Mitchell Burnside Clapp

Mitchell Burnside Clapp
Nationality	American
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation	Engineer
Spouse	TJ Burnside Clapp
Engineering career
Employer(s)	Pioneer Rocketplane, Embassy Aerospace, DARPA, USAF Test Pilot School, Millennium Space Systems
Significant advance	Aerial propellant transfer technology for spaceplanes

Mitchell Burnside Clapp is an Australian-American aerospace engineer, former test pilot, and musician. He received Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Russian, as well as a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]

Career

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Burnside Clapp attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and worked on the YA-7F and DC-X projects.[2]

Together with Robert Zubrin and Chuck Lauer, Burnside Clapp founded Pioneer Rocketplane in 1996.[3] He and Zubrin authored a piece in the MIT Technology Review of January/February 1998 calling for more air-launched rockets.[4]

From 2011 to 2015, Burnside Clapp served as a program manager at DARPA.[1]

Personal life

He is married to fellow filker TJ Burnside Clapp, formerly of the musical group Technical Difficulties. They have three children.[2] He has won two Pegasus Awards for his music.[2]

References

1. "Mitchell Burnside Clapp". 5 June 2015.
2. "Pegasus Awards - Mitchell Burnside-Clapp". Ohio Valley Filk Festival. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
3. Belfiore, Michael (November 2007). "The O Prize". Airspace Magazine. Archived from the original on 2022-06-12. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
4. "Aviation's Next Great Leap". MIT Technology Review. January 1998. Archived from the original on 2022-06-12. Retrieved 2022-06-12.