Kenneth M. Rosen Ph.D.

Dr. Kenneth M Rosen (Ken) has over fifty four years of experience in the Aerospace, Propulsion, Turbo machinery, manufacturing and systems engineering community much of which has been at the leadership level. Dr. Rosen is a founder and Principal Partner of Aero-Science Technology Associates, LLC. (ASTA), organized in 2002. ASTA is an engineering and business development consulting firm established to service both government and industry customers. His recent list of clients includes major and developing companies in the fields of Aerospace (VTOL & Fixed wing), Advance propulsion/Turbo Machinery and Renewable Energy as well as Government Agencies. Dr. Rosen has frequently served the DOD (DARPA TTO) as a senior advisor supporting such advanced aerospace research programs as UCAR, Heliplane, the Heavy Lift Helicopter and the DARPA VTOL X Plane. He helped prepare the Future of Vertical Lift Aviation study for the Army/DARPA, served as a member of the NRC/NASA Committee on Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation (2014), and is a current member of the Panel on Mechanical Science and Engineering at ARL and the Board on Army Science and Technology of the National Academies.

From 2000 to 2002 Dr. Rosen also served as Corporate President of ConceptsNREC, a full service turbo-machinery company providing technical, software and manufacturing services to the propulsion and energy business sectors. Prior to this he spent over 38 years with United Technologies Corporation. Beginning his career in propulsion and aero-thermodynamics at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, he quickly moved to Sikorsky Aircraft, were he held many major engineering and management positions including Vice President of Research & Engineering and Advanced Programs & Processes, directing such advanced technology projects as the Comanche, S-92 (2003 Collier trophy winner), Cypher (UAV),UH-60 Black Hawk,S-76 and X-Wing helicopters. During this period he managed all of Sikorsky’s research, systems engineering, product development, design, production engineering, ground/flight test and avionics/systems integration efforts. Dr. Rosen was a member of the Sikorsky Executive Board and was also responsible for all of the company’s advanced products and low observable activities. Additionally he was Chairman of the UTC Engineering Coordination Steering Committee and a member of the Otis Elevator Science and Technology Advisory Committee.

His professional expertise includes: Helicopter and UAV V/STOL design, systems engineering/avionics integration, advanced propulsion systems, product/business development, wind turbine design/economics, program management, network centric warfare, engine installation design, turbo-machinery, low observable technology, transmission/rotor design, pneumodynamics, icing, and aerothermodynamics and renewable energy.

Dr. Rosen is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and holds Fellow rank in the following societies: the ASME, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the AIAA and the American Helicopter Society. He is also a recipient of the NASA Civilian Public Service Medal, the Dr. Alexander Klemin Award for lifetime achievement from the AHS, and Vice President Al Gore’s “Hammer” award from the DOD for innovative cost management. In 2007, the AHS selected him to deliver the Dr. Alexander A. Nikolsky Honorary Lectureship and NASA cited him for his work in Heavy Lift Helicopters as part of the NASA Group Achievement Award. He has been a member of the Sikorsky Technical Advisory Committee and has recently served as Chairman of the Daniel Guggenheim Medal Board of Award.

Dr. Rosen has been Chairman of the Board of the Rotorcraft Industry Technology Association, Chairman of the UTC Engineering Coordination Steering Committee, Vice Chairman of the Software Productivity Consortium, and Chairman of the AIA Rotorcraft Advisory Group. Additionally, he has been a long-term member of NASA’s Aeronautics and Space Transportation Technology Advisory Committee, the SAE Aerospace Council, the NRC Assessment Panel on Air and Ground Vehicle Technology for the ARL. In 2006 he was a member of the NRC Committee on Air Force/DOD Aerospace Propulsion and the Decadal Survey of Civil Aeronautics. More recently, in 2014 he was a member of the NRC Committee on Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation and is a current member of the Panel on Mechanical Science and Engineering at ARL and the Board on Army Science and Technology of the National Academies. Dr. Rosen holds five US patents and has written numerous papers in the fields of helicopter design, tilt rotor optimization, product development, propulsion, aero-thermodynamics, icing, and systems engineering. He holds MS and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University Business School.

William Harper

William was the Director of Comanche Engineering and Manufacturing for the Comanche Boeing Sikorsky Joint Program Office (JPO). He had the technical engineering responsibilities for the Comanche Weapon System which included requirement compliance, decomposition and allocation, interface control, integration, test, survivability and vulnerability, functional and operational analysis, and simulation.

