Mitchell Burnside Clapp


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.

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.
Together with Robert Zubrin and Chuck Lauer, Burnside Clapp founded Pioneer Rocketplane in 1996. He and Zubrin authored a piece in the MIT [Technology Review] of January/February 1998 calling for more air-launched rockets.
From 2011 to 2015, Burnside Clapp served as a program manager at DARPA.

Personal life

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