Dave Walsh had a 40+ year career as a flight test engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft. He retired in late 2021 and is currently working part time as a pilot. For the last 10 years of his time at Sikorsky he was a senior Technical Fellow for flight test.

Dave earned a BS in Aerospace engineering from Syracuse University (1981), an MS in Mechanical engineering from Florida Atlantic University (1986) and an AS in Professional Pilot Technology from Indian River State College (2000).

He is a commercial pilot and flight instructor in both airplanes and helicopters. He and some friends built a Vans RV-7A homebuilt airplane which now has 1600+ hours on it and has flown all over the country.

David joined Sikorsky flight test in 1981 working in the handling qualities/flight controls group on H-60 (BlackHawk and SeaHawk) and S-76 development programs.

In 1984 he moved into the Chief of Flight Test (COFT) role leading teams that upgraded the performance of the CH-3E, the VH-3D and certified the S-76B. He and a small team of engineers developed the Cypher unmanned aircraft in the early 1990’s. He acted as chief of flight test for the development and certification of the S-92, managing 5 test aircraft and a team of more than 100 engineers, pilots and crew. The S-92 was the 1st helicopter certified to the latest Part 29 FAA regulations, including flight in known icing. David was then assigned as the COFT for the build, ground test and flight test of the X2 technology demonstrator. The very small X2 team was intimately involved in every aspect of the build and testing. The X2 achieved a level flight speed of 253 knots, an unofficial world speed record for a helicopter. Both the S-92 (2002) and X2 (2010) won the Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America for that year.

In addition to these major programs, he has contributed to pretty much every product in the Sikorsky inventory.