Brian Kramer

President / CEO

Education                      -  MBA Business Administration,

                                         California State University, Northridge, 1988

                                     -  BS Aeronautical Engineering,

                                         California Polytechnic State University,

                                         San Luis Obispo, 1983

Experience

Mr. Kramer spent eight years at Lockheed Advanced Developments Company (the “Skunk Works”).  During the first four years, he worked as a Wind Tunnel Test Engineer at the Kelly Johnson Research and Development Center, at Rye Canyon. The second four years were spent as a Senior Aerodynamics Engineer working on performance prediction, aircraft sizing, and stability and control problems in a preliminary design / prototype environment. As an aerodynamicist, Mr. Kramer conducted a variety of subsonic, transonic, and supersonic wind tunnel research programs, including work on research vehicles with large extents of natural laminar flow.  He conducted research programs at not only Lockheed’s 4x4 Trisonic Wind Tunnel and Low Speed Wind Tunnel, but also at AEDC, Calspan and NASA.  During this testing, many techniques were used to understand the physics of the flow such as liquid crystals and multi-element film, which both can be used to indicate transition of the boundary layer from laminar to turbulent.

Mr. Kramer joined the Eidetics Corporation in 1991 and served as Senior Research Engineer until his promotion to Vice President of Engineering.  Mr. Kramer was the Principle Investigator for numerous aeronautical research programs including: a NASA-Ames sponsored SBIR Phase II contract to investigate forebody vortex control techniques for the F/A-18 fighter aircraft with static and dynamic (rotary-balance) wind tunnel tests in the Ames 7 x 10-ft wind tunnel; Rotary balance experiments on a generic fighter configuration sponsored by AGARD WG16; Air Force Wright Laboratories SBIR Phase I contract to develop a conceptual design for a new multi-axis wind tunnel rig for performing velocity vector roll and body-axis roll/yaw motions to evaluate agility characteristics vs. departure from controlled flight for fighter aircraft; NASA-Dryden SBIR Phase II contract to investigate the reduction of the turbulent skin-friction drag on transport-class fuselages by selectively heating various areas of the surface of the fuselage; Air Force Wright Laboratories SBIR Phase II contract to develop a Virtual Reality Air Combat Simulator (ViRACS).  Mr. Kramer also managed the efforts of other Principle Investigators for Eidetics’ research programs.

In 2002, Mr. Kramer formed Rolling Hills Research Corporation, where he is currently the President and CEO.  In addition to management functions, Mr. Kramer is still actively involved in the company’s engineering research projects.  He is currently acting as the Principal Engineer for a NASA Dryden contract to validate the aerodynamics of the X-43A, Hyper-X research vehicle.

Patents

United States Patent #5,449,131  “Vertical Nose Strake for Aircraft Stability and Control”

Selected Publications

Kramer, B. R.; “Experimental Evaluation of Superposition Techniques Applied to Dynamic Aerodynamics (Invited),”AIAA Paper 2002-0700, AIAA 40^th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, Jan. 2002

Kramer, B. R., Smith, B. C., Heid, J. P., Noffz, G. K., Richwine, D., Ng, T. T.; “Drag Reduction Experiments Using Boundary Layer Heating,” AIAA Paper 99-0134, AIAA 37^th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, Jan. 1999

Kramer, B. R., Smith, B. C.; “F/A-18 and F-16 Forebody Vortex Control, Static and Rotary Balance Results,” NASA Fourth High-Angle-of-Attack Conference, July 1994

Ng, T. T., Suarez, C. J., Kramer, B. R., Ong, L. Y., Ayers, B. and Malcolm, G. N.; “Forebody Vortex Control for Wing Rock Suppression,” Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 31, No. 2, March-April 1994.

Kramer, B. R., Malcolm, G. N., Suárez, C. J. and James, K. D.; “Forebody Vortex Control on an F/A-18 in a Rotary Flowfield,” AIAA Paper 94-0619, AIAA 32nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV., Jan. 1994.

Suárez, C. J., Kramer, B. R., and Malcolm, G. N.; “Forebody Vortex Control on a F/A-18 Using Small, Rotatable ‘Tip-Strakes’,” AIAA Paper 93-3450, AIAA 11th Applied Aerodynamics Conference, Monterey, CA., Aug. 1993.

Malcolm, G. N., Kramer, B. R., Suárez, C. J., O’Leary, C. O., Wier, B., Walker, J. M.; “Rotary-Balance Test Comparison with AGARD WG-16 Generic Fighter Model,” ICAS Paper 94-3.8.2, 19th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Anaheim, CA, Sept. 1994.