Meet the Team: Dylan McGrath

Meet Dylan McGrath, now commonly referred to as DMac due to the surplus of Dylans at MicroTau.

Dylan is a mechanical engineer by trade, and now MicroTau’s Head of Partnerships, which means he is responsible for creating opportunities to get our technology into the hands of customers so we can deliver fuel savings for their aircraft.

Image: Dylan inspects

Tell us about your journey at MicroTau. What was your first role, and how did you get to where you are today? 

My first role at MicroTau was Head of Projects; I started out managing our Air Force Research Laboratory projects, which included investigating robotic solutions for big planes. Over time, I played a more active role in deepening our partnerships and expanding our project portfolio.

A highlight from the ‘early years’ was our first flight test on Red Bull Air Race World Champion Matt Hall’s race plane - in the middle of the COVID lockdown, no less! Dr. Mitchell Quinn and Swapnil pulled off a miraculous production sprint, with the rest of the team stuck at home. Steven planned the installation from his bedroom. But we made it happen!

Now I’m focused on expanding our network of customers and partners, so we can get our products on their planes and realise the benefits. 

Image: Dylan excited to flight test riblets

What do you do in your spare time?

I have a one-year-old son, so my spare time isn’t like it used to be in terms of quantity and activities. We recently moved to Brisbane, so we are enjoying exploring a new city as a family on the weekends. 

I like to do some gardening, so it’s exciting to be in a new place with a different climate and a blank slate. I’m keen to build a backyard wetland / natural pool, but I think that might have to wait, unless I’m allowed to add a GoFundMe link to the bottom of this… (Editor’s note: Nope!)

I’ve played football (soccer) since I was 5. I purposefully avoided joining a local team until pre-season was over, but I think that might’ve backfired because no one wants me... yet.

Contrary to what you might’ve heard from Raj, I’m busy topping the official MicroTau Formula 1 Fantasy League.

What's been most exciting to work on lately? 

Recently, I've been working with Isabela to expand our projects and business efforts into unmanned air systems. This has been really exciting for a few reasons, but one is that we are already realising the potential to do flight tests much faster and with a much shorter iteration cycle than transport aircraft.

So it’s exciting to be in the middle of a real momentum shift in how quickly we can deliver. It’s challenging to generate velocity in hardware development, so it feels great. And it's got me working hand in glove with the product engineering and manufacturing teams again, which is awesome. 

Tell us about the cool stuff you get to do as part of your role? 

Being able to get in, on, and around all kinds of exotic aircraft and meet our partners who design, fly and engineer these crazy flying machines! And creating opportunities for the rest of the team to do the same.

What's your crowning achievement at MicroTau?

Being part of our amazing team that wrapped a C-130J for the first riblet flight test on a USAF plane and being the official unofficial photographer during the install! 

Image: Dylan’s handiwork