OKC leaders to vote on incentives for drone-maker Skydweller

 

Skydweller Aero, a company developing a solar-powered “ultra-persistent” high altitude drone will be getting $275,000 in job-creation incentives from the Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust.

Skydweller wants to open its production in Oklahoma City and one in Ardmore with projections of hiring 75 people at an average wage of $87,000..

Its drone, one that would airborne for long periods of time would apply to communications, military and intelligence. The Trust voted last week to authorize the negotiations to finalize the agreement.

However, the city council will have final say and the issue could go before the council sometime in early September.

Skydweller’s headquarters are in Washington, D.C. but will be relocated to Oklahoma City. It chose Ardmore because of its flight-test operations.

“We’re looking to bring in a significant engineering talent pool,” said John Parkes, co-founder of the company. “We believe that we’ll have a significant presence in Oklahoma long-term with hundreds and hundreds of jobs.”

The company is also in discussions with Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma to conduct joint research.

In November of 2019, Italian multinational aerospace company Leonardo acquired a minority stake in Skydweller. Leonardo’s acquisition of an equity stake in Skydeweller is the end result of over a year of collaboration between the two companies turned into a key technology partnership.

Skydweller Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Sébastien Renouard, said the company raised $26 million at its launch and hires 50 engineers working on their HAPS program. Its staff was brought in from several organizations to Spain to form an international consortium.

Although no financial details were disclosed, Leonardo revealed that they would assume the role of lead financial investor and industrial partner to Skydweller Aero Inc, and would be responsible for marketing their HAPS system in Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, and NATO.