FlyBrianFly

Certified Private Pilot Single Engine Land with Instrument Rating, Complex and High Performance Endorsements. FAA Certified Drone Pilot (Part 107). Experienced flying small general aviation aircraft and operating drones. Extensive experience supporting flight research and flight test as an engineer, in the field, and in the control room. Currently building a Rans S-21 Experimental Amateur Built (EAB) aircraft.

Mr. Taylor is the Founder and CEO of Bolder Flight Systems, which is a spinoff of the University of Minnesota UAS Research Labs. He founded the company to research, design, and develop state-of-the-art data acquisition and flight control systems for manned and unmanned aircraft. Brian has developed portable, low-cost data loggers for GA aircraft, an innovative Portable Data Acquisition System (PDAS) with the International Test Pilots School (ITPS), and a high-quality flight control system for conducting research with UAS. He is involved in several current projects and research grants to advance and commercialize this technology.

Previously, Brian was the Director of the UAS Research Labs at the University of Minnesota. In addition to leading the research lab, he taught undergraduate and graduate courses on aircraft performance, flight dynamics and controls, and state estimation. Brian grew the lab into a world-class facility, won several grants to support research, and helped develop UAS testbeds for flight validating internal and grant-supported research.

Prior to joining the University, Brian was the NASA Deputy Chief Engineer on the X-48C aircraft and the Technical Lead for Subsonic Fixed Wing Flight Controls and Dynamics research at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. Prior to these leadership roles, Brian was a researcher in Flight Dynamics and Control at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. He developed parameter estimation techniques for hybrid wing body aircraft; conducted moment of inertia testing, performance, and parameter estimation on several manned and unmanned research aircraft; developed flight test maneuver autopilots, aircraft simulations, nonlinear dynamic inversion, and optimal control allocation control laws; and developed novel air data modeling and calibration techniques. He led a parameter estimation research campaign on X-48B involving 14 test flights and over 450 test points.

Mr. Taylor is on the AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee and is the Chair of the Flight Test and Parameter Identification Technical Subcommittee. He has over 40 publications, invited presentations, acknowledgments, and news articles. Brian began flying RC aircraft in middle-school and is an experienced FAA Part 107 certified RC pilot. Brian also has a private pilot’s license, instrument rating, complex and high-performance endorsements, and a lifelong passion for aviation.