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FounderREGENTAmerican

Mike Klinker

Co-Founder and CTO

About

Mike Klinker co-founded REGENT with Billy Thalheimer in 2020 and serves as CTO, leading Seaglider development, engineering, and test operations. An MIT-trained aerospace engineer with a background in flight controls and autonomous-flight software, he has overseen the successful flight demonstrations of both REGENT's autonomous Squire drone and its full-scale Viceroy prototype. The Viceroy completed its first human-crewed flight in September 2026, validating the program's float-foil-fly architecture as REGENT moved toward production.

Previous roles

  • Engineer, Aurora Flight Sciences
  • Engineer, Airware
  • Engineer, Raptor Maps
  • Engineer, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Notable work

  • Viceroy Seaglider development and flight-test program
  • Squire autonomous Seaglider drone
  • REGENT float-foil-fly control architecture
  • Seaglider engineering and test operations

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