Other key positions held during his 25 year career with Sikorsky Aircraft include Chief of Preliminary Design for the Advanced Design and New Products Organization, and System Engineering Manager for the All Composite Aircraft Program (ACAP) (1980), Air Force Night Hawk (1979), Search and Rescue for the Coast Guard (1978), and the Tilt Rotor for the JVX (V22) Proposal (1981).

In 1990 Bill was given responsibility for Low Observables, Susceptibility and Vulnerability, and Crashworthiness of all Sikorsky military and civil aircraft. The Aircraft Survivability technology organization included ballistic, radar and infrared guided, chemical and biological, directed energy, and nuclear weapons, threat modeling, operational simulation, and mission effectivene ss optimization and tradeoff analysis.

Bill helped pioneer the radar signature techniques used on the Comanche to reduce static and dynamic signatures. He was instrumental in the development of the Radar and Infrared Detectability and Countermeasure Effectiveness Methodologies currently used by Boeing, Sikorsky Aircraft and the US Army for Helicopter Operation Effectiveness Simulation.

Bill is a Penn State University Aero Engineer graduate and studied Helicopter Control Theory at Bridgeport University enrolled in the Master of Science program for Mechanical Engineering, Helicopter Design, in 1980.

He is the author of 12 publications on Rotorcraft Signature Reduction and Helicopter Survivability and Vulnerability and Susceptibility. Bill came to Sikorsky from the Anti-Tank Projects Branch, Material Test Division, and Army Missile Test & Evaluation Directorate, where he supported numerous Army small missile test programs.

Thomas Dannenhoffer

In his most recent position Tom served as Chief Operating Officer for Roll-A-Cover, LLC, a retractable building company. Responsibilities included oversight and management of Finance, Engineering, Manufacturing and Marketing.

Prior to his successful term as COO at Roll-A-Cover, Tom was responsible for managing and growing the High Performance Computing Application Service Provider business for SGI, a business subsequently sold to SimUtility.

While at SGI and SimUtility Tom was responsible for the development of shared serv ice offerings, engineering tools and dedicated hosting business at Genuity on SGI HPC equipment. Tom served as Partner Manager and was responsible for Financial Modeling, Business Plan Development, Marketing / Business Development and Engineering for all hosted service offerings.

Prior to his position at SGI, Tom was Manager of Special Programs and Technology for Sikorsky Aircraft responsible for Low Observables, Susceptibility and Vulnerability, and Crashworthiness of all Sikorsky military and civil aircraft. In this position, Tom grew both a technology and a business from the ground up, directing investment (R&D, Capital and Operations budgets), organizational, business development and program management of a small and growing team.

Tom’s career at Sikorsky spanned 20 years. Tom started his career with Sikorsky Aircraft in 1982, after leaving Avco Lycoming, as an Advanced Propulsion Analyst developing propulsion solutions for Comanche and other advanced rotorcraft concepts. Tom joined the Low Observab les team six years into his career at Sikorsky. His leadership capabilities soon propelled him into the lead position for all special programs and stealth technologies.

Tom has published several papers and is the holder of several patents in the LO area. Tom holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of New Haven, a Masters in Management from The Hartford Graduate Center and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Thomas W. Sheehy

Tom worked twenty-eight years for Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in many capacities with ever increasing levels of expertise and responsibility.

These included Chief of Aerodynamics followed by Manager of Aeromechanics where he provided technical leadership in the areas of aerodynamics, acoustics, dynamics, and experimental aeromechanics. He was later promoted to Director of Technical Engineering which added leadership responsibilities in the areas of reliability, maintainability, mass properties, survivability, low observables, system engineering, and civil certification requirements.

In his next assignment, Director of Design and Development for Comanche, Tom directed and controlled the aircraft design and development activities including basic airframe systems and much of the mission equipment package to achieve a technologically advanced, producible, survivable, and supportable aircraft system.

He led many cross functional teams from preliminary design studies through detail design, fabrication, and test of the air vehicle and dynamic components including an all composite fuselage and rotor, transmission, propulsion, mechanical and hydraulic control, and electrical power systems. His last position at Sikorsky was Director of the Comanche Project Office.

As Director of the program, Tom managed a multi-million dollar highly advanced armed reconnaissance helicopter development program across the entire company through all phases of product design, development, and fabrication.

His responsibilities included providing direction and management to the engineering, operations, supportability, quality, safety, and flight test teams to achieve the technical performance goals within the cost and schedule constraints. Tom holds BS and MS degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Wichita State University.