About

Blackbird Kinetics was founded by Brandon Vazquez, a mechanical engineer by degree, always hungry for knowledge, and always ready for a design challenge. Blackbird Kinetics LLC is registered with the state of Washington and offers design and prototyping services. We have experience designing for many different manufacturing processes including CNC machining, casting, sheet metal, plastic injection molding, additive manufacturing, cast urethane, and composites. We have 13+ years experience using Solidworks for 3D design and 2D documentation. We have a diverse industry experience and stand ready to apply our knowledge to your project.

Blackbird Kinetics

We appreciate aviation a lot and have always marveled at the SR-71 Blackbird. The SR-71 (A-12 derivative) was a spy plane built for the USAF in the 60s by the Skunkworks division of Lockheed Martin under the direction of Kelly Johnson. The Blackbird’s function was to fly higher and faster than everything else, missile or otherwise, and by doing so perform its recon and surveillance role unimpeded by enemy threats. There are so many impressive performance characteristics inherent to the Blackbird, especially considering the time in history when the technology was being developed and deployed. To this day it still holds performance records untouched by modern aircraft…at least the ones currently unclassified. The Blackbird is a phenomenal physical example of what a small group of people can accomplish when bureaucracy is removed from the equation and you just do what needs to be done. So, Blackbird because the essence of that plane from a design standpoint embodies what we desire to infuse into everything we do here.

Kinetics, from its definition, is a branch of science that concerns itself with the mechanism by which a physical or chemical change is effected. Throughout the design process there are many mechanisms that will either directly or indirectly drive a final result. For example; cost, time, aesthetics, performance, market perception, etc are all categories under consideration when executing design. We believe the best design solution will reveal itself when first the time is taken up front to understand the kinetics in play. We recognize the Blackbird as one of the gold standards in history where the engineers and designers understood the kinetics and designed a machine that would take a crew of two up 80,000 feet and travel at speeds fast enough to be able to watch the sunrise twice on the same day.