Hello! My name is Andrew Ricks, and this blog documents my experience building a Wittman Tailwind — both to keep myself accountable and so future builders can reference and learn from my mistakes.
I’m 27 years old and live in Madison, Wisconsin. At 15, I started flying lessons at Middleton Municipal Airport – Morey Field (C29), paying my own way through babysitting and lawn mowing jobs after school. I soloed at 16 and earned my private pilot certificate at 17.
In 2021, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville with a degree in mechanical engineering and joined Textron Aviation (Cessna) in Wichita, KS, as a Tooling Design Engineer, where I got to help build the very aircraft I’d learned to fly in. After two years there, I moved to the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), performing full-scale static and fatigue testing on commercial and military aircraft. In 2026, I returned to Wisconsin to join DarkAero as an engineer, working to bring the DarkAero 1 to production.
Passionate about aviation and always needing a project on the side, I decided designing planes all day long at work wasn’t enough — so in July 2026 I started building a Wittman Tailwind. Check back and follow my social accounts for updates on the build!
