Dan Birket
Vice President
Bachelor of Science in Engineering
Engineering Mathematics and Computer Systems
University of Central Florida, 1982
Patent Holder, U.S. Patent # 5,015,933

If you want to know how to control a themed entertainment project, ask  Dan. Well known and respected in the industry for his troubleshooting and no-nonsense attitude toward safety, Dan excels in system design and analysis. Dan is often asked by other companies to provide a third party analysis on an existing design or after a system failure.

Dan has contributed to the software on most of Birket Engineering's safety critical stunt shows and roller coasters. A quick list would include Universal's Backdraft, the Hollywood and Osaka installations of  Waterworld, the Viking Adventure, the EFX and  Buccaneer Bay shows in Las Vegas, and the Comet, Demon, and Runaway Mountain roller coasters. Recent installations where Dan had principle control system software installation responsibility were Revenge of the Mummyä for Universal Studios (both Hollywood and Florida), Fear Factor Live for the Universal Florida site, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway.

Before joining BIRKET Engineering, Dan developed software and simulations for military and aerospace projects at Martin-Marietta and Parks-Jaggers Aerospace. He consulted to Stromberg-Carlson on telephony software and to American Magnetics on security systems.

Dan's first themed entertainment  project was the Turbo Tour Theater (now  Iwerk's Entertainment's "Turbo Ride Theater") motion base controller and network. Dan is named on U.S. Patent #5,015,933 for the Turbo Tour Theater motion base.

After Turbo Tour Theater, Dan continued consulting in diverse areas under the name "Abakey". Projects included porting security and CCD imaging applications to the Macintosh platform.  Dan contributed the PC graphics subsystem used by Alcorn-McBride's popular "Land the Shuttle" simulator at Space Center Houston. After three years of increasing involvement with BIRKET Engineering, he closed his Abakey consulting office and joined BIRKET full time on January 1,  1994.