Michael Mendenhall's Email & Phone

Mr. Mendenhall is the director of the applied aerodynamics research and corporate memory preservation work at NEAR, and has more than 40 years of experience in aerodynamics. He has been Project Manager and Principal Investigator for aerodynamics on a number of commercial programs. These include aerodynamic design and analysis studies of Pegasus, Taurus, and X-34 for Orbital Sciences Corporation, the K-1 reusable launch vehicle for Kistler Aerospace Corporation, and the BA-1 and BA-2 launch vehicles for Beal Aerospace. Mr. Mendenhall conceived and managed the development of the Launch Vehicle Expert (LVX) system for the aerodynamic design and analysis of advanced launch vehicles. He directs the CFD aerodynamic loads analysis of radome installations on commercial airliners as required for Special Type Certificate issuance by the FAA. He has also been the Principal Investigator on many government research contracts involving the prediction of the nonlinear aerodynamic characteristics of flight vehicles at high angle of attack and in unsteady maneuvers, and the prediction of the nonlinear hydrodynamic characteristics of submersible vehicles undergoing arbitrary maneuvers. These research projects include the effects of symmetric and asymmetric vortex shedding from circular and noncircular bodies at large angles of attack and high rotation rates. Mr. Mendenhall has contributed to a number of investigations in tactical missile aerodynamics and store separation.