Silent Falcon UAS is about to get louder
Silent Falcon UAS is getting ready to start producing and selling its unmanned flying systems in Albuquerque.
Silent Falcon is a small company working to develop a solar-powered UAS, or drone, with an advanced camera system. The company announced its UAS planes last year, and on Oct. 1, said company CEOJohn Brown, it launched its Silent Falcon Marketing to start selling the systems.
“Where we are now, we are transitioning from final development to commercial production. It is my hope and intent to set up a small final assembly facility in Albuquerque,” Brown said.
The company has not sold any of its UAS systems yet. But it has raised $2 million and is starting its second round of financing, Brown said.
“Our objective is to, in January or February, have these commercial systems done,” Brown said.
Silent Falcon has been testing at both the UAV testing facility run by New Mexico State University and in Moriarty.
The Silent Falcon UASes take their name from their silent, electric motors powered by several banks of solar panels on the wings. The plan can fly as long as the sun is out.
The company has taken a circuitous path to locating in Albuquerque, starting as part of the Denver-based aerospace think tank Bye Aerospace before Brown moved it to Albuquerque. Brown, a former board member at Altela, said that though U.S. laws make it difficult for UAS and UAV companies to fly here, other countries are more welcoming to the idea.
“But in the Asia Pacific region, and many countries in Latin America, and in the Middle East, it’s not that they don’t have regulations, they have different ways of going about applying them,” Brown said.
The company’s first marketing strategy will focus on southeast Asia, before focusing on the U.S. market in 2015 or later.
“Far more profound to us, there has been an absolute sea change in the markets. The first ripple of that was the potential of the public safety market; law enforcement, border security, forest management, and people started thinking about the possibilities,” Brown said. “People said, holy cow, there’s a ton of applications for commercial and civil markets.”
