Silent Falcon UAS Technologies will invest $6 million to locate its new East Coast headquarters for research, development, and manufacturing at the Front Royal Warren County Airport in Warren County, Virginia.
Virginia successfully competed with Massachusetts and New Jersey for the project, which will create 249 new jobs.
Silent Falcon UAS Technologies manufactures patent-pending, state-of-the-art unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) components and sensors for security, military, and commercial markets, including oil and gas and pipeline inspections, power utility inspections, large-scale agriculture, natural resource management, security/ISR, public safety, and mapping/surveying.
Silent Falcon is the only solar electric UAS to provide long endurance and range, silent operations, and an open interface payload bay, accommodating a wide variety of payloads that are also quick and easy to change. Silent Falcon’s decision to locate in Virginia coincides with a significant expansion of the service portion of the company’s business, which focuses on data collection, specifically for runway inspections at airports.
Randolph-Macon Academy’s Unmanned Systems Lab (R-MA) will partner with Silent Falcon as part of its pre-professional pathway initiative through the R-MA drone program, which provides students with the tools and real-life experience to leverage the potential of unmanned technology in a range of career fields.
This out-of-the-classroom learning opportunity allows students to experience first-hand how drones and drone-collected data can be applied to real-world community management, business, environmental, and economic challenges. R-MA will work with Silent Falcon to design new program curricula to prepare students for the next generation of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, while crafting data acquisition and data analysis solutions using artificial intelligence.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Warren County, the Virginia Department of Aviation, and the Center for Innovative Technology to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved a $161,482 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Warren County with the project.
The company is eligible to receive benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for new, full-time jobs created. Funding and services to support Silent Falcon UAS Technologies’ employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program. ■
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