Candidates About

Mark Beyer

·         Results-driven leader and individual contributor with 34 years of experience in new product development and vehicle certification.  Possesses strong communication, research, analysis, and team leadership abilities.

·         Accomplished value-centric leader with strong program management experiences.   Ability to strategically lead teams to facts-based decisions in fast-paced technically challenging environments.  Advocate of Agile program management, systems engineering approaches to requirements validation and verification, and proactive weight and cost management to mitigate program risks throughout product development.

·         World-class problem solving and numerical methods development skills with individual contributions in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Loads, 6 DOF simulation, Flight-Test, Handling Qualities, Mass Properties, Structural Integrity, and Multi-Disciplinary Optimization.

·         Advocate of high fidelity CFD based aerodynamic model development with flight correlation over more traditional wind-tunnel based approaches that do not align well with compressed product development timelines.

·         Vehicle development experiences in sub-orbital spaceship and launch systems, business jets, surveillance airships, next generation single engine aircraft, and advanced design of electric VTOL air taxi.

Chief Engineer, Mooney International, Chino California

February 2017 – August 2017

Directed an engineering team with 80+ engineers with program management responsibilities for Mooney’s next generation single engine aircraft, electric VTOL aircraft for UBER, and autonomous flight research projects.   Led team to develop and execute plan to optimize out-of-autoclave CFRP materials and processes working with suppliers and external test houses to qualify in-house processes.

Engineering Manager of Flight Sciences, The Spaceship Company / Virgin Galactic

September 2014 – February 2017

Managed and mentored a team of 20+ engineers including direct and contract employees in support of vehicle simulation and flight test of Performance, Flying Qualities, CFD, Thermal Analysis, Loads, Flutter, Structural Dynamics, Simulator Development, and Mass Properties disciplines.  

Oversaw transition of Flight Sciences support from Scaled Composites to The Spaceship Company.  Participated in NTSB investigation of Scaled Composites SS2-01 crash investigation.

Established qualified engineering team and engineering best practices.  Architected Flight Sciences systems engineering approach to requirements validation and verification through analysis and test.  Pioneered development of flight loads criteria with pedigree from Part 23, 25, and Space Shuttle where applicable for sub-orbital space vehicles.

Supported advanced design projects, vehicle development, flight test, and executing engineering roadmap for commercial service.  Provided project management for cross-functional efforts including landing gear drop tests and pilot simulator development.

Championed and established many CAE methods innovations.  Managed Space Act Agreement with NASA Armstrong, outsourced engineering services, and Flight Sciences resource management to IPTs including Advanced Projects. 

Aerodynamics and Loads Technical Lead, Cirrus Aircraft Company

July 2012 – September 2014

Provided technical leadership and mentored team in aerodynamics, loads, and mass properties in support of the development and certification of the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet.  Served as a candidate Loads DER.  Established innovative aerodynamic and loads processes using efficient CFD and flight loads correlation approaches with support of the Chicago ACO.  Quickly resolved several handling qualities and performance issues early in developmental flight test.

Aerodynamics and Loads Consultant, Beyer Virtual Simulation, LLC

December 2010 – July 2012

Provided technical engineering and project management support for the Air Force BD2 surveillance airship development program for MAV6.  Responsibilities included establishing analysis methods, engineering infrastructure support, CFD analysis, loads development, supplier coordination, and structural analysis and test planning.

Managed the Real World Design Challenge technical team (a national aircraft design STEM competition) including problem formulation, analysis process development, mentoring and support on behalf of the Aerospace States Association and PTC as a domain expert in aeronautical engineering and aircraft optimization.  Oversaw the national RWDC event judging in Washington, DC and mentored dozens of teams each year (five years from 2008-2013).

