1. September 1, 2016
Maple Leaf Design is a sole proprietorship specialized in the design and manufacture of
state of the art composite model sailplanes for international FAI competition. We also do
consulting work on UAV (“drone”) projects.
We first worked with Dave Beardsley in 2009 as part of the American F3J Team to
compete for the World Championship in France. This involved three Senior and three
Junior pilots flying model sailplanes of approximate 4 meter wingspan against
approximately twenty-five other national teams. Dave worked tirelessly in attending to
the hundreds of design and engineering details required to ensure a winning effort. It is
noteworthy that, of the hundreds of models flown at that competition, only two were built
by Maple Leaf Design, and they won both the Senior and Junior World Championships.
Shortly thereafter, we partnered with Dave for the design and tooling of a new sailplane.
Dave did much of the design work and all the CAD modeling for this incredibly complex
machine in only a couple of months, working nights and weekends. Further, he CNC
machined all the master patterns on his own personal gantry router. The accuracy, fit
and finish are world class, far surpassing our previous tooling. In addition to being one
of the best performing sailplanes in the world, it is also easier to build and thus more
profitable. Much of this stems from Dave’s work.
We have recommended Dave, and he has successfully designed, modeled and cut
tooling for several UAV manufacturers we work with. These are civilian drones with
often conflicting performance requirements and tight budgets. We worked directly with
him on one such project that resulted in timely delivery that exceeded the client’s
expectations.
Dave is a pleasure to work with. He’s imaginative without getting hung up on pride of
authorship. He’s always been willing to explore every option and idea to arrive at the
best solution. He’s a team player, and he works well with diverse groups and disciplines.
He draws on a wide network of talented professionals with machining, composites,
industrial and modeling backgrounds. I recommend him highly, and look forward to
working with him in the future.
Sincerely,
Don Peters
9997 East Morrill Way ■ Tucson, Arizona USA ■ 520-465-6420 ■ www.mapleleafdesign.com