Jerry Flynn is a Senior Product Manager at Bentley Systems and manages the Visualization Team with over 24 years visualization experience and 30 years of experience working with 3d computer models.
As a Design Engineer with Planning Research Corporation (PRC) at the Kennedy Space Center, Jerry designed launch support equipment and access platforms for the Space Shuttle. Using a highly accurate 3d computer Model of the Space Shuttle’s outer mold lines, Jerry was able to design critical access equipment and verify the designs on the computer prior to fabrication. In his own words “I was hooked on 3d" from that point in 1981 on.
When the design and construction phase for the shuttle facilities ended in 1987 Jerry left PRC and went to work for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems. Here at the Kennedy Space Center McDonnell Douglas provides all support and processing of flight hardware in preparation for launch on Space Shuttle. As a Senior Design Engineer at McDonnell Douglas Jerry brought his experience in 3d computer graphics to an even higher level. Using MicroStation on a 8MHz 286 PC he created accurate models of a processing facility and the Magellan spacecraft and used these models to perform access studies and fit checks far in advance of the spacecraft’s actual arrival at the Kennedy Space Center. This effort proved to NASA that computer modeling would be a tremendous time saver over existing methods.
From Jerry’s pioneering efforts a new Visualization Group was born, performing complex task and expanding responsibilities to include conceptual design and advanced studies for future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This group now has over 11 full time employees dedicated to various visualization tasks.
During his time at McDonnell Douglas Jerry won 14 Golden Mouse awards in InterGraph’s computer art competition and a Best in Application from Kodak during the 1991 SIGGRAPH convention. The Design Visualization Group that Jerry was instrumental in forming won the Silver Eagle award in 1993, the highest award achievable at the Space Systems division.
Jerry Flynn departed McDonnell Douglas in November of 1994 to join Bentley Systems. He was responsible for much of the animation and graphics used on the Discovery CD-ROMs to launch MicroStation 95, GeoGraphics, Modeler and TriForma. He continues to work closely with development on improving and adding new visualization features to MicroStation. He also played a major role in the development of “Model City Philadelphia” a virtual reality model of Philadelphia shown at AEC Systems and SIGGRAPH in 1997.
Jerry is the author of the first Bentley Institute Press book "Rendering with MicroStation" and also Bentley Institute’s “Animating with MicroStation” and “Rendering for Building Design” courses. Jerry Flynn also provides global professional consulting and services including onsite training, 3d modeling, animation, rendering, multimedia, and video editing services.
Jerry Flynn’s Graphics have been on the covers of 16 MicroStation books. He has been the creator of 7 MicroStation Manager magazine covers and his photo-realistic images have made the covers of Road & Bridges, Computer Aided Engineering and Computer Graphics World magazines. He is responsible for the “Orbiter, Oldhotel, Livroom, Cool Home, Loft and Lobby” example design files that have shipped with MicroStation in the past and present and he was also instrumental in the development of the texture library that is delivered with MicroStation.