Donald Edberg

Donald L. Edberg, PhD, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dr. Edberg has over 24 years of experience in the aerospace industry and has been employed at General Dynamics, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, AeroVironment, McDonnell Douglas, and the Boeing Company, where he was a Technical Fellow. He currently teaches astronautics and aerospace vehicle design full-time at Cal Poly Pomona and is the director of its Space and Launch Vehicle Laboratory and Uninhabited Aerospace Vehicle Laboratory. He also has taught aircraft, spacecraft, and structural design courses at UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine, and has consulted for a number of small companies.

During his career, Dr. Edberg has worked on launch vehicle and on-orbit space environments, aerodynamic testing of launch vehicles at high angles of attack, experimental modal and dynamic analysis, launch vehicle load mitigation, reduction of on-orbit mechanical vibrations, and microgravity isolation systems, as well as the development of an electric-powered, backpackable UAV in service as the FQM-151 Pointer. He holds 10 U.S. patents in aerospace and related fields, and was the inventor of and chief engineer for the patented McDonnell Douglas STABLE (Suppression of Transient Acceleration by Levitation Evaluation) vibration isolation system. STABLE was successfully demonstrated during the flight of Space Shuttle flight STS-73 carrying USML-2 in October 1995.

Dr. Edberg is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and an active UAV pilot.