Navatek Ltd.

Science and Engineering

	Gary Shimozono, P.E., Vice President of Research, Development, Technology, and Engineering, Navatek, Ltd., received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Hawaii in 1972 and 1974, respectively. Mr. Shimozono joined Navatek in 1994 and currently manages the R&D and engineering activities of the company. He had a significant role in the success of the company’s lifting body technology demonstrators, which include Midfoil, Sea Flyer, and BLB-70/65. Prior to joining Navatek he worked at Hughes Aircraft, Missile Systems Group, where he had mechanical engineering responsibilities for a ballistic missile interceptor and other prototype missiles. Earlier in his career he managed the structural dynamics section at Hughes Aircraft and also developed design environments specifications for system engineering and performed environmental tests on missile components. Mr. Shimozono also worked at Atomics International where he worked on a sodium/water steam generator for the Clinch River breeder reactor. In total Mr. Shimozono has over 35 years of broad, high-technology engineering experience.
	Jeff Kline, Vice President-Naval Architecture, Navatek, Ltd., heads Navatek's Business Development Section. He came to the company from Lockheed Martin where he served as Technical Manager/Capture Manager in the Ship Systems Program Office developing advanced marine vehicles for naval and commercial applications, including naval high-speed connector vessels for littoral operations, commercial off-shore crew and pilot boats, and high-speed ferry transportation. Key project responsibilities included serving as capture manager for seabasing opportunities; program manager for the NAVSEA Focus Mission Ship Program; program manager for the oceanographic research vessel AGOR 26; and advanced programs manager developing new business related to the application of automation to hazardous environmental remediation and military operations. Prior to joining Lockheed, he served as a business manager for Martin Marietta’s Air and Naval Facility, Baltimore, MD that developed, manufactured and serviced underwater robotic handling systems for the U.S. Navy. A registered professional engineer, Kline received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Catholic University, and an MBA from Loyola University.
	Todd Peltzer, P.E., Director of Programs, Navatek Ltd., received a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979; he received a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and the advanced degree of Naval Engineer from MIT in 1989. Joining Navatek in 1999, he has successfully managed projects that include a multi-year, advanced lifting body research program; hydrodynamic design efforts for a tandem lifting body system for a high-speed ship design; design and fabrication of a containerized power generation system for a podded electric propulsor; and full-scale hydrodynamic testing on the technology demonstration craft Midfoil. Prior to joining Navatek, Mr. Peltzer completed a twenty-year Navy career as a deep-sea diver and Engineering Duty Officer, attaining the rank of Commander. Mr. Peltzer has been a Licensed Professional Engineer (Mechanical) in the State of Hawaii since 1998. He is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and of the American Society of Naval Engineers.
	David Kring, Ph.D, Chief Scientist, Navatek Ltd., holds a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute, and a Ph.D. in Hydrodynamics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994). He has twenty years of experience in naval architecture and hydrodynamics projects ranging from offshore platforms, to submersibles, to high-speed advanced marine vehicles. His focus has been on seakeeping, resistance and propulsion, and structural loads, and Dr. Kring is the principal developer of the hydrodynamics code AEGIR currently in use at a number of U.S. Navy and commercial organizations. David served as a lecturer and research engineer at M.I.T. until 1999 when he joined Anteon Corporation. In 2004, he joined Flight Safety Technologies, Inc., where he contributed to projects in laser acoustics, airborne radar, and missile countermeasures while still being active in US Navy ship programs and consulting with Navatek on its computational tool development.
	Christopher J. Hart, Regional Director East Coast, Navatek, Ltd., joined Navatek in 2002, and initially directed a series of experiments on two Navatek test craft involving both deep-vee and lifting body technologies. He worked as the Test Director for performance sea trials for HYSWAC (Sea Flyer), and was involved in development of lifting body applications for the Navy’s X-Craft and LCS designs. Prior to joining Navatek, he served as Principal Naval Architect at Swath International Ltd. from 1991 to 2002, where his responsibilities included seakeeping and speed/power predictions, stability analysis, active ride control system design, and scale model testing of new commercial SWATH designs. He was active in the development and production of a 37 meter, 28 knot SWATH passenger ferry, Cloud X, and was responsible for sea trials planning, data acquisition and performance analysis. His experience includes 13 years at the U.S. Navy’s David Taylor Model Basin where he specialized in the hydrodynamics and scale model testing of advanced marine vehicle designs including SWATH, hydrofoil, SES, ACV, and planing craft. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MS in Ocean and Marine Engineering from George Washington University. He is a Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
	Troy Keipper, Senior Naval Architect, Navatek, Ltd., joined the company in 2002 after working for the Northern California design firm, Antrim Associates Naval Architects. At Navatek, he manages the Hydro and Naval Architecture Section. Troy is co-inventor on Navatek's Low Drag Lifting Body, and its Bow Lifting Body. He served as the lead Designer and Project Manager for the CFD and tank test validation program on the HDV-300. He was also lead Naval Architect and Project Manager for the design and construction of the 70 ft aluminum Bow Lifting Body prototype, BLB-70. He graduated with a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan.
	Brian Kays, P.E., Supervisory Engineer, Navatek Ltd., joined the company in 2002 and now manages the Electro/Mechanical Controls Systems Section. During his time at Navatek Ltd., he has supported a variety of projects including Seaflyer, HDV-100, and BLB-70 with hydraulic circuit design and fabrication and installation of ride control systems. Prior to coming to Navatek, Brian served as a Mechanical Engineer/Senior Design Engineer for Genie Industries, a large construction/industrial equipment manufacturer where he was responsible for parts of the mechanical design, finite element analysis, stability analysis, and hydraulic system design as well as buildup of prototypes and support of manufacturing. Brian holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.
