Sam Watrous
Founder and President of Scalebirds. Master Designer. Pilot. Experienced aircraft builder. Composites artist. Air Force Veteran. Visionary for this whole project. All around great guy. And far too humble to have written any of this bio about himself.
David Rowbotham
Builds planes. Was key to getting the project off the ground and taught the rest of us a lot about homebuilding.
Scott Watrous
The secret sauce. The game changer. The critical key in all of our success. Master CAD designer, machinist extraordinaire, chief graphic artist, and general overly humble dude that does a lot of the work. If standing up one start-up wasn’t enough, in his spare time he has a second company that makes AK variant paintball markers called OpForged. Check it out, they are pretty sweet!
Aaron Ide
Is afraid of heights; yet loves flying and once jumped off a 40’ bridge into an ice cold river in Switzerland, for fun. Has degrees in Aeronautical, Mechanical, and Systems Engineering; yet cryptically only describes his day job as “fixing problems.” Has been a part of the Scalebirds team since 2012, doing everything from engineering and wiring to market analysis and web design. In his free time, he runs a high school robotics team and spends too much time floating in the Long Island Sound trying to catch fish.
Paul Lindenfelzer
Has been flying since he was 7. Mechanical Engineer with a concentration in aerospace. Has designed everything from quadcopters to 4-place forward-swept winged airplanes to FAA-PMA parts. Also, been part of the team since 2012 do most of the aerodynamics, airfoil selection, control surfaces sizing, and stability analysis for the LiteFighter.
Gary Knowles
Sorta recently retired Machinist with 30 years experience. Private pilot and experienced experimental aircraft builder. Problem solver focused on driving us towards continuous improvement and innovating our methods. Despite having all of his hair, he is seldom seen without a hat on.
Trevor Nelson
Self described as a “Designer of Many Things” has helped us drive the prototype to completion. Once set things on fire for a living and is now a firefighter. Trevor is the not so ‘new guy’ on the team joining in 2019 and has become a skilled aircraft builder in short order.
Shin Sasakura
Joining in 2021, he is one of the latest members of the Scalebirds team. With a degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering, he works as a systems engineer day-to-day. When not found riveting structures and getting greasy in the hangar, you can find him backpacking on trails or skiing down the slopes. He looks forward to working with Scalebirds customers and eventually flying his own plane down the road.