Mr. Wetherall has 41 years experience in the Aerospace field, including 28 years in a leadership and management role. He is currently the Program Manager of the DARPA/AFRL Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) Program, a modular, autonomous, multi-role VTOL delivery system. The ARES vehicle is designed to support multiple missions and enable new and powerful operational concepts. Mr. Wetherall is a recipient of Lockheed Martin’s highest award, the NOVA, for leading the development and demonstration of the Falcon HTV-2, and has been recognized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for exhibiting exceptional leadership.
Mr. Wetherall’s experience includes configuration design and development of integrated flight hardware for a number of aircraft, including F-111, F-16XL, B-2A, YF-22, F-22, A-330 and X-33, followed by 12 years leading Space Transportation Architecture Studies, Single Stage To Orbit development, Space Launch Initiative studies and Hypersonic Flight Vehicle configuration development.
Mr. Wetherall led an Integrated Product Team (IPT) to design and produce the hot-structure vertical stabilizer for the X-33 Advanced Technology Demonstrator. He was airframe configuration co-lead over the VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) concept, and is a patent holder for a large metallic, common-wall cryogenic propellant tank. He served as Configuration Development Lead for SLI-2GRLV Crew Transfer Vehicle and Orbital Space Plane programs.
Mr. Wetherall is highly motivated, and is committed to delivering the best air vehicle systems for their intended missions. He enjoys applying forward thinking with practical experience to flight vehicle design, preferring co-located teams and leadership by example. His is an AIAA associate fellow, and has organized AIAA/AHS joint conferences.
Mr. Wetherall enjoys volunteering at Church, supporting the arts and encouraging young people to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).