Dr. John Hunter
Dr. John Hunter was project leader on SHARP at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1989 until 1995. He originally conceived of the hydrogen launcher for supplying consumables to space. Dr. Hunter raised the $3M needed to build SHARP in 1990-1992 from a variety of sources including IR&D funding from LLNL, the Air Force, DOE and SDIO. After SHARP was built, it successfully performed Mach 5 to Mach 9 scramjet testing. These scramjet tests were unique in that they launched the hydrogen fueled air-breathing hypersonic vehicles at the simultaneous Mach and Reynolds numbers of the National Aerospace Plane. SHARP also performed impact testing on a number of targets related to Desert Storm. During the last 10 years he has consulted on weapons dedicated to destroying Hard and Deeply Buried Targets.
Dr. Hunter also founded and was president of the non-profit 501-C3 corporation Water Station, from 2001-2008. Water Station installs and maintains water stations providing hydration to desert travelers in remote desert areas on the Southern California and Mexico border. In 2004-2005 Dr. Hunter participated with a LLNL team that designed and fielded 120 armored 5 ton gun trucks in Iraq. He is the manager of Star Sports, LLC. Star Sports invented and has licensed the Zyclone ring airfoil launcher to Razor, LLC as well as Zing USA. Zyclones are currently on the market. Dr. Hunter co-invented marketed and then licensed the Vortex Tornado toys, to OddzOn, Hasbro and Zing. The Vortex Tornado toys have grossed over $15M to date.
He has a doctorate in particle physics from William and Mary and a BS in physics from UCSD. He has patents in sporting goods, bulletproof glass and scramjets. Dr. Hunter is Quicklaunch’s President.
Dr. Harry Cartland
Dr. Harry Cartland recently served as a member of the bipartisan Congressional Strategic Posture Review Commission. Chaired by formed Defense Secretaries Bill Perry and Jim Schlesinger, the Commission was charged with a comprehensive review of US strategic posture, including force structure, arms control and nonproliferation policy. He previously served in several capacities on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee, including as staff director of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee where he managed oversight of nuclear weapons, military space and intelligence programs, and as special project leader for the committee chairman on a number of force protection initiatives credited with saving many American lives during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
From 1993 to 2001, Dr. Cartland was a senior member of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff, serving as physicist then project leader for scramjet testing at SHARP, as well as in other technical roles. Prior to that, he served seven years active duty with the US Army, including assignments to the United States Military Academy and the Ballistic Research Laboratory.
He has a BA in chemistry from Cornell, a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, and more than 30 papers and publications, as well as patents in hypersonics and laser imaging. Dr. Cartland currently serves as Quicklaunch’s Co-Founder.
Dr. Richard Twogood
Since 2005 Dr. Rick Twogood has been active in consulting, management and venture activities for both well established and start-up companies. Dr. Twogood has a broad range of technical and senior management experience including over 30 years in the US national laboratory system. From 1988-1996 he was Program Leader for Imaging and Detection at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He was responsible for projects including non-acoustic anti-submarine warfare, laser guide stars, micropower impulse radar, strategic defense and other technologies. He also managed the SHARP program with Dr. Hunter and Dr. Cartland at that time.
Following that (1996-2000) Dr. Twogood was Deputy Associate Director for Electronics Engineering and managed that 750-person department at LLNL. He has testified twice before Congress on matters of national security.
Dr. Twogood has a doctorate in electronic engineering from the University of California at Davis and has over 30 publications in the field of digital signal and image processing. Dr. Twogood is currently Quicklaunch’s CFO and Chairman of the Board.
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