Paul A. Gelhausen

Co-founder and CTO, AVID LLC

Significant Responsibilities:

Team leader for Advanced Vehicle Concepts for the ASCA Competency.  Provides technical and managerial leadership in definition of future vehicle requirements to satisfy mission scenarios, functional decomposition, concept development, and detailed systems and technology analysis.  Develops new analytical tools and methods and applies them in the development of advanced concepts and analysis of new aero-space technologies.  

Education:

• Master of Science, Aerospace Sciences.  Stanford University.  1986.
• Bachelor of Science, Aerospace Engineering.  University of Michigan.  1981.

Individual Accomplishments:

Led the configuration design, aerodynamic design, and aerodynamic validation elements of the multi-center Mars Airplane Program including requirements generation, technical specifications, analysis planning, test planning, and overall management. Presented results to Code R and LaRC executives.  The effort positioned Langley as the lead for planetary aircraft design for the agency.  The data that was acquired under this effort is pioneering data at low Reynolds number and transonic Mach number.

Led a multi-center team to assess the benefits and risks of proposed solutions to the Mars Airplane Concept Exploration phase.  The team set criteria, conducted independent performance analyses, and evaluated various concepts to determine a robust solution for a mission to demonstrate powered flight on Mars.  The result of the analysis was the selection of a system that would provide the highest probability of successful flight of a Mars micromission airplane.

Organized, planned, and led the systems studies conducted by a joint NASA/Industry team in support of the Reduced Cost of Air Travel (ReCAT) Program planning.  Interfaced with all other planning teams, collected technology input, managed the analyses, and finalized the results presentation.  Results were presented to NASA HQ and Center and industry executives and were used to prioritize the diverse program elements relative to impact on the cost of air travel.

Team Accomplishments and Leadership:

As Assistant Chief of the Systems Analysis Branch at Ames, led the systems analysis of military fighter/attack aircraft, initiated unmanned combat air vehicle studies in cooperation with the Navy and Air Force, and provided study results and methodology to the Navy in support of their UCAV weapons and sensors programs.

Co-led the Facility Environment Simulation Tools (FEST) element of the Aeronautics Design and Test Environment (ADTE) project.  Responsible for the integration of systems analysis tools with the design, fabrication, and testing of wind tunnel models to provide near real-time, full-scale performance prediction.  The system allows designers to test and redesign wing/flap models in only one wind tunnel test entry.

Led methods development for systems analysis at Ames.  Co-Director of the ACSYNT Institute, a government, university and industry cooperative agreement to develop advanced design tools.  The methodology and tools have been adopted into the mainstream advanced design teams at three major manufacturers and several universities. This was the first Joint Sponsored Research Agreement under the Space Act and paved the way for other agreements such as the AGATE consortium.

Other Accomplishments:

• Manly Memorial Medal for SAE’s best propulsion related paper in 1990
• Superior Accomplishment Award for Mars Flyer Study Team
• Technical Chairman of the Aircraft Design Systems and Operations Conference in Monterey CA, Oct 1993
• Science, Technology and Public Policy Seminar Feb 2000
• Member AIAA Aircraft Design TC 1990-1994
• Member AIAA Multidisciplinary Optimization Technical Committee 1994 – 1998