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Jack Elston is the CEO and co-founder of Black Swift Technologies (BST). He received his PhD in aerospace engineering sciences from the Â鶹ÊÓƵ based on work that developed a complex meshed network, uncrewed aircraft system (UAS), and control algorithms for in situ sampling of severe convective storms.Ìý That research team was the first ever to intercept a tornadic supercell thunderstorm with a UAS, flying over 72 different missions, with ground speeds of over 100 mph, and never losing an aircraft.Ìý

Elston also completed a postdoc at CU Boulder working on the developmentÌýof an automated glider system able to stay aloft for several hours in severe convective storms using cutting edge soaring techniques.Ìý As part of this, he also orchestrated one of the first campaigns to study the effect of cooperative UAS operations on forecast models.

By founding BST, Elston has continued aiding studies in extreme environments; BST's aircraft have flown on all seven continents including operations in the arctic, for sampling erupting volcanoes, and surveying wildland fires.Ìý Most recently he has worked in remote parts of Alaska to provide critical volcano observations to the USGS, often in freezing conditions with winds exceeding what some crewed aircraftÌýcan safely operate in.Ìý

During the 2023 hurricane season, Elston flew on board the NOAA P3 hurricane hunter into the eye of multiple hurricanes to release and pilot an all weather tube-launched UAS.ÌýHe continues to be involved with several cutting edge UAS projects including machine vision for low altitude flights and GPS-denied environments as well as a NASA project aimed to design an uncrewed glider that will explore the upper atmosphere of Venus.