Principal Investigators

Paul Gelhausen, CTO of AVID LLC, is a former NASA engineer and co-founder of the company. He is responsible for leading its engineering consulting and aircraft design methods development activities. He also provides technical and managerial leadership in design, simulation, and testing of advanced ducted fan vehicle configurations, as well as the definition of future vehicle requirements to satisfy mission scenarios, functional decomposition, concept development, and detailed systems and technology analysis.

Mr. Gelhausen has specialized in the synthesis and analysis of advanced vehicle concepts from lighter-than-air vehicles and rotorcraft through supersonic fighters and transports. He has led or participated in many studies that have resulted in detailed research investigations and proposed research. He led both the US contracted and government ASTOVL studies for NASA. He was the lead design aerodynamicist for the Mars Airplane projects at Langley Research Center. He was a co-director of the ACSYNT Institute.

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Samuel B. Wilson, III joined AVID LLC as President in August, 2003. He drives AVID to provide aircraft design expertise and software support to U.S. Government agencies and aerospace companies, for both military and commercial sectors. Current projects emphasis design studies and design software for small UAVs and manned aircraft. Mr. Wilson’s former associations with DARPA and the Joint Strike Fighter Program form a strong basis for assessing customer needs and delivering solutions. He is still the Principal Investigator on many of AVID’s projects, and is handling marketing in the United States and overseas.

Mr. Wilson is a Senior Member of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Helicopter Society (AHS), & Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). He is currently a member of the AIAA Aircraft Design TC. He was past Chairman of the AIAA V/STOL Technical Committee (1985-9), past Chairman of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Military and V/STOL Aircraft Technical Committee (1993-5) and past Chairman of the AHS V/STOL Focus Technical Committee (1998-2002). He was Technical Chairman of the International Powered Lift Conference in both 1996 and 2000 and received the "F. E. Newbold V/STOL Award" from the AIAA and numerous other awards and honors for his work in V/STOL activities. He has authored dozens papers and articles on STOVL concepts and conceptual aircraft design and just completed teaching a Graduate & Senior level course on Introduction to V/STOL Aircraft Concepts & Design” at Virginia Tech.

Click here for his résumé.