On December 8, 2020, Governor Ralph Northam announced that Silent Falcon UAS Technologies will open a new East Coast headquarters at the Front Royal-Warren County Airport in Virginia, creating an estimated 249 new jobs. Silent Falcon UAS Technologies manufactures unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for security, military, and commercial purposes. Their decision to move to Virginia indicates the state’s growing role as a leader in the field.
Silent Falcon will also be partnering with Randolph-Macon Academy’s Unmanned Systems Lab, which will provide R-MA students with additional and unparalleled hands-on learning experiences. Through this partnership, students at our prep school will be able to gain first-hand knowledge on how drones and drone-based data collection can be used in community management and in addressing business, environmental, and economic challenges.
By working with Silent Falcon, R-MA will offer new opportunities to students. These will be focused on the next generation of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations—using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop cutting-edge data collection and analysis solutions. R-MA teacher Brian J. Kelly, who helped orchestrate the partnership, has noted that “We’re talking about real-world challenges, real-world missions that they’re going to be out there flying, and that our students are going to have access to,” he says. “Silent Falcon represents the peak of the kind of clients we want to work with.”