Advanced Aircraft Company (AAC), a developer and manufacturer of distributed electric propulsion tilt-wing and multi-rotor uncrewed aircraft vehicles (UAV), today announced the appointment of Dr. Rob McDonald, aerospace technical consultant and former head of vehicle engineering at Uber Elevate, to its board of advisors, effective immediately.
“I’m thrilled with the opportunity to advise such a talented and committed team,” said Rob McDonald. “AAC has ambitious product and expansion plans, and having spent many years developing uncrewed aircraft systems, I’m excited to be a part of its advisory board because they have unique and elegant technical solutions to problems that others are struggling to solve.”
Dr. Rob McDonald consults with teams developing aircraft for transformative applications and missions. For over eleven years, he researched and taught aircraft design, aircraft performance, and multidisciplinary design optimization at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After leaving Cal Poly, Dr. McDonald led the in-house aircraft design team as Head of Vehicle Engineering for Uber Elevate. He is a technical expert in aircraft design and performance including eVTOL and conventional electric aircraft, and is the primary developer of OpenVSP, a popular modeling tool for conceptual aircraft design. Dr. McDonald is an Associate Fellow in AIAA, member of the AIAA Aircraft Design TC, founding member of the AIAA Transformational Flight IC, and a member of the Vertical Flight Society eVTOL TC. He received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
“Rob impressed us with his expertise in VTOL aircraft design and development,” said Paul Allen, CEO of AAC. “His talents and experience will be invaluable as we accelerate our product development and continue to evolve our current solutions. We are excited to have Rob on our Advisory Board and look forward to working closely with him.”
AAC pushes the boundaries with innovative new approaches to fuselage, propulsion, and aerodynamic designs for next generation UAVs. Dr. McDonald will work closely with AAC engineering team and founder and CTO, Bill Fredericks, on the development of current and future uncrewed aircraft for defense and enterprise applications. Current projects include the development of a unique aero-activated tilt wing configuration UAV for NASA, and a distributed electric multirotor UAV designed for United States Air Force tactical ISR missions under a AFWERX SBIR Phase II Contract.
About Advanced Aircraft Company
Advanced Aircraft Company (AAC) develops long-endurance tilt-wing uncrewed aircraft systems for defense and enterprise applications. Utilizing Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) systems and aerodynamic airframes, the aircraft are designed for long-endurance operations and can carry multiple sensor and cargo payloads. AAC VTOL UAS offer high speed, long range, and can operate in the most austere land and maritime conditions with no operational infrastructure required. AAC is a veteran-owned and operated company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Hampton, Virginia.
To learn more, visit www.flyaac.com
