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Tag: unmanned aircraft systems

FAA certification clears way for DroneUp to scale up

Virginia Beach-based drone delivery company DroneUp has received a Federal Aviation Administration certificate that will allow it to grow its delivery operations.

On Tuesday, the company announcedi t received an FAA Part 119 air carrier certificate under Part 135. The certificate allows DroneUp to carry third-party property as an air carrier and to fly drones up to 5 miles without maintaining a visual line of sight.

“With this certification, and with actual beyond visual line of sight certification,” said DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker, “you’re going to see this start to scale very, very quickly, because the cost of doing delivery by drone is not only going to be better and more efficient than some of the other traditional modalities, but it’s safer.”

Previously, DroneUp couldn’t carry cargo owned by others and had to have special arrangements with retailers, limiting their partnerships. Also under the previous Part 107 certification, the company had to maintain sight of the drone, with either the drone operator or a visual observer in contact with the operator watching, and the minimum weather visibility required was 3 miles from the control station.

“It allows us to scale much, much quicker,” Walker said, “and also we can do it more affordably for the customers, because we can fly beyond visual line of sight. We don’t have the additional overhead of the visual observers that we had before.”

DroneUp is the sixth U.S. drone operator to receive a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, according to the FAA. The company submitted its initial application in May, Walker said.

DroneUp is beginning operations under the Part 135 certification at its location in Murphy, Texas, near Dallas. The tech company will then work to get FAA approval to append the certification to add other locations, starting with the remaining 10 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to get all 11 of those locations in the DFW area operating Part 135 … and then after that, we intend to continue to expand across the Dallas-Fort Worth area until we can successfully cover 80% of that area with drones, demonstrate our ability to do that at scale under Part 135, and then we’ll be expanding into another metro area yet to be announced,” Walker said.

DroneUp will start expanding Part 135 operations in the first quarter of 2025, “and if I have my way, we’ll have all of the entire DFW area that we have now operating as Part 135 by the end of Q1,” Walker said, and then start expanding into new Dallas-Forth Worth locations under Part 135 in the second quarter.

Under the previous certification, the Murphy location could serve 6,000 households, but under the Part 135 certification, it will be able to serve 25,000 households, and with fewer personnel, according to Walker.

DroneUp provides retail delivery services and has conducted several medical supplies delivery projects. The company partnered with Walmart in 2021, and in May 2022, the two announced plans to expand drone delivery services to 4 million homes in six states. In August, DroneUp said it would end Walmart drone delivery in three states to focus on perfecting its service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

In August 2023, DroneUp announced it would launch an 18-month project to deliver medical supplies and hypertension medication to patients on the Eastern Shore and Tangier Island, in partnership with Riverside Health System, Old Dominion University and others.

Founded in 2006, DroneUp has about 250 employees, of which about 100 are in Virginia. In August 2022, DroneUp announced it planned to add 655 jobs as part of an expansion that includes establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County.

RTX subsidiary lands $118M Army contract

The U.S. Army has finalized a contract potentially worth $118 million with Arlington County-based Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX, to produce common sensor payloads, which will serve as “eyes” for an uncrewed aircraft system, the government announced Tuesday. 

The common sensor payloads, which will be used on California-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ MQ-1C Gray Eagle, will offer day and night high-definition imagery as well as targeting capability for laser-guided munitions, according to a U.S. Army’s statement

Under the undefinitized contract action, the new common sensor payloads will also offer target location accuracy capability, which enables “precision, near-real-time engagements with coordinate-seeking weapons by reducing the sensor-to-shooter process from minutes to seconds,” the U.S. Army explained.  

Raytheon will produce the third version of the Common Sensor Payload. Since the CSP was first developed in 2011, previous versions have been used in more than a million flight hours on the Gray Eagle for U.S. Army units worldwide. 

“The CSP v3 is the latest iteration of the CSP, which resolves several critical subcomponent obsolescence issues present on the currently fielded CSP v2 and incorporates updated sensor hardware to provide enhanced imaging capabilities,” Doug Haskin, product manager of the U.S. Army’s Office of Aerial Enhanced Radars, Optics, and Sensors, said in the release. 

