Bethany Davis, Head of Programs, JetZero

Bethany Davis is Head of Programs at JetZero. The company is developing a blended wing jet aircraft with the potential to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by 50 percent. The configuration is well suited to conversion to hydrogen propulsion as that technology matures, in which cases carbon emissions would be reduced to zero.

Prior to joining JetZero, she spent 10 years at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Georgia. Bethany served as Director of Flight Innovation, with a mission to identify, test, mature, and field new technologies in the flight deck and across the aircraft to improve the pilot and customer experience.

Growing up in Cartersville, Georgia, as a third-generation pilot, Bethany soloed on her 16th birthday and went on to earn her pilot’s licenses (Commercial multi-engine instrument, CFI, CFII, MEI) before starting college. Bethany has been a CFI for 20 years and is also an airline transport pilot (ATP) type rated on Gulfstream G550, GV, GIV, Learjet, and Citation aircraft in addition to ratings for tailwheel, seaplane, and helicopter.

Bethany earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, graduating summa cum laude, from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Because of her extensive undergraduate focus on aviation topics, her professors asked her to write a thesis on a non-aviation subject. An avid golfer, she studied the aerodynamics of golf balls, with wind tunnel testing funded by the United States Golf Association. This research led to new insights on golf ball design. During college she also interned at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

Post-college, she earned an MS in aerospace engineering and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She spent a year in Mexico City on a Fulbright Scholarship with the U.S. Department of State, where she was an operations analyst for Volaris airlines, and contributed to fuel saving practices at the airline.