Sabrewing Aircraft Signs Historic Agreement with St. Paul’s Aleut Community

According to John “Nevada” Nevadomsky, former flight test manager for Northrop Grumman and former director of the Pan Pacific UAV Test Range Complex, and now director of research, development, test, and evaluation for Sabrewing, “The SPxTR Complex has the capability of testing any aircraft over the Bering Sea—with more space and capability than any test range that I’m familiar with.”

In addition to the aircraft and test range, Sabrewing and ACSPI are creating a joint venture corporation to provide UAV pilot training, maintenance and dispatcher training, and aircraft replacement and spare parts. The joint venture provides a vehicle for military and governmental contracting. Under this agreement, Sabrewing will build and sell (or lease) its cargo aircraft to commercial customers and the joint venture will train the aircraft’s remote operators, mechanics, and dispatchers. “We’ve been discussing the possibility of using pilots trained by the University of Alaska Anchorage to train new pilots to a Commercial/Instrument-pilot level of competency, after which we would them train them to operate our aircraft. This would help the new pilot to build hours towards an Air Transport Pilot rating—and also help alleviate the current pilot shortage as well. In discussions with the FAA, they’ve been very open to ways to train pilots to help reduce the shortage,” said De Reyes. He also stated that their remote pilots follow all the current procedures that “on-board” pilots follow, including flying instrument approaches and taking directions from air traffic control (ATC). Following published procedures and maneuvering the aircraft under ATC command is one of the most critical tasks that a pilot must perform.

Sabrewing and ACSPI also agreed to jointly bid on Department of Defense and Federal contracts. “This agreement fits nicely with our plan to build and test the aircraft in Anchorage for both commercial and DoD customers” continued De Reyes, “It’s a perfect combination of two entities: the ACSPI—who is already testing, flying, and training operators of small drones and is leading from the front on modernizing their community—and us, who provide an aircraft that can not only bring much needed supplies to their community in any weather, day or night. This is a convergence of two innovative entities,” stated De Reyes.

St. Paul Island is located almost directly in the center of the Bering Sea. The island community of about 500 inhabitants has steadily led their population forward in both education and technology—even teaching classes in both Anchorage and St. Paul in drone pilot licensing, software development, and conservation. St. Paul has also kept its Native traditions alive by teaching their language in school to make sure that it will always be a part of their culture.

“When we first saw St. Paul Island, we fell in love with the quiet serenity of the location, the ability to test our aircraft in a location with hundreds of thousands of square miles of test range, and the friendly, family-like attitude of the people there. We’re looking forward to starting our testing there as soon as we’re able,” said De Reyes.

Sabrewing is a manufacturer of unmanned heavy-lift commercial cargo air vehicles. The company created a new generation of heavy-lift, unmanned commercial cargo transport air vehicles that can lift 2 tonnes of cargo, take off and land vertically in austere locations, in any weather, up to 1,500 nautical miles. Headquartered in California, Sabrewing designs and develops cutting-edge technology at its “Dragonworks” Lab in the Silicon Valley to develop the future of unmanned cargo aircraft.