About the Project Leaders

Paul Kaup

I am a pilot (Captain) for Southwest Airlines. I currently hold an ATP rating in Boeing 737, BE-1900D and D-328jet. I am a space, and technology enthusiast. I have over 23000 hours of flight time as a pilot of many different types of airplanes. I have a UAV/UAS remote pilot certificate issued by the FAA. I am an AMA member with 10 years of R/C flying experience and I am a member of the Arizona Model Aviators.. I have several years of small Model Rocketry experience. I am a member of NAR and SARA. I have an amateur radio license. I have conducted over 30 missions to near space with weather balloons. I received the Presidents Award for my work with the students from Southwest Airline in 2016. I was recognized by Spirit Magazine as Southwest emplyee of the month also for my work with students. As of May of 2019, I am currently working on the following projects with students in middle and high school. Solar power Rc airplane "Project Soare". Designing a rocket that will be launched at 100,000ft after being towed up by a weather balloon.

I have been working with students in middle school, high school and college. I started working with students in 5th grade several years ago in the Spring Grove Elementary School, Richmond Grade School, and Nippersink Middle School through a Southwest Airlines sponsored event called Adopt-A-Pilot. I have taken the program to a whole new level. In my first 2 years I became aware of the lack of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, +C) within our kids curriculum. I included "+C" because I feel creativity is as important as the other 4 areas. I aspire to elevate our students grasp of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. As much as I value those subjects, I also value art and creativity. Thats why I call my little company STEM+C. The C stands for creativity. I think artist, engineers, scientist, musicians, writers, and performers all share the same basic artistic, creative part of our brains. Each one of those professions uses the creative part of their brain for a different discipline or interest. The creative part of my brain likes to inspire the next generation through hands on learning projects like "Project Blackbird". I don't know what form this project with ultimately become....we will let it simply evolve. But the goal of the project is to bring real life project based learning experiences to our kids. To get them excited about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

I am married to a perfect wife, with 3 kids of my own (Boy and Girl twins who are 13 and a 11 year old boy). I worked my way up the ladder at Southwest Airlines where I started with the company back in 1992 as a baggage handler. I am very fortunate to work for Southwest airlines. My career allows me the time to do these kinds of projects with the kids. It also affords me the time to try to broaden the scope of this project and reach out as far across America with the intent of giving every kid in the United States the opportunity to take part in these types projects. I was also feature in the April 2013 Spirit Magazine....here is a link to the article. http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pace/spirit_201304/#/16

Andrew Goldberg

R/C: 20 years flying experience. AMA since 1993. I have designed, built and flown many types of aircraft including multi-rotors and flying wings. I have taught more than fifty people to fly at the local R/C field. I fly mostly giant scale aerobatic airplanes but I also enjoy aerial photography flying multi-rotor aircraft.

UAS: 1500hrs Flight time. Flew the RQ-7b (Shadow) from AAI Corp. Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for 1.5yrs. Flew many missions for all branches of the military. Experience as the AO/PO/MC (Aircraft operator / Payload operator / Mission Commander)

Education: Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. Bachelors of Science / Aeronautical Science

Flying: 10 years flying experience with more than 5000 hours logged