AeroVironment

October 7, 2021, Sierra County, NM- AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) is expanding its footprint at Spaceport America bringing two new unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) projects to New Mexico for testing and training. Operations for JUMP 20 medium unmanned aircraft systems (MUAS) and tactical unmanned aircraft systems (TUAS) have begun out of the Spaceport’s Vertical Launch Area. AeroVironment first became a tenant of the spaceport with the HAPSMobile Sunglider project, which flew twice in 2020.

“We developed a great relationship with AeroVironment last year, which has now expanded with these two new UAS projects,” said Scott McLaughlin, Executive Director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. “We appreciate their confidence in us and what we offer with our employees, our facilities, restricted airspace, remote location, and great weather for flight. Spaceport America’s business continues to grow and bring value to New Mexico.”

With this new contract, AeroVironment will be able to conduct engineering flight test operations for research and development, and validation and verification purposes. The AeroVironment team will also be able to conduct customer training and customer demonstrations at Spaceport America.

“Spaceport America is an ideal location for testing and training of the JUMP 20 and TUAS vehicles due to the abundant special use airspace and cooperative business arrangements that exist between Spaceport America and AeroVironment,” said Gorik Hossepian, AeroVironment vice president and product line general manager for MUAS.

AeroVironment currently leases facilities from Spaceport America for short-term use but is looking to add permanent infrastructure at the Vertical Launch Area to support long-term training and testing operations.
The JUMP 20 vehicle features a runway-independent vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) system.

The vehicle can provide 14 hours of flight time and a 115-mile range (in its line-of-sight configuration). A separate team will conduct TUAS training, providing advanced training courses for a wide range of UAS applications and tactical situations.

AeroVironment instructors will enable customers/students to develop a comprehensive understanding of a specific UAS solution, including safety, operational proficiency, aircraft maintenance and air space management; how to fully exploit the capabilities of the UAS system to accomplish mission objectives.

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) is HAPSMobile’s minority owner and aircraft development partner for the Sunglider, a solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed for stratospheric telecommunications platform systems. HAPSMobile Inc. (TOKYO: 9434), has been developing and testing the ‘Sunglider’ at Spaceport America since June 2020. AeroVironment and partner Soft Bank invested over $8 million in developing a hangar, office spaces and an airstrip at Spaceport America in spring 2020.