HISTORY
ROSS MCNUTT, PH.D.
PRESIDENT AND CEO,
PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS, MACAIR AVIATION
Dr. Ross McNutt received his Ph.D. from M.I.T. in Rapid Product Development, Technology Management and Policy, and two masters degrees from M.I.T. in Aeronautical Engineering, and in Technology and Policy. Dr. McNutt's dissertation was on reducing Department of Development (DoD) product development time. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and Culver Military Academy.
While assigned to the Pentagon, Dr. McNutt directed the Air Force Cycle Time Reduction Program, started the Warfighter Rapid Acquisition Program, and developed Cost of Delay Analysis to determine the value of time on defense development programs. Dr. McNutt also served on the OSD Cycle Time Reduction Task Force as the Air Force Representative. As a Professor of Joint Warfare at Air Command and Staff College, Dr. McNutt taught operational employment of weapons and forces to US and allied field grade officers.
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While assigned to Wright Patterson AFB, Colonel McNutt founded the Air Force Center for Rapid Product Development aimed at rapidly developing and fielding new technology in support of U.S. warfighters. There, he and his team designed and built Project Angel Fire, the first wide area surveillance system which deployed in support of the Marine Corps in Fallujah, Iraq, and four years in Afghanistan. Project Angel Fire received many Air Force level awards for innovation. Dr. McNutt founded the Research and Development Masters degree program and the Operational Technology Programs at the Air Force Institute of Technology, both designed to teach young officers the practices and implementation of rapid product development through doing.
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Dr. McNutt is currently the president and founder of Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS), MacAir Aviation, and MacNauchtan Development. Persistent Surveillance Systems is the developer and provider of a new generation of airborne and ground-based wide area imaging systems and services.
PSS supports federal, state, and local law enforcement with imagery analysis of troubled communities and major event security. McNutt has led the development and deployment of these systems to the Philadelphia and Baltimore Police Departments, the U.S. Army at Ft. Leonard Wood, NAVAIR at Yuma Proving Grounds, and has performed full-time
wide-area imaging operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), Customs and Border Protection, and the Mexican government.
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MacAir Aviation is an aviation services company that supports an Aero Club with over 240 pilots and provides over $3 million in flight training to U.S. Air Force Flight Doctors and other pilots.
Dr. McNutt lives near Dayton Ohio and is married to Air Force Colonel Stacy McNutt with his children.