Sean Stapf

Mr. Sean Stapf is a highly accomplished mechanical/aerospace engineer with over 30 years of experience across the US Navy (USN), US Air Force, (USAF) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He is a US Patent holder with specialized expertise in analysis of rocket and aircraft dynamics, trajectory, structures, thermal transfer and fluid dynamics.

• Recognized dynamics and trajectory expert. Created trajectory and dynamics models for the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and commercial space devices. Supported systems/events include the Space Shuttle, Mars Science Lander, SpaceX Falcon-9, aircraft ejection seats and canopy jettisons, F-18 LAU-7 Sidewinder missile launcher, Apache 2.75-inch and F-15 ZUNI rocket launches, standard missile ship launches, Extended Range Guided Munitions (ERGM), JATO-launched C-130 aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), hypersonic sled track tests, aircraft flare-decoys, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) anti-terrorism cannons, theater ballistic missile defense (TBMD) rockets, and Cobra fire-control algorithms.
• Performed numerous structural analyses, including creation of finite element models and hand-calculations for rocket cases, bulkheads, nozzles, bolts launch rails, fins, warhead couplings, internal colliding components and aircraft struts.
• Directed production of $3M annually in ejection seat rocket systems and procured and inspected $1M/year in ejection seat rocket hardware. Achieved better than 2.5% acceptable quality limit (AQL) performance quality on ejection systems for which a failure results in fatality of aircrew and accomplished “just in time” delivery of ejection rocket catapults for which a delay causes grounding of US and ally military aircraft.
• As a launch safety engineer, calculated rocket malfunction-turns, explosions, and debris trajectory for protection of the public against errant Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (AFS) rocket launches—including the Atlas-V, Delta-II, Delta-IV, NASA Space Shuttle, and SpaceX Falcon-9. Authored and operated the USAF’s current ejection seat trajectory simulator (the “ADAMS Ejection Model”) since 2000, calculating ejection trajectories for mishap investigations of numerous military aircraft.

• Aerospace Engineer, Commercial Space Transportation, Office of the Chief Engineer, FAA
• Aerospace Engineer, 45th Space Wing, USAF
• Mechanical Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center, USN

• BS, Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University