	Ben Rosenthal, Controls Engineer/Naval Architect, Navatek Ltd., joined the company in 2005 from Anteon Corporation’s Fluid Mechanical Systems Group. At Navatek, he has designed the ride control algorithm for Navatek’s HDV-100, a foil supported/lifting body boat. He designed the control algorithm for the Navatek BLB-70, a foil/lifting body assisted boat. He also built a fully nonlinear six degree-of-freedom simulation adaptable to a large class of boats, including hydrofoil and lifting body-assisted boats. He heads Navatek's CFD Section. At Anteon, Mr. Rosenthal designed an advanced control algorithm for a supercavitating torpedo capable of speeds in excess of 100 knots; and developed a vorticity based planing force estimator. Other research projects focused on forces generated by a vertical cycloidal propulsion system; noise generated by propellers with non-uniform spaced blades; steady and unsteady forces on a sonar dome using the commercial CFD code Fluent; and analysis and simulation of wing tip vortices as they interact with the ground plane in airplane landing situations. He graduated with a B.S. in Naval architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering focused on control systems from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.
	Mealani Parish, Mechanical Engineer, Navatek, Ltd, joined the company in 2006, and now works in the Hydro and Naval Architecture Section, supporting various projects with a focus in performing Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis. Prior to joining Navatek, she interned in Japan for a year in the ultrasound R&D division of Toshiba Medical Systems. She also worked for Schlumberger in England for three years as a Mechanical Engineer on the sustaining team for downhole drills. Mealani received a B.S. in 2000 and M.S. in 2003 in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
	Scott I. Yamashita, P.E., Project Engineer, Navatek Ltd. joined Navatek in 2001. His responsibilities include performing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of hullforms, lifting bodies, and underwater foils using USAERO, AEGIR, and CFX software; design optimization using a particle swarm optimizer; systems design; and project engineering for various projects including Waverider, Sea Flyer, Bladerunner, SDV-45, Midfoil variants, BLB ship variants, ALB/IPP variants, and ETM SAM and SLED variants. Prior to joining Navatek, Scott worked for Sato & Associates, a consulting engineering firm in Hawaii where he served for nine years as a Civil Engineer. There he was responsible for complete civil design of multiple projects in the State of Hawaii. He has been a Licensed Professional Engineer (Civil) in the State of Hawaii since 1998. He received his B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1991. Michael Buelsing, Mechanical Engineer, Navatek, Ltd, joined the company in 2009 from Sea Engineering Inc. where he supervised the assembly, installation, maintenance and monitoring of wave energy conversion devices and performed computer analyses for harbor siting projects. At Navatek, he designs and implements mechanical, electrical, and software components for the company’s ARES® ride enhancement system for small vessels, and provides project mechanical engineering services companywide, including drafting and analysis of ship’s structures. Buelsing received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from the University of San Diego.
	John Elm, Controls Hardware Engineer Navatek, Ltd., joined Navatek in 2005 after working with the company as a consultant since 2001. He is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of fault-tolerant, Adaptive Ride Enhancement System (ARES) electronic hardware for Navatek’s advanced hull-form ships. He designed and developed the custom, proprietary, high speed, environmentally rugged, electronic assemblies for the SeaFlyer and HDV-100 along with the embedded software for the hardware control and diagnostics. He came to Navatek with over 25 years engineering experience as a self-employed engineering consultant at ELM Engineering; as Senior Member of Technical Staff at Raytheon Corp. specializing in RADAR signal processing; and as a Member of Technical Staff at the Hewlett Packard Instrument Group Research and Development Lab, designing test and measurement products. He received his B.S.E.E from Carnegie Mellon University in 1979.
	Steven J. Schmitz, Senior Design Engineer, Navatek, Ltd., joined Navatek in 2005 and works on the design and analysis of Navatek’s Captive-Air Amphibious Transporter (CAAT). His responsibilities have included hydrodynamic analysis of the buoyant belt and propulsion system; scaled model design and test; and structural and mechanical design of the amphibious transporter. Other Navatek projects he has worked on include the rudder conversion for Navatek II; USV mechanical design; T-Craft; OTEC and other projects. Prior to joining Navatek, he served as Senior Mechanical Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Marine Systems Division, from 1990 to 2005, where his responsibilities included sea keeping and speed/power predictions, stability analysis, active ride control design for vessel Sea Slice, and scale model testing of new ship designs. While working at Lockheed Martin, Steven was awarded 3 US patents (Two Degree of Freedom Rudder; Variable Draft Ship; Ship-to-Shore Ramp) and one subsequent US patent (SMAART buoy). He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
	Richard S. Holcomb, P.E., Senior Naval Architect, Navatek, Ltd, received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1979 and a M.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Michigan in 1986. He joined Navatek in 2004 where his principal duties have been as Project Manager for a wave energy conversion project and Lead Naval Architect for Navatek's 11-meter ETM SLED ASW Unmanned Surface Vessel. Prior to joining Navatek, he served as Head of Design for Swath International, Ltd where he was Project Manager for the design, construction, certification and testing of a high-speed 38-meter US-flagged SWATH passenger ferry. At Swath International, he was also design leader for numerous concept level SWATH ship designs, and proposal manager for a number of ship design and construction proposals. His experience also includes 5 years with ship signature warfare technology at System Planning Corporation and the Navy’s David Taylor Research Center. He worked with the SWATH Ship Technology Development Office at the David Taylor Research Center for 8 years and was involved in numerous model tests, early stage designs, design synthesis tool development and hydrodynamic analysis. Mr. Holcomb has been a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland since 1989. He has also been a licensed Chartered Engineer in the United Kingdom since 1994 and a European Engineer since 1995. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology and the American Society of Naval Engineers.
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