Robert C. Winn, Ph.D., P.E., FAIAA, FRAeS

Dr. Winn operates at the intersection of our business, combining strong technical leadership and strategic thinking with a deep understanding of our operations, which allows us to better align the potential of our operations with the needs of our clients – by continually building and strengthening our capabilities, raising the bar on execution, and ensuring a robust talent pipeline across our different disciplines.

One of our longest tenured leaders, Dr. Winn is well-known for his deep technical know-how and his open and collaborative working style. Whether he is helping to set our firm-wide strategy or directing the day-to-day operations of our Aviation practice, Dr. Winn stays consistently focused on ways to ensure exceptional service and value for our clients.

Aviation Investigation & Reconstruction

Dr. Winn retired from the U.S. Air Force after a distinguished 22-year career where he served as an instructor pilot for four different Air Force aircraft and Chief Scientist of the USAF European Office of Aerospace Research and Development in London, England. He also spent over 15 years teaching aeronautical and mechanical engineering at the USAF Academy and Colorado Technical University.

Over the last two decades, Dr. Winn has performed hundreds of airplane and helicopter accident investigations and reconstructions. His reconstructions are comprehensive, and often include collecting, inspecting, and analyzing the aircraft wreckage, recorded air traffic control (ATC) radar data, and on-board recorded flight data. When available, cockpit voice recorders have yielded valuable information about the flight crew and their actions, as well as other sounds which may be relevant to the investigation. Dr. Winn’s expertise also includes applying fundamental dynamic analysis and using sophisticated software to perform “what if” scenario analyses.

Dr. Winn has served as a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers AC-9C Subcommittee on Aircraft Icing Technology and has significant experience analyzing in-flight icing conditions and predicting ice accretion and the effects it will have on airplane performance.

Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Winn is an accomplished mechanical engineer and has performed numerous fluid flow and thermodynamic analyses of devices and systems ranging from the small, such as carburetors -- to the very large, such as wind tunnels. He also uses his understanding of dynamic systems to predict the unsteady time-varying behavior of a wide variety of devices and equipment, from towed inner tubes to huge cranes.

Well-regarded by his peers, Dr. Winn is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), serves on the Council of the RAeS, and was recently recognized with the 2017 AIAA Distinguished Service Award for exemplary service and leadership. He has also published more than 70 technical papers, reports, and articles.