So we had an idea and some broad requirements, we did   a proof of concept showing that the resulting video would be pretty impressive,   and now we had to start making the idea a real-world device. That required   someone with design and engineering skills that could also factor in   manufacturing know-how to make the device affordable. Let me introduce Richard   Hardy and his work.

Here’s an excerpt from Richard’s bio:

Richard Hardy retired from Boeing   in March of 1996 after a 37 year career. He joined Boeing in Seattle after   graduating from MIT with bachelor degrees in mechanical and aeronautical   engineering and a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.

After   three years as a flight mechanics engineer Mr. Hardy was promoted to management   on the Saturn 5 moon launch vehicle program in Huntsville, Alabama. He   eventually became chief of the technical staff on launch vehicles and the lunar   rover program.

Returning to Seattle in 1970, he   worked on the Short Range Attack Missile and was the Vehicle Design Manager on   the SCAD program, which became the Air Launched Cruise Missile. He spent a year   in Dayton under an industry/government exchange program where he worked in the   B-1 bomber System Program Office.

Returning to Seattle, Mr. Hardy   became program manager of the AFTI F-111 Mission Adaptive Wing program. After   successful completion of flight-testing on that program, he became Chief of New   Combat Aircraft programs.

In 1980 he established fighters   as a product line objective and became program manager of the Boeing Advanced   Tactical Fighter program, which eventually became the F-22.

Mr.   Hardy helped put together the Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics F-22 team. After   the team was successful in flying the YF-22 and winning the competition, he was   promoted to Vice President General Manager Military Airplanes.

As you can see, in his career Richard pretty much   covered all the most challenging and advanced space and military aviation   projects over almost 4 decades. After Boeing, Richard founded Hardy Engineering   and Manufacturing in the Seattle area.

At this point I should fess up that Richard is a   cousin, was pretty much my role model through my school years, and I set the   goal to attend MIT because he had.

We had stopped to visit his family in Seattle on our   flight north to Alaska, and we got together in Boston after the flight and I   showed some freehand sketches of what a pod device could look like. Richard   liked the project and immediately engaged, doing an initial design and   prototype, a gorgeous milled aluminum aerodynamic structure.

The design has gone through a lot of iterations since   then, as we went about a program of continuous improvement before getting to the   Eagle360.