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Dan DeLong is an XCOR co-founder, Chief Engineer, and the leading designer of hardware development. In 1997, Mr. DeLong co-founded Rotary Rocket Company where he led an engineering team of 17 people in developing a 5,000 lb thrust high pressure rocket engine, and the rotating disc propellant pump/vehicle base heat shield assembly. Prior to joining RRC, he was half owner and president of Eureka Design, Inc., and designed, built, and tested propulsion hardware for the Kistler Aerospace K-0 rocket vehicle. From 1989 to 1994 he was a principal engineer with Boeing's Missiles and Space Division, and was lead engineer for Boeing s Life Support Systems Internal Research and Development program. He was Principal Engineer at Boeing Defense & Space doing materials development work on a US Army missile program, and served as an engineering analyst in the Life Support group developing Space Station air and water recycling systems. Dan worked for Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama, from 1984 to 1989, where he developed the Spaceplane and Frequent Flyer air-launched orbital vehicle designs. These two vehicles are the large and small embodiments of a reusable winged orbiter from a subsonic airplane. Teledyne awarded DeLong the ownership rights to these two vehicles. Other accomplishments at Teledyne include layout design of the ground fueling/defueling equipment for NASA s reusable Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle, and payload operations analysis for NASA s proposed Shuttle C launch vehicle. From 1978 through 1983, he was employed by Perry Oceanographics in Riviera Beach, Florida as the company s Staff Materials Engineer. He was also lead mechanical engineer developing Perry s RECON III remotely piloted vehicle, its tether tender, and deck handling system. From 1974 to 1978, DeLong was an underwater equipment designer for Westinghouse Ocean Research & Engineering Division. He investigated and solved strain rate sensitivity problems with FEP Teflon closed circuit oxygen breathing apparatus. He also did detail design work on the emergency life support equipment on board the U.S. Navy s Turtle and Sea Cliff submersibles. DeLong has an Engineering degree from Cornell University, with a major in Materials Science and Engineering. He is a member of the American Society for Metals (ASM), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA, past president of the Huntsville, AL chapter), and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). He is currently building a twin-engine, four seat composite airplane | 