In addition to its management team, CarterCopters also employs the services of top consultants. Anyone can hire talented consultants. However, most of our consultants have become so convinced of our success potential that they have become shareholders.

Ken Wernicke

Ken Wernicke is a thirty-five year veteran at Bell Helicopter who was the Chief Project Engineer for all of Bell's VTOL projects, including the XV-15 and V-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft. Jay and Ken discuss all significant new aerodynamic design changes before they are implemented. He has received several national awards for his contributions to VTOL aircraft development and has authored numerous technical papers. He holds a BS and MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas. He is also a CarterCopter shareholder.

Toby Landes

Toby Landes is Chief Design Engineer and founder of Landes Engineering, which manufactures state-of-the art electronic controls, monitoring, and data collection systems. He designs all computer hardware and software for the CarterCopter control systems and data collection systems. He began his career as a technician at Texas Instrument. He obtained his BS degree in Electrical Engineering while working with TI from the University of Texas at Arlington. He later left TI and founded Active Control, Inc. where he initially designed and manufactured wind turbine automation systems that were first brought to market in 1984. At the time, they set the standard by which other wind turbine controllers were judged. He is also a CarterCopter shareholder.

Dr. Bob Stark

Dr. Bob Stark is the owner of Stark Aviation, an aircraft avionics and maintenance facility in Olney, Texas. He created the CarterCopter instrument panel and installed the avionics and radio systems. He also acts as our liaison with the FAA. Dr. Stark is an FAA Designated Engineering Representative, Designated Airworthiness Representative, and Designated Manufacturing Inspection Representative, and has developed several Supplemental Type Certificates for electrical components.

John Roncz

John Roncz is a superbly talented airfoil designer who designed the rotor and wing for the CarterCopter. He graduated with honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1971. In 1976, he founded Gemini Technologies, Inc. located in Elkhart, Indiana. He began his aeronautical career in association with Burt Rutan by analyzing and designing candidate airfoils for some of Rutan's airplanes, including a canard airfoil for the Long-EZ, the around-the-world Voyager, Beech Aircraft's Starship 1, and Scaled Composites' Proteus, an airplane designed to fly at altitudes of up to 75,000 feet. Six other aircraft using his airfoil designs are currently under construction. Fourteen different propellers have used his airfoil designs. He has designed four airplanes, one of which is certified and in production in Australia. The others are presently under construction. He has received numerous awards for contributions to aviation, sailing, and automotive innovations, and served as guest lecturer at eight universities. He holds a commercial pilot's certificate with multi-engine and instrument ratings, and a glider pilot rating. He is also a CarterCopter shareholder.

Ralph Benway

Ralph Benway was Project Manager at Teledyne Continental Motors, where he was responsible for development of two new state-of-the-art turbochargers which powered an aircraft that holds several world altitude records. He assisted with the design of the turbocharging system on the original prototype and will also help with the planned installation of a turbocharging system on the existing prototype within the next few months. He has authored several technical papers and holds several patents on turbocharging and turbocompounding engine concepts. He holds a BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He is also a CarterCopter shareholder.

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