Super Heavy-Lift Drone Company to Open Florida Plant

A new assembly plant that will produce some of the world’s most powerful Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) will soon be operating at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport near Tampa.

GRIFF Aviation North America’s component supplier, GRIFF Aviation of Alesund, Norway, has constructed a prototype that lifts hundreds of pounds and the company is working on a larger unit that will carry nearly a ton. In the beginning the independent assembly plant in Florida will build around six drones a week for distribution throughout North America. Plans are already in place to increase that capacity dramatically as needed.

To accommodate the immediate demands of the American industrial, agricultural and military marketplace, the company will produce four basic airframes to which they can attach up to 20 different accessory packages in order to meet a particular mission for a purchaser. Flight times can run from 20 to 45 minutes depending on payload weight though flight times can be extended for over an hour with added battery packs and a lesser payload, and with a 500′ electronic tether it can stay aloft indefinitely.  It will soon become the first and only commercial Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to be certified by Europe’s European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as well as our own Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The global consumer drone industry is expected to climb to a value of nearly $4 billion over the next ten years. Given that drone technology has so many numerous commercial, industrial, and military applications (the defense drone market is already worth around $8 billion), the future for drone growth looks incredibly bright.  It is anticipated that in the US, the FAA will be soon be announcing major changes in the regulation of all drones weighing over 55 pounds and used commercially.  Presumably this will open the floodgates for companies currently awaiting the green light from the authorities.

Most US heavy lift drones only lift between 5 and 80 pounds so the GRIFF UAVs are being hailed as gamechangers.  “The commercial heavy-lift drone is the next big worldwide technology explosion once regulations can be worked out governing the industry,” says Leif Holand, GRIFF’s (Norway) CEO.  “It’s inevitable and we feel that the United States market will lead world demand.  The craft will be entirely assembled in the US from technology and components supplied by GRIFF Aviation here in Norway.”

GRIFF’s plan is to produce 5 basic airframes around which it will construct 20 or so different applications depending on the mission described by the purchaser.  Examples are construction, movie production, agriculture, search and rescue, law enforcement, civil services, fire services, cargo delivery, man overboard rescues, and of course, the military and defense industries.  Imagine being able to deliver desperately needed ammunition and supplies to US forces in a firefight, even evacuating wounded soldiers.

With safety the number one concern of the world’s aviation authorities, the GRIFF line will offer a ballistic parachute that deploys in milliseconds in the event of any kind of problem.

Griff Aviation’s UAVs will be priced from around $250,000 and up with pricing dependent upon the customer’s requirements.  “Consider that the only other alternative a purchaser has is a helicopter at ten times the operating cost and the GRIFF drones become quite a bargain,” says Holand.

As part of the deal with the city, Griff North America also asked for the first chance to refuse to develop a property on the north side of the airport. If business takes off, Boyd said, he wants to secure a location to build the airframes and components in Lakeland rather than ship them from Norway.

Griff Aviation emerged out of a Norwegian film company specializing in aerial camera work. It needed drones capable of carrying up to 200 pounds of equipment but couldn’t find what it was looking for on the market.

Boyd has long been involved in producing air shows, and the small drone he used to take aerial photos and videos was a hobby. When acquaintances said they’d pay him to shoot video for them, he got certified to operate the machines commercially and then got hooked on the new field in aviation.

When he heard of the buzz surrounding Griff’s products, he said he had to get involved. He assembled a team and contacted the Norwegian company. Incidentally, the company was also looking to North America to be the primary market for its products, Boyd said.

Griff Aviation North America will be a welcome tenant at Lakeland Linder, Airport Manager Gene Conrad said. Some airports might shy away from drones, but the airport and the educational institutions next door have embraced the technology, and a student drone-building club is providing extracurricular engagement.

The airport already has an FAA-approved area for flying drones, and hosts four large radio-controlled aircraft events each year.

“Instead of shying away from it we put our best foot forward in order to get them to locate here,” Conrad said.

Sources: Press Release, The Ledger