Maj D. Isaiah “Knots” Harp is an Intermediate Developmental Education (IDE) Fellow at the Institute for Future Conflict and an Instructor of Aeronautics at the US Air Force Academy. He isa current and qualified instructor pilot in five department of defense aircraft (F-35A/B/C, T-41D, T-53A) and is an active test pilot in all variants of the F-35. He is also the Principal Investigator for “The Pointless Project,” a multi-million dollar research effort to replace flight test points with data-based models created using physics-informed machine learning.

Previously, Harp was assigned to the 412^th Test Wing as an experimental test pilot in all three variants of the F-35. As the Director of Orange Flag for the Air Force Test Center, he provided strategic vision for joint, all-domain experimentation and executed three large force test events per year. In 2022, Maj Harp was selected as a Service Chief’s Fellow at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Before Test Pilot School, Maj Harp was an F-22 combat pilot, instructor, and flight examiner, and deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Prior to his commission at Officer Training School, he was a system sengineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Maj Harp received an Air Medalfor meritorious service in aerial combat in 2017 and was recently selected as the 2021 Tester of the Year for the National Defense Industrial Association.