Travis Dahna

Travis L. Dahna is the founder and principal engineer for TD Aerospace LLC, a service-disabled veteran owned small business. He started his career 30 years ago as an avionics technician and troubleshooter in the United States Navy, where he served with distinction and was honorably discharged. As a Gulf War veteran, Mr. Dahna joined the civilian aviation sector where he has worked on, designed, and certified a wide variety of new products and articles for the last 25 years. He has held positions as a senior electrical engineer for a large aircraft manufacturer and served as the certification coordinator for all the factory owned service/modification centers in the United States, providing required interface with the geographic FAA offices. Following his time at the aircraft manufacturer, he assisted in the development and management of multiple Supplemental Type Certification (STC) Organization Designation Authorizations (ODA), holding positions as Principal Certification Engineer, Director of Engineering, and ODA administrator.He has been actively involved in several hundred certification projects, ranging from TC, STC, PMA, TSO, major alterations, and major repairs. In addition to duties as a consultant DER (14 CFR Part 23 and 25), he holds positions as a unit member on several TC and STC Organization Designation Authorizations (ODA). Mr. Dahna's combination of practical experience, analytical knowledge, and in-depth certification experience brings a unique and viable approach to aircraft certification in an uncomplicated yet thorough manner.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: FAA Type Certification Plan Development

Max Kismarton

Max U. Kismarton is an aircraft designer and a Technical Fellow at The Boeing Company, with extensive hands-on experience in engineering (design, loads, stress, weights, testing, advanced metals and composites), manufacturing (tooling, processes, machinery, shop management) and management (cost engineering and estimating, lean manufacturing, project/program management). He is currently working in the materials and processes group, heading up multiple research and development projects on micromechanical behavior and hybrid laminates, and high performance wing box structures for present and future commercial aircrafts. He has designed and built composite airframe primary structure for small and large composite aircrafts such as Amber, Gnat, High Speed Civil Transport, F-16XL-2, Shadow, ERAST, Hummingbird, UCAV X-45 and the 787 Dreamliner. Kismarton holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Kansas.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Structural Composites

Gernot Konrad

Dr. Gernot Konrad is an aerospace engineer with extensive avionics and pilot vehicle interface experience, demonstrated through over 20 years of designing and certifying highly integrated flight decks with complex systems for small and large aircraft. This includes over 10 years of technical leadership, applying diverse skills for Agile technology development, and coordinating collaborative multi-level and multi-disciplinary teams. He holds an advanced degree (Dipl.-Ing) and a doctorate (Dr.-Ing) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Stuttgart. He is qualified as an engineer (Ing.) in aeronautics by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WIFO). Throughout his career, he was involved in recruiting and training flight deck Human Factors (HF) practitioners. Today, Dr. Konrad is the Chief Engineer for HF at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, where he provides HF leadership and vision across multiple program platforms spanning current and future systems for the air transport, regional, business, general aviation, helicopter, and urban air mobility markets. Dr. Konrad is also the chairman of the EASA HF Collaborative Analysis Flight Deck Design and Certification Group, a member of the GAMA Flight Deck HF Working Group, was a member of the RTCA HF Training Steering Committee, and provides an annual seminar on Human Factors Engineering in Flight Deck Design at the University of Stuttgart. Prior positions include Fellow for HF at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, HF Engineering Group Head at Gulfstream Aerospace, Avionics and HF Engineer at Pilatus Aircraft, Research Associate at the Institute of Aircraft Systems at the University of Stuttgart, and freelance theoretical knowledge instructor at Lufthansa Flight Training and Swiss Aviation Training.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Human Factors Engineering for Civil Flight Deck Design and Certification

John Norton

John Norton is an experienced pilot, aeronautical engineer, and operational tester. He is the founder and President of Norton Aeronautical Solutions, Inc. With more than 40 years of experience in aerospace, he has both military and civil operations and test experience. John's primary operational experience was in the C-130 and C-17 airlift aircraft; he was a member of the C-17 Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) team for four years, commanded a C-17 squadron, and directed C-17 combat operations in/out of Afghanistan. He is retired from the Air Force after 28 years as a Colonel. John has taught OT&E at the National Test Pilot School in Mojave, CA since 2011, was an online aeronautics professor for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and has taught aeronautical short courses for his own company, Practical Aeronautics, Inc since 2013. John also leads a local middle-school STEM program that teaches 14 year-olds how to fly gliders. He holds engineering degrees from the USAF Academy and California State University Fresno, and is an active FAA-certified flight instructor in power aircraft and gliders.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Operational Test and Evaluation

