Jonathan Downey

Jonathan Downey
Born November 8, 1983 (1983-11-08) (age 32)
Nationality American
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation Entrepreneur
Employer Founder and CEO of Airware

Jonathan Downey (born November 8, 1983) is an American pilot, engineer and entrepreneur. He is founder and CEO of Airware (incorporated as Unmanned Innovation, Inc.), a San Francisco-based startup that is building a platform for the development and operation of commercial drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).[1] Jonathan won USA Today 2015 Small Business Innovator of the Year.

Downey grew up in Kingwood, Texas, a suburb of Houston. He graduated from Kingwood High School in 2002, where he founded a robotics club and ran cross country. He has two sisters and a brother. His older sister, Julie Harper, works in residential real estate while raising her four children in Ft. Worth, Texas. His younger sister, Missy Downey, is an attorney who currently works in commercial real estate in Houston, Texas.

Downey earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science in 2006 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),[2] where he began working on small UAVs.[3] While at MIT, he founded the student UAV team, known as Project: A²RES.[4]

After college, Downey worked at Boeing on the development of the A160T Hummingbird,[5][6][7] an autonomous helicopter developed for DARPA[8] and SOCOM[9] that went on to set the world record for flight endurance in its weight class (at 18.7 hours)[6] and achieved one of the highest hover out of ground effects (20,000 feet).[10] In 2011, Downey founded Airware to serve the market gap between military-grade autopilots and hobbyist projects.[3] Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures announced a $10.7 million investment in Airware in May 2013.[3] Kleiner Perkins led an additional $25 million investment in Airware in July 2014.[11] Downey was a member of the winter 2013 Y Combinator batch.[12]

Downey’s father was a commercial pilot for 30 years, and Downey has a commercial multi-engine pilot’s license.[7] His parents met when his father was his mother's flight instructor. Downey has said that Airware allows him to combine his two passions, engineering and aviation.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". Website. Airware. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "CrunchBase". Website. CrunchBase. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 King, Rachael (15 May 2013). "VCs Bet $10.7m on Drone Ecosystem Developer". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "Project: A²RES". Website. MIT. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  5. ↑ Laber, Jessica. "An Operating System for the Commercial Drone Era Drone operating system". Website. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  6. 1 2 "A160T Hummingbird Overview". Website. Boeing. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Geron, Tomio (15 May 2013). "Drone Startup Airware Lands $10.7 Million Series A Led By Andreessen Horowitz". Forbes. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "Boeing Completes Successful Autonomous Flight Control Technology Program". Space Daily. 20 March 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "US SOCOM takes delivery of Hummingbird". Shadowspear. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Copeland, Michael V. (20 May 2013). "Beyond Surveillance: Envisioning the Future Drone Workforce". Wired. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Constine, Josh (23 July 2013). "Airware Preps Launch Of Its Commercial Drone Operating System With $25M From Kleiner". Techcrunch. Retrieved 3 Oct 2014.
  12. ↑ "Airware's Jonathan Downey (YC W13) interviewed in Wired: Envisioning the Future Drone Workforce". Website. Retrieved 2 April 2014.

External links

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