nationality article_title birth_date employer name occupation alma_mater
american jonathan downey
 november 8 , 1983 founder and ceo of airware jonathan downey entrepreneur massachusetts institute of technology
jonathan downey

jonathan downey -lrb- born november 8 , 1983 -rrb- is an american pilot , engineer and entrepreneur .
he is founder and ceo of airware -lrb- incorporated as unmanned innovation , inc. -rrb- , a san francisco-based startup that is building a platform for the development and operation of commercial drones , or unmanned aerial vehicles -lrb- uavs -rrb- .
downey grew up in kingwood , texas , a suburb of houston .
he graduated from kingwood high school in 2002 , where he founded a robotics club and ran cross country .
he has two sisters and a brother .
his older sister , julie harper , works in residential real estate while raising her four children in ft. worth , texas .
his younger sister , missy downey , is an attorney who currently works in commercial real estate in houston , texas .
downey earned a b.s. in electrical engineering and computer science in 2006 from the massachusetts institute of technology -lrb- mit -rrb- , where he began working on small uavs .
while at mit , he founded the student uav team , known as project : a ² res .
after college , downey worked at boeing on the development of the a160t hummingbird , an autonomous helicopter developed for darpa and socom that went on to set the world record for flight endurance in its weight class -lrb- at 18.7 hours -rrb- and achieved one of the highest hover out of ground effects -lrb- 20,000 feet -rrb- .
in 2011 , downey founded airware to serve the market gap between military-grade autopilots and hobbyist projects .
andreessen horowitz and google ventures announced a $ 10.7 million investment in airware in may 2013 .
kleiner perkins led an additional $ 25 million investment in airware in july of 2014 .
downey was a member of the winter 2013 y combinator batch .
downey 's father was a commercial pilot for 30 years , and downey has a commercial multi-engine pilot 's license .
his parents met when his father was his mother 's flight instructor .
downey has said that airware allows him to combine his two passions , engineering and aviation .