Resource Manager / Senior Engineering Specialist, Cessna Aircraft Company

1999 – December 2010

Responsible for managing technology research and development with team of 15 engineers and developers supporting business integration and process improvements for Engineering departments.  Shepherded tool selection and best practices in analysis and simulation.  Championed opportunities to “move the mountain to the left” in engineering processes including Ironbird Simulation improvements, multi-disciplinary optimization, high performance computing, etc.  Led teams to develop and implement trade compliance enablement processes in support of global engineering activities.  Manage global Engineering IT development teams supporting engineering analysis processes, .NET and SQL Server DB development, SharePoint, web collaboration, document management, Linux Beowulf Clusters, Open Source policy management, Engineering Wiki, etc.  Developed and implemented hundreds of innovations in Aerodynamics, Structural Analysis, Mass Properties, Loads and Dynamics, Product Life Cycle Management, Trade Compliance, and other business processes.  Led platform migration activities for CAE processes from UNIX to Linux and Windows. 

Awarded the 2004 Textron Chairman’s Award for Innovation, 2005 Cessna Information Technology Project of the Year, and U.S. Patent 7,623,996 B1, Mass Morphing System and Method in November 2009 for development of methodology for accurate estimation of distributed mass properties also used to drive weight refinement for new aircraft development projects.

Served as a cross-discipline consultant across all technical disciplines.  Responsible for coordinating five year technology planning (1999-2003) for the Structural Integrity department and technical engineering reviews across Textron Business Units. 

Engineering Specialist, Aerodynamic Loads and Dynamics, Cessna Aircraft Company

1989 – 1999

Developed certification loads and reports for Citation Jet, Citation X, and several other models.  Responsible for loads verification methods, certification analyses and documentation, developing and implementing CFD methods into Loads processes.  Developed 6 DOF Loads simulation language and toolset, CFD pre- and post-processing visualization software, supervised flight pressure surveys for the Citation X, and developed analysis validation processes.  Developed wind-tunnel data reduction methods, and made numerous process improvements.  Developed core mass properties department processes.  Mentored many engineers in Loads. 

Participated and led cross-functional teams to improve Loads processes and integration with Aerodynamics processes. 

Aerodynamicist, Technical Engineering, OMAC, Albany, GA

1986 – 1989

Developed CFD and external loads certification methodologies for the Laser 300 including boundary layer methods for aerodynamic panel codes and pre- and post-processing aerodynamic analysis software.  Supported wind-tunnel, structural test, and flight test activities.  Worked closely with the FAA’s specialist in Flight Loads and Aeroelasticity and with engineers at NASA Langley to establish and validate aerodynamic loads methods for canard aircraft. 

Aerodynamicist, Theoretical Aerodynamics, Advanced Design, Cessna Aircraft Company

1985 – 1986

Responsibilities included defining and refinement of exterior surface geometries for new business jets in Advanced Design.  Supported wind-tunnel testing, and flight test, and CFD analyses.  Developed aerodynamic optimization methods.

Systems Analyst, Computer Methods, Single Engine Division, Cessna Aircraft Company

1984 – 1985

Developed aircraft performance programs for the Cessna Caravan and supported structural analysis methods development in support of the Cessna Caravan certification and POH development.  

Draftsman, Caravan Project Design, Cessna Aircraft Company

1983 – 1984

Developed detailed engineering airframe drawings.  Coordinated design changes with Manufacturing Planning.

Draftsman, Beech Aircraft Company

Summer 1981

Incorporated engineering changes by revising engineering drawings.

1978 – 1985, Wichita State University, Wichita Kansas

Graduated with Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering

1992 – 1996, Cessna Aircraft Company

Completed Frontline Leadership and TQM Leader Training.

1997, National Institute for Aviation Research

Completed NASA CFD classes for TetrUSS and OVERFLOW.

2000, Center for Management Development, Wichita State University, Wichita Kansas

Completed program for Supervision.

2002, Cessna Aircraft Company

Completed Baldridge Leadership Training.

2005, Textron Six Sigma, Cessna Aircraft Company

Completed Six Sigma Green Belt certification.

2015, Pointwise Training, Fort Worth, TX

Completed Pointwise training in CFD grid generation processes.