Our Mission
Our Mission
Creating energy for a sustainable civilization. We’re engineering the next-generation of wind energy technology.
Our story
We’re a team of visionaries, quants, and gear heads.
We began small with a team of five and have since tripled to a robust, lively cohort. We share a deep passion for mitigating the greatest problem of our time — climate change. We’re tackling this issue by creating a revolutionary form of wind energy technology. Our technology is lightweight and mobile, delivering unparalleled power density.
We have over 40 years of combined experience working in airborne wind energy. Our engineers hail from diverse backgrounds in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and of course, airborne wind energy.
We know our stuff. But don’t take only our word for it. Instead, look to the $16M non-dilutive funding from the Department of Defense. Or learn about our proprietary full-physics modeling and simulation environment that enables unique in-house digital engineering processes. Everything we design is entirely ours as we have multiple patented hardware designs and non-dilutive funding. We’re a leader in the airborne wind energy industry. So join us as we take flight.
Top-Quality Engineers
We’ve brought together an inquisitive set of engineers who bring tenacity, and creativity, and extensive experience to the unique challenges of airborne wind energy.
Community-Oriented
We try to hire from the local community, pulling from local colleges and universities like Duke University, NC State, UNC-CH, and North Carolina Central University.
Our Executive Team
Rob Creighton
Founder & CEO
Creighton identifies and nurtures strategic relationships across private and government sectors, manages capital raises, and contributes innovative design input. His multi-disciplinary background has helped provide refreshing insight, positioning him as an entrepreneurial leader in the airborne wind energy industry. Rob has a BS in Genetics and an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Andy Stough
Chief Technology Officer
Stough leads the technical development of Windlift’s Airborne Power Generator. Stough is a natural-born problem solver who leverages a systems approach to balancing the complex tradeoffs inherent in AWE systems. Andy has more than 25 years of industry experience spanning Caterpillar, Siemens-Westinghouse, Battelle, and Ericsson. Andy has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an MS from North Carolina State University.
Mark Aull
Chief Science Officer
Mark guides Windlift’s analysis and simulation development, resulting in a Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation environment and a novel analysis and design tool for which he earned a Ph.D. Prior to Windlift, Mark was instrumental in developing an Airborne Wind Energy technology demonstrator at NASA Langley, along with an extensive history with autonomous machines. Mark has a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.