Dennis C. Philpot

Mr. Philpot is the Northrop Grumman, Advanced Weapons Division Chief Structural Engineer across all missile programs including AARGM, AARGM-ER and SiAW; in that role he leads or oversees all of the technical/analytical aspects of hardware design development and works with the design team to help ensure that all aspects of the product meet requirements. Mr. Philpot has held many roles in missile development, including Section Head for mechanical analysis, Test Director for the AARGM Environmental Qualification Testing, Mechanical Analysis Lead AARGM missile integration on the Tornado aircraft for the Italian and German Airforce, IPT Lead for AARGM ER FEDA Program Aerodynamics, Modeling & Simulation, Mechanical Design and Internal Loads and Static Strength Analysis, MSST Mechanical Analysis Lead, Structural Dynamics Lead and Technical Advisor to the Jordan Multirole Combat Aircraft JLG & JMCA Programs, Technical Lead on the Hyper-Velocity Projectile (HVP) Program, based out of Plymouth, MN, Structural Analysis SME for all advanced programs that require that skill set at Northrop Grumman, Advanced Weapons Division. Beginning in January 2020, Mr. Philpot was formally recognized as a subject matter expert, by being designated as an NGC Technical Fellow, and is currently serving out the second two-year term in that role. An internationally-recognized expert in aerospace structural analysis, Mr. Philpot has been teaching post-graduate courses on Stress Analysis and Structural Dynamics in the greater Los Angeles area, Seattle, WA, Orlando, FL, and on-site at The Boeing Company, Northrop-Grumman, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, NASA-Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, NASA-Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, FL, Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, UT, the Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, NM, Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, FL, Aviation and Missile Research, Development, Engineering Center at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL, United States Naval Air Warfare Center - Aircraft Division (NAVAIR), Patuxent River, MD, and at ST Aerospace in Singapore. At the 50th AIAA/ASME /ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Mr. Philpot was honored to present a special two-day seminar on Structural Dynamics in Mechanical Design at the Palm Springs Convention Center/Wyndham Palm Springs. The KU Aerospace public courses are very international in nature, attracting students from Austria, South Korea, New Zealand, Brazil, Turkey, The Netherlands, China, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, Mexico and, of course, the United States of America. Mr. Philpot holds two US Patents and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Stress Analysis for Aerospace Structures

Josh Sementi

Dr. Josh Sementi has 20 years of applied aeroelasticity and aircraft loads experience including both analysis and testing on Part 23 and 25 aircraft. Josh is also an FAA Consultant Loads DER with full approval authority for both Part 23 and Part 25 Static and Dynamic Loads. This experience has included developing aerodynamic models, structural models, and aero-structural splines for certification loads and flutter analysis as well as validating the models against flight loads survey and flight flutter testing measurements. This analysis has been performed in a variety of tools from classical beam theory methods to complete aircraft FEM based aeroelastic models. During his career Dr. Sementi has developed certification dynamic and static flight loads for over 25 STC's or STC amendments ranging from radomes and other minor modifications to blended and split scimitar winglets on a variety of Boeing aircraft. In addition to Structural Loads, Josh has extensive flight flutter test experience, as well as aircraft vibration environment development. Prior to working at TLG, Josh was a Senior Loads Engineer at Aviation Partners Boeing.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Aircraft Structural Loads: Criteria, Analysis, and Validation

C. Bruce Stephens

C. Bruce Stephens is an HIRF/Lightning/EWIS ODA UM/AR at the Boeing Company and a consultant DER at his company, Stephens Aviation, with a wealth of experience in High Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) and Lightning protection of Aircraft. Stephens retired from Hawker Beechcraft after 28 years of service. He has HIRF/Lightning experience on both Part 23 and Part 25 including composite aircraft. Stephens is working with the Boeing Team to develop EWIS requirements and means of compliance on several aircraft projects. Stephens is a Six-Sigma/Lean Master Black Belt consultant, developing implementation and training materials, and teaches at a number of universities, including Webster University and Southwestern College. He has an executive M.B.A. and M.S. in Management from Friends University and a B.S. in Industrial Technology from Wichita State University.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Electrical Wiring Interconnection System (EWIS) and FAA Requirements

Pierre Trudel

Pierre Trudel is a System Safety Engineer and ODA Unit Member currently working for Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS). He brings 29 years of system safety, systems engineering, and reliability experience in several segments of our aerospace industry. He has worked system safety, reliability, and systems engineering on airplanes, rotorcrafts, and space vehicles. He has experience with commercial and military system safety, Development Assurance practices. He developed companywide processes to facilitate product development and compliance to commercial airworthiness standards and military requirements. He has worked system safety for both equipment suppliers and as an integrator for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Pierre has worked system safety using several industry accepted processes including SAE ARP4761, SAE ARP4754, and MIL-STD-882 to satisfy safety requirements for Part 23 (small aircrafts), Part, 25 (Transport Category Aircraft) and MIL-HDBK-516 (Airworthiness Certification Criteria). His certification experience as an FAA representative spans the spectrum of TC, ATC, and STC projects on commercial projects such as the Hawker 4000, Hawker 800XP, Premier 1, Cessna CJ4, Citation Latitude, Citation Sovereign, Citation X, KC-46A (767 Tanker), and several other aircraft models and types. Pierre holds a Bachelor of Science in Space Sciences with minors in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Advanced Topics in System Safety for Commercial Aircraft Certification

Roelof Vos

Roelof Vos is an assistant professor at the Aerospace Engineering Department of Delft University of Technology. He teaches undergraduate courses in conceptual airplane design and two graduate courses on aerodynamic design of transport aircraft and fighter aircraft. He obtained an MSc degree from Delft University of Technology and a Ph.D. degree from The University of Kansas. His research focuses on the development of physics-based analysis methods for the conceptual design of unconventional aircraft and on the assessment of emerging aviation technologies.

2027 Seattle Aerospace Short Course: Aerodynamic Design of Commercial Airplanes