President and Founder, Climb Unrestricted LLC

Brendan Walsh is an aerospace expert with more than 25 years of experience in the military and industry. He graduated from Catholic University in 2002 with a bachelor of mechanical engineering. Walsh was a versatile student-athlete, competing as a member of the baseball team. After graduation, he was commissioned as a Marine Officer and served for more than two decades, which included flying aircraft carrier-based F/A-18 Hornets in combat during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

A graduate of TOPGUN and the Marine Corps Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course, Walsh played a critical role in the evolution of 5thgeneration warfare. He was the 53rd pilot to fly any variant of the F-35, pioneering initial F-35B flight operations and the Marine Corps’ first F-35C squadron, VMFA-314. He led the squadron’s inaugural deployment to the Indo-Pacific aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Post-military, Walsh worked in industry and provided F-35 contract instruction. He founded Climb Unrestricted LLC to provide independent consulting as a tactical aviation subject matter expert.

Walsh is a licensed professional engineer and is an FAA-licensed airline transport pilot. A member of the Board of Visitors for the College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing, he holds a master’s in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.