Resume
Dustin Gamble
Aerospace Engineer · UAV Innovator · AI-Assisted Engineering · Rapid Prototyping
Summary
I combine aerospace engineering, rapid prototyping, and AI-assisted software development to help small teams build real hardware faster. My work focuses on unmanned aircraft, autonomy, simulation, electric propulsion, and the engineering tools needed to move quickly from concept to demonstration.
AI-Assisted Engineering
- Developed AI-assisted engineering workflows to accelerate aircraft design, analysis, simulation, and prototype development.
- Built custom web-based engineering tools — aircraft sizing, propulsion modeling, flight simulation, stability analysis, and data visualization — using AI-assisted software development.
- Applied AI agents to rapidly generate, test, and iterate software tools for engineering teams.
- Explored AI-supported knowledge capture to preserve and distribute senior engineering expertise.
- Promoted practical AI adoption across aerospace teams — real workflows, usable tools, and measurable productivity gains, treating AI as a force multiplier rather than a replacement for engineers.
Experience
Lockheed Martin — Skunk Works (Advanced Development Programs)
Aerospace Engineer · Founder, Drone Innovation Garage — San Luis Obispo, CA · 2010–Present
- Founded the Drone Innovation Garage (2024): brought unmanned-aircraft development fully in-house — design, build, and flight test — ending dependence on external suppliers and giving a small team startup-speed iteration.
- Design, prototyping, and flight test of small unmanned aircraft and advanced UAV concepts.
- Named inventor on 14 US patents and applications in unmanned-aircraft systems (see Patents).
Lockheed Martin — Skunk Works
Engineering Intern — Palmdale, CA · Summers 2008 & 2009
Oklahoma State University
Graduate Teaching Assistant — Stillwater, OK · 2008–2009
Education
Oklahoma State University
M.S. Aerospace Engineering & M.S. Mechanical Engineering (dual degrees), 2009
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, 2008
Chief Engineer, AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) team
World Records
- 2006 — “Dragonfly” electric UAV (FAI), Oklahoma State University. A core member of OSU's record-setting student team, which set FAI world marks with the Dragonfly — including a 144.42 km distance-to-goal flight (nearly doubling the prior 80.43 km record) and a long-endurance flight registered under teammate Thomas Hays (FAI #14000). Featured in the Stillwater News Press.
- 2007 — “Pterosoar” fuel-cell micro-UAV (Guinness World Record). On the OSU Aerospace Design team behind the Pterosoar hydrogen fuel-cell UAV, which flew 120 km (74.5 mi) — a Guinness World Record for the longest micro-UAV flight (Oklahoma State University + Cal State LA). Co-author, SAE Technical Paper 2007-01-3930.
- 2022 — Stalker VXE30 (FAI), Lockheed Martin. Contributor to the Stalker VXE program that set a 39-hour 17-minute UAV endurance world record (FAI #19634). See the project →
Patents
Named inventor on 11 granted US patents and 3 pending applications in unmanned-aircraft systems (assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation) — spanning VTOL/coaxial-tiltrotor propulsion, UAV launch & recovery, wing structures, and fuel-cell endurance. Each tile links to Google Patents.
Skills & Tools
- Unmanned aircraft (UAV) design — fixed-wing, VTOL/tiltrotor, electric propulsion
- Rapid prototyping, flight test, and design-build-test loops
- Autonomous systems architecture and integration
- Simulation: ArduPilot/SITL, JSBSim, and browser-based tools
- AI-assisted engineering and agent-based software development
- Technical leadership, mentoring, and building rapid-innovation environments
Publications
- AIAA paper — DOI 10.2514/6.2023-1725
- SAE Technical Paper 2007-01-3930 — “Development of a Small Long-Endurance Hybrid PEM Fuel Cell Powered UAV.”