User:Canardjeff

Jeff Kerlo Biography

Jeff Kerlo developed a love for and was consumed by aviation at a very early age. Having a father who was involved in the early days of radio control model aviation, It was no surprise that the little toddler accompanying Dad to the flying field every weekend would grow up with a deep love and appreciation for aviation and aircraft. Starting at a young age with free flight and then control line models, Jeff designed his first control line model at age 9, a 1/2 A sized Grumman Bearcat. That same age saw Jeff enter the world of Radio Controlled modeling. More designs followed , this time for radio flying. Jeff and his father,John, would design many models of all types over the years , preferring original designs over commercially produced kits. The Father/Son team entered the world of radio controlled pylon racing, and in his early teens Jeff began racing as well. He would go on to become very successful competing on a national level in a very demanding sport. These racing aircraft were one quarter sized models of the full scale Formula One class aircraft flown in the Reno Air Races. These small counterparts of the real racers were capable of speeds that surpassed the real aircraft, exceeding 200 miles per hour and requiring fast reflexes and instinctive piloting skills. Craftsmanship was a key element in this event and the modelers involved developed skillsets that enabled unbelievably high quality results surpassing most “museum” quality models. It was these skills and this drive for perfection that would lay the groundwork for what Jeff would go on to do after entering the world of full scale experimental aircraft, That involvement was brought about by a request for help in constructing an amphibious kitplane. This project would undergo many changes in direction, configuration and design, and ultimately lead to the creation of the Maverick Twinjet ( the worlds first twin jet powered kitplane). This brought Jeff a partnership offer in the company being formed to produce it commercially. Turning this offer down, Jeff went on to establish a very successful and accomplished Builders Assistance and Composite Repair business. Jeff’s work included many different kitplane projects and experience. Being only miles from Velocity Aircraft naturally brought numerous referrals for assistance projects and accident repair, ultimately becoming the “ go to” guy recommended often by the Good folks at Velocity. In 1996, Jeff received a request from Velocity for help rescuing a project they had in the works, He would go on to use his creativity to restyle the original Velocity 173 and craft master patterns/ plugs and create the production tooling for what was to become the Velocity XL. Additional projects included composite design and production involved in the Stewart S-51 Mustang Replica Kitplane. In addition to these were performance enhancing components for the certified aircraft world as well as high performance marine racing craft, flying models, wind tunnel models,proof of concept models,etc. All this experience and exposure to many different products ultimately led Jeff to return back to the outlook and manner he and his Father pursued in their model aircraft activities and competitive pursuits, most specifically the desire to be different and design better and more successful “mousetraps”. The result was a first design , Orion TS, a large four to six place composite pressurized turboprop canard, taken through tooling and mockup stage and shown at both Sun N Fun and Oshkosh 2001. This project was put aside to do the smaller and more quickly developed Orion GT , which has flown and been displayed many times at both Oshkosh and Sun n Fun. It is presently the worlds most advanced composite canard Kitplane . Jeff has gone on to design the Raptor Extreme, an unlimited class composite aerobatic aircraft currently under development; Viper, a side by side seating variant of the Raptor; E-Rex a single seat electric powered sportplane and motorglider with wing extensions: and G-Rex ( gasoline fueled E-Rex). No doubt , there are many more designs yet to come!!