Welcome the The architect of Team American Chunkers Ballistics program. A Punkin Chunkin first! This guy has the skills to pay the bills (and that ain't no hype)!
Pete Colantonio joined the team this summer and is responsible for analyzing and optimizing the internal ballistics of the cannon and the external projectile ballistics to maximize range.
He graduated from Northeastern University, BSME '99, MSME '03; yes another Northeastern Alumni on the team.
From 1999 to 2007 Pete held various roles at Textron Defense Systems from Sr. Mechanical Engineer to Six Sigma Black Belt to Manager, developing air and ground delivered munitions for the Air Force, Army and Marines, including munitions launched out of 155mm artillery (similar to the chunker). Some of these munitions were utilized in Iraq and Afghanistan post 9/11 to protect American forces from harms way.
During 2006 he was also an instructor at Northeastern University teaching evening undergraduate engineering students the design process and mentoring multi-discipline senior team projects.
From 2007 to 2010, Pete was Lead Product Engineer and Product Engineering Manager at Nuvera Fuel Cells developing PEM fuel cell stacks & hybrid systems and hydrogen reforming, compression, storage and dispensing systems that operate up to 5000 psi.
During 2010, Pete was Principal Mechanical Engineer at Casepick Systems analyzing robotic chassis, drive line components and steel super structures the size of a football field and 40 feet tall for 3000 lb material handling robots utilized in the material handling industry.
Starting in 2011, Pete has been Sr. Mechanical Engineer at FLIR Systems - Government Systems developing gimbaled EO/IR/Laser systems for law enforcement and military applications.
Besides working on the Chunker, he enjoys building custom electric bicycles, snowboarding, fishing, hiking, billiards, table tennis, volleyball, working on cars, and home improvement.
Pete and his wife live in Wakefield, MA and have one daughter.
