Prior to June 2007, David Urie was Vice-President and Program Manager of

Rocketplane Limited, Inc. Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was a spacecraft design and development company headquartered in De Pere, Wisconsin. After filing for bankruptcy, the company reincorporated as Rocketplane Global Inc. History Rocketplane Limited, Inc. was incorporated ...

, where he managed the design of the Rocketplane XP. Prior to joining the Rocketplane team, Urie served as president of Concept Fusion, Inc., providing technical development services to established companies and start-up organizations. During his 30-year career with the Lockheed Martin Corporation, Urie led teams on Lockheed’s X-30 National Aerospace Plane and the HL-20 Personnel Launch System. He was Chief Engineer and then Program Manager of the

SR-71 Blackbird The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by the United States Air Force ...

reconnaissance system before initiating and heading the Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) and X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Programs at Lockheed. Urie's work as the program manager for the previously classified Have Region project demonstrated that rocket-powered single-stage-to-orbit vehicles were technically feasible, which led to the Lockheed Martin SSTO design approach. As a Director of the Lockheed-Martin

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...

SSTO/RLV Advanced Technology Demonstration Program, Urie conceived and developed the aerospike rocket propelled

lifting body A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage wi ...

that was selected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

as winner of the X-33 competition. He holds the patent on the design(), and he formed and headed a multi-company team encompassing all aspects of SSTO/RLV. Urie was also Program Manager for the Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle (TAV) at Lockheed. His team built and successfully tested a large-scale cross section Mach 25 structure. He served on several advanced development projects in Flight Sciences and Operations Analysis. Throughout his distinguished career, Urie has received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious Engineer of the Year award from the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

. He has published many articles, prepared and taught several short courses, given various lectures and presentations, and served as aerospace engineering curricula advisor to two universities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urie, David Living people American aerospace engineers Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References