Ryan Mace is the founder, President, and Chief Engineer of Mace Aviation, LLC, an Arizona-based aerospace manufacturer specializing in aerospace design, composite aircraft structures, metallic aircraft structures, avionics integration, rapid prototyping, and weapon systems integration for defense and advanced aerospace programs. With more than 20 years of hands-on program experience across the most demanding programs in aerospace, Ryan brings an uncommon combination of engineering depth and manufacturing capability to every project Mace Aviation takes on.
Before founding Mace Aviation in 2011, Ryan held engineering positions at some of the most respected organizations in the aerospace industry:
Scaled Composites — Mojave, CA. As a Design Engineer at Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan’s legendary experimental aircraft company, Ryan worked in a fast-paced rapid prototyping environment designing, building, and flight-testing prototype aircraft. Ryan was instrumental in several manned aircraft programs that include the Stratolaunch ROC, SpaceShipTwo, WhiteKnightTwo, and a few “other” aircraft programs. Most of the aircraft utilized large, bonded carbon fiber/epoxy structures. The atmosphere at Scaled Composites is defined by rapid innovation, composite-forward design, and the ability to take a concept from sketch to flight in compressed timeframes. That same design-build philosophy, including the rapid prototyping approach, is the operational model at Mace Aviation today.
Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Programs, Skunk Works — Palmdale, CA. As a Conceptual Design Engineer at Skunk Works, Ryan’s primary responsibilities were to conduct design studies for new aircraft based on customer requirements. Typically, these studies include sizing the aircraft (wing, tail, fuselage), performance estimates, as well as laying out new aircraft configurations, vehicle lofting, engine selection, vehicle packaging, wind tunnel model design, and wind tunnel testing. Ryan also worked on a variety of hardware projects that ranged from small hand-launched UAVs to large flying wings and a manned X-Plane demonstrator (X-55A). Ryan also operated fielded unmanned aircraft systems in a development and production environment. Some of his duties included troubleshooting damaged aircraft, conducting repairs, and flight testing new and repaired aircraft, as well as training users how to operate the system.
Orbital Sciences Corporation — Chandler, AZ. As a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman), Ryan performed structural design duties on the airframe of sub-orbital and orbital class launch vehicles. Ryan was primarily involved with the Orbital Boost Vehicle and the Antares Launch Vehicle. At the time, the Antares Launch Vehicle was a new medium-lift orbital class rocket. Ryan was responsible for the airframe design of the second stage, interstage, and trim stage, which were all large diameter core-stiffened composite structures.
NAVAIR, Naval Air Systems Command — NAS Patuxent River, MD. As an Aerospace Engineer working in NAVAIR’s structures group, Ryan supported the fleet monitoring of structural life for the F/A-18A through F Models and the E/A-6B Prowler. Ryan also acted as a structures liaison engineer that provided engineering guidance from the Navy to Lockheed Martin in support of the F-35 program. During this time, Ryan gained direct exposure to defense program requirements, airworthiness standards, and the procurement expectations that program managers bring to fabrication partners. That background is reflected in how Mace Aviation documents, tests, and delivers flight-critical structures.
Ryan’s program history spans an unusually wide range of aircraft types and mission profiles:
At Mace Aviation, Ryan has continued with the development of aerospace and defense-related products that include the following: Single-Rail Hellfire Launcher, Dual-Rail Hellfire Launcher, Four-Rail Hellfire Launcher, Air Launched Effects (ALE) Pods, Surveillance & Targeting Pods, Cargo Pods, Sensor Mounting solutions for a wide range of aircraft types, custom fuel systems with bladders, weapon platforms, and weapon pylons for several aircraft, including targeting pod and weapons-platform integration work, along with a catalog of custom composite parts and assemblies. Mace Aviation has also designed and built its first aircraft and has several others in development.
Ryan’s engineering experience spans the full product development stack:
Structural Design & Analysis: Ryan is a highly skilled structural designer with significant experience designing high-performance structures for aircraft and spacecraft. Ryan is highly proficient with CATIA V5 and uses it for all design-related functions. Ryan also uses industry-standard software such as Hypermesh, FEMAP, and NASTRAN for Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of composite and metallic structures.
Composite Design & Fabrication: Ryan’s experience has provided him with a deep depth of knowledge on composite materials, processes, techniques, and exposure to an enormous range of complex composite parts and assemblies. This experience provides an excellent base to build on and is constantly expanding due to the near-constant development of new products and projects.
Metallic Structures: Ryan has a significant amount of experience designing and fabricating aircraft sheet metal structures, as well as small and large machined parts. Mace Aviation has a team of highly experienced licensed aircraft mechanics that can fabricate and assemble just about anything.
Avionics & Wiring Harness Integration: Most of our projects require some kind of avionics or wiring harness to complete. Ryan and Mace Aviation have ample experience designing and manufacturing custom instrument panels, crew stations, and complete wiring harnesses. We have even created production-level wiring harnesses and harness boards for complete aircraft.
3D Design Software: Ryan is a highly proficient designer and prefers to work with Dassault Systems CATIA V5. Ryan has decades of experience designing a wide range of vehicles that include aircraft, cars, and motorcycles. Ryan routinely performs conceptual design studies, manages large complex detailed models, and has a unique talent for generating high-quality surfaces that can be used for the external definition of a vehicle.
Reverse Engineering: Mace Aviation has the latest 3D scanning technology and also has highly specific software for reverse engineering scan data to create high-quality surfaces. We routinely scan vehicles, components, and anything else that is necessary to use in our design software. This capability is extremely important for older or legacy aircraft that you don’t have any definition for. Our equipment is also travel-friendly, allowing us to easily take our equipment to a customer site to scan and then return home with accurate definition used for the design.
The credentials above aren’t background. They’re the reason Mace Aviation can do what larger fabricators can’t. A program manager working with Mace Aviation is working directly with an engineer who has designed and built structures for the Skunk Works, Scaled Composites, Stratolaunch, NAVAIR, etc. That institutional knowledge shortens every feedback loop: fewer RFIs, faster design iterations, and a fabrication partner who understands the engineering rationale behind what they’re building.