Skyblazer Development Team

Robin Haynes – Skyblazer Designer
Robin Haynes is an award winning aircraft designer who also has extensive experience in industrial design. He holds 11 patents in aviation, consumer and industrial products, and also won the ‘Best New Design’ award in the ultralight category at the international EAA ‘Oshkosh’ event in 1983. With more than 25 years of experience in top level business leadership and management, he has developed six aviation and consumer products companies in the U.S.A. and Europe, Robin has also been responsible for establishing manufacturing operations in England, America and China.

Attracted to the challenges inherent in designing a practical flying car, Robin has devoted the majority of his time since 1996 to developing the Skyblazer concept. Robin’s experience in aviation has taught him to be practical, pragmatic and careful – he understands full well the enormous engineering challenges that must be met and overcome in order to develop the first practical Flying Car. However, Robin’s leadership style encourages team members to bring new thought to old problems and he regularly encourages others to also think ‘out of the box’. Robin has worked very closely with the excellent engineers who have helped complete Skyblazer’s core engineering. He will continue to provide vision, leadership and technical direction to the team as it expands during the next phase of development.

Daniel Hatfield – Engineer, Aerodynamicist
Daniel is an experienced aerodynamicist who has worked on many cutting edge aircraft. He was chief aerodynamicist for Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites Co. for three years and worked on the Visionaire Vantage, the Proteus and NASA’s ERAST Alliance High Altitude UAV, among others. With additional experience as project manager and test engineer, Daniel’s skills are both technical and highly practical.

David Lednicer – Engineer, Aerodynamicist
David’s specialty is applied two & three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics for both fixed and rotary-winged aircraft. He has held the positions of Senior Applications Engineer, Lead Applications Engineer and finally Deputy Director of Aerospace Applications at Analytical Methods, Inc. in Seattle, Washington.

Pete Makhoul – Systems Analyst
Pete has a full range of aviation credentials and extensive experience as a professional pilot with airline transport certificate, a CE 500 type rating and first-class medical. He has also had extensive experience in both aviation and non-aviation businesses and entrepreneurial activities.

David Shaw – Engineer, Aerodynamicist
David was Project Manager for Scaled Composites Co. for 2 years, managing and coordinating teams of up to 20 engineers and 35 shop workers. He has also worked in many areas of aircraft design, including preliminary design, aerodynamic analysis, system and structural layout.