The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon initial partial funding for CSP v3 production in June of 2023, allowing Raytheon to begin work. The CSP v3 production systems are expected to begin delivering in June 2025, with a first unit equipped date planned for FY 2026, according to the U.S. Army.

Raytheon rebranded as RTX in June of 2023, a year after moving to headquarters to Arlington County. It has three subsidiaries: Collins Aerospace, an aerospace and defense technology supplier with headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.; Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer with headquarters in Connecticut and Raytheon, which was formerly Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense.

RTX, which is also based in Arlington County, has more than 185,000 employees.

McLean startup raises $75M for air taxi network

Fritz Lang’s 1927 film “Metropolis” predicted cities with flying cars, while Hanna-Barbera followed that vision 35 years later with “The Jetsons” and its commuter “skyways.” Now, however, air taxis are close to becoming reality.

The industry could generate up to $16 billion in new business investments in Virginia and carry as many as 66 million passengers by 2045, according to a January report from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. and the state commerce and trade secretary.

But those taxis will require management so they don’t crash into other aircraft. That’s where McLean-based AURA Network Systems Inc. comes in.

AURA — which stands for Advanced Ultra Reliable Aviation — is developing a secure, regulatory-compliant network that can control unmanned, remotely piloted aircraft on extended flights beyond an operator’s visual line of sight. In November 2022, AURA raised $75 million in financing from investment companies including Fortress Investment Group LLC and Mudrick Capital Management LP.

Fortress Investment Group Managing Partner Drew McKnight, an AURA board member, says the company will be a “critical innovator” in the infant industry.

According to AURA CEO and co-founder Bill Tolpegin, the company’s proprietary technology could eventually shuttle people through cities.

AURA, he notes, has an exclusive license from the Federal Communications Commission to operate its network on the 450 MHz band, which is reserved for aviation purposes. AURA’s secure, private network “doesn’t touch the internet,” he says, enhancing flight safety and reducing signal latency.

Thomas Alberts, an aerospace engineering professor at Old Dominion University, notes that AURA’s network signal frequency lets it travel through “trees and obstacles and longer distances.”

AURA tested its network in Maryland in July 2022. Pilots flew a Cessna 208 Caravan while the network tested its ability to switch control of the plane from one ground station to the other.

The next step is to build a network for specific companies. At first, that will probably be cargo companies, which will use the network for delivery routes.

Lance Sherry, director for the Center for Air Transportation Systems Research at George Mason University, says advances like autonomous cargo aircraft and air taxis will make communications systems like AURA’s “absolutely critical. … As we go into the future, the vehicles are going to be communicating more and more with each other to avoid collisions … [and] plan their routes so that they’re conflict-free.”  

DroneUp takes off

Virginia Beach’s DroneUp LLC is riding the leading edge of the unmanned aerial vehicle industry wave.

Founded in 2016, the company, which specializes in commercial drone delivery, flight services and software, has grown its ranks from three to 530 employees. Retail giant Walmart Inc. is a new partner, and DroneUp is close to completing a $7 million expansion at its headquarters.

In an August 2022 news conference with Gov. Glenn Youngkin, DroneUp announced it was taking off in a big way, adding 655 jobs as part of an expansion that will include establishing a $20 million drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College in Dinwiddie County. DroneUp plans to add 510 jobs in Virginia Beach and 145 positions at the Richard Bland center.

“Virginia is extremely fortunate that we have DroneUp here because they have really put the industry on the map as far as the drone technology goes and package delivery,” says Tracy Tynan, director of the Unmanned Systems Center at Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp., a state- affiliated nonprofit that supports emerging companies and technologies in the commonwealth through grant programs and strategic initiatives.

DroneUp’s “growth has been amazing,” says David Bowles, executive director of the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy at Old Dominion University. “They’re a model, I think, of what you can do.”

DroneUp CEO Tom Walker says the pandemic was one factor in DroneUp’s recent growth. During lockdown, when people couldn’t congregate or travel, drones offered a remote solution for ongoing needs.

“When COVID-19 first hit, it was a very, very unfortunate thing for society and for the nation, but it was a very positive thing for our industry,” he says. “We still needed to do roof inspections and cell tower inspections and infrastructure inspections. … We were able to deploy drones to do those inspections that traditionally they’d not used them for.”

