Team

Carl Dietrich
Co-Founder, President / Chief Designer

Prior to founding Jump Aero, Carl led the flying car company Terrafugia from founding through acquisition by the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. He served Terrafugia as CEO, CTO, and as a board director for 13 years. He is the current Chairman of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association committee on Simplified Vehicle Operations.

He is the inventor or co-inventor on multiple issued patents and patents pending, and he has won numerous awards through his career including Aviation Week and Space Technology’s 40 under 40 award and the Lemelson-MIT student prize. Carl received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT.

Jeff Myjak
Co-Founder, Head of Fabrication

Jeff is the President of Still Water Design, Inc., a company that manufactures approximately one hundred high performance composite boats per year. These boats are used extensively by rowing coaches and have served as camera platforms for many international rowing competitions including the Olympic Games.

Jeff has has traveled to support and gather feedback from customers across the globe. He has decades of hands-on experience with all types of composite production and has advised many companies regarding the design of cost-effective composite production. He has developed techniques with CNC equipment to facilitate rapid fabrication of both prototype and production composite tooling. Jeff received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and master's degree in Transportation Science from MIT.

Brian Lozano
Chief Technology Officer

In his daily work as an aircraft designer, Brian carries out sizing calculations, physical modeling, and system integration to ensure that the life-saving aircraft Jump Aero produces are world-class.

Eli DElia
Director of Prototype Engineering

With origins as a talented special effects artist in feature films, Eli found a conduit for his intrigue with robotics, electronics, and engineering. Coupled with his passion for aerospace, he emerged as an entrepreneur and pioneer in the multi-rotor drone sphere, creating one of the earliest ruggedized monocoque multi-copters for the mass hobbyist market.

Jesse Kaltenbach
Senior Research and Development Engineer

Born in France, and educated in the US. Being Fascinated and passionate about aviation and machining and fabrication from a young age this directed my path to be a General Aviation Pilot, Hang Glider pilot, sky diver, Part 107 certified UAV pilot that developed a career specializing in aerial imaging, mechanical design, and fabrication of aerial imaging equipment

Reed Butterfield
Design Engineer

Reed started at Jump Aero in 2021 as an intern helping make wire harnesses. In this time Reed was given the opportunity to grow his skill set in many different areas. In January of 2022 he joined the company full time.

Dr. Hoang Do (Alex)
Senior Flight Controls Engineer

Dr. Hoang is the Senior Flight Controls Engineer at Jump Aero, specializing in aircraft dynamics, aerodynamics, electrical motor systems, system identification, and flight simulation.

Dr. Hoang Do (Alex)
Senior Flight Controls Engineer

Dr. Hoang is the Senior Flight Controls Engineer at Jump Aero, specializing in aircraft dynamics, aerodynamics, electrical motor systems, system identification, and flight simulation.

Nico Bernt
Mechatronics Engineer

Nico is a diversified engineer with intertwined passions for aircraft, vehicle electrification, systems architecture, and IoT. As a mechatronics engineer at Jump Aero, Nico taps into these passions and applies his experience to deliver cutting-edge systems and components in both physical and digital capacities.

Since his first cockpit experience as an EAA Young Eagle overflying the SF Bay Area in homebuilt aircraft, Nico has long dreamt of designing and flying novel aircraft. Thanks to a BSME/EE from the University of Nevada, Reno, a Masters in IoT Innovation Management from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France, and work experiences ranging from network mapping at Cisco to agriculture electrification, this dream became reality when Nico joined Jump Aero in 2024. Whatever the system in focus, Nico meets requirements and deadlines by applying meaningful effort and rigor to understand and overcome engineering problems.

Jeremy Bardell
Senior Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineer

With a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Illinois (UIUC), Jeremy has over 20 years of Mechanical and Manufacturing engineering experience in the Aerospace, CNC machining, and Metrology fields. He brings with him extensive connections in the manufacturing world as well as a strong background in design for manufacturability (DFM), metrology, GD&T, ISO accreditation, FAA certification, and project and people management.