1996-2005) was a NASA HQ’s assignment as Hypersonic Technology Manager for the Hyper-X Program, responsible for the Hyper-X (X-43) vehicle definition, wind tunnel testing, and all hypersonic technology development. From 1983 – 1994 Mr. McClinton performed many functions in the NASP program, including formation and management of a CFD application team for the NASP Program Office. Mr. McClinton was also the technical lead for NASP engine contractor down select. From 1967 to 1983 Mr. McClinton performed experimental and analytical scramjet combustor research for the Hypersonic Propulsion Branch at NASA LaRC.
Chuck authored numerous publications addressing all areas of hypersonic propulsion, propulsion airframe integration, and hypersonic vehicle synthesis. Chuck was the Chairman of the Joint Army, NASA, Navy and Air Force (JANNAF) Air breathing Propulsion Subcommittee from 1996-2002. His awards including the NASP Gene Zara Award (1989), NASA Medal for Exceptional Engineering Achievement (1993), NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (2000), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 2000 Air Breathing Propulsion Medal, and the 2006 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research.
Chuck is also an aviation enthusiast, active in Church, a proud Grandfather of 9, and a professional musician. He is an aircraft owner, Elder and Property Chair for his Church for last 9 years, manages two bands (Memory Makers Big Band and the Riverboat Jazz Band) and performs with and helps manage several others musical groups.
Shelley Petroy
Mark Mozena
Mark Mozena is the Vice President of Government Affairs for Planet in Washington, D.C. where he leads Planet’s government relations and policy efforts with Congress and U.S. Government Agencies. Before joining Planet, Mark worked for United Launch Alliance (ULA) where he handled the civil space portfolio and led government relations with NASA, NOAA, and the FAA. Prior to ULA, Mark worked for Representative Michael Honda (D-Silicon Valley, CA) in Washington, D.C. Mark initially joined the Congressman as an AAAS Congressional Science & Technology Policy Fellow before transitioning to permanent staff. As a Senior Policy Advisor, Mark managed the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee for Congressman Honda who served as the Subcommittee’s Ranking Member. Before working on Capitol Hill, Mark received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of California, Santa Cruz where his research focused on galaxy evolution. As the son of a US diplomat, Mark spent much of his childhood living in South Asia and southern Africa before going to Rice University in Houston, Texas for his bachelor’s degree. Following Rice, Mark taught high school physics with Teach For America in St. Louis, Missouri before moving to California for graduate school.