DroneUp’s recently inked deal with Walmart is another contributing factor to the company’s growth, Walker says. A contract to build out Walmart’s drone delivery network was announced in December 2021 and package delivery was offered at three Walmart locations in the retailer’s home state of Arkansas. In May 2022, DroneUp and Walmart announced plans to expand drone delivery services to reach 4 million homes across six states with drone hubs operating from 34 U.S. Walmart sites. Three hubs are located at Virginia Beach Walmart locations, with a 1-mile delivery range for up to 10-pound packages. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp, as well as two seats on DroneUp’s board.

The DroneUp Flight Academy at Richard Bland College is already preparing the next generations of the company’s flight engineers. As of December 2022, Richard Bland had trained 170 full-time DroneUp employees.

Richard Bland President Debbie Sydow says she’s excited the college is part of DroneUp’s workforce development pipeline. Trainees are not only prepped to make deliveries for DroneUp but they also earn 12 college credits in courses such as  Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems I and II, Components & Maintenance, and Remote Pilot Ground School.

“These students are getting prepared to do a specific job, but they’re also accruing college credit and hopefully continuing to build their list of credentials that allow them to continue to grow in this field,” Sydow says.

The college’s rural location offers plenty of open sky for drone training, Walker says, as well as available classroom space and student housing. “It had all of the facilities we needed.”

A delivery hub has been set up at the school and 1,000 workers are expected to graduate by the end of this year.

Sydow says having DroneUp on campus aligns with similar partnerships the school already has with advanced manufacturers. Walker says it has also created an opportunity to expose currently enrolled students to a new industry. Discussions are underway on how to expand DroneUp’s training program to existing college students.

“We’re looking at all those ways that we can really turn this into a major resource [for Virginia] that will go well beyond the kinds of uses that are part of what DroneUp is doing now,” Sydow says. “And DroneUp is fully supportive of that.”

RapidFlight to add 119 jobs at Manassas HQ

RapidFlight LLC, a designer and manufacturer of unmanned aircraft will invest $5.5 million to establish operations in Manassas, creating 119 jobs over the next three years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday.

RapidFlight is an integrated, end-to-end provider of airborne drones. Founded in 2021 by RapidFlight President Jay Gundlach, the company works for national security and private sector clients. RapidFlight uses technology such as additive manufacturing, advanced avionics and propulsion systems. Gundlach has penned three books on unmanned aircraft and is considered an expert in the field.

The company will establish a 25,000-square-foot facility at 9617 Center St., renovating the former Georator Corp. building. This space will house its headquarters, design and production operations. The facility is near Manassas Regional Airport, home to a strong customer base for RapidFlight, including a growing number of aerospace firms, defense contractors and government agencies, according to a news release from the Manassas Department of Economic Development.

The jobs RapidFlight is hiring for include positions for engineers, manufacturing technicians, program managers, administrative staff and others.

“Virginia is uniquely positioned to lead the unmanned systems industry, and RapidFlight is on the cutting edge of developments in this innovative technology sector. We look forward to supporting the company’s growth in the city of Manassas,” Youngkin said. “Since Day One, we’ve declared that Virginia is open for business, and businesses such as RapidFlight are a prime example of the success and growth that businesses can achieve in the commonwealth.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the city of Manassas to secure the project for Virginia and will support RapidFlight’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment program.

“Virginia is an important state, providing unique access to decision makers, a world-class workforce, unmanned test infrastructure and an advanced materials industry,” Gundlach said. “Thanks to its central location on the East Coast, we can readily work face-to-face with our government customers while also leveraging Virginia’s unmanned systems’ infrastructure to conduct operations and test our systems, rapidly delivering new capabilities to our nation. There is something for everyone in Virginia, whether you love history, exploring nearby parks or attending a local concert or sporting event. It is a beautiful state to live, work and raise a family. RapidFlight is proud to be a Virginia company.”

It’s the second economic development announcement in recent months from an unmanned aircraft systems company growing its business in Virginia. In August, Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC announced it would add 655 jobs as part of a $27 million expansion that will include establishing a drone testing, training and research and development center at Richard Bland College.