Griffon Aerospace
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| Company type | S Corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace Defense Global Security |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Headquarters | Madison, Alabama, USA |
Area served | US |
Key people | Larry A. French (CEO)/(CTO) Gary W. Tuttle (Business Development & Program Manager) |
| Products | UAS Ballistic missiles Munitions NMD elements Transport aircraft Fighter aircraft Radar Satellite Atlas launch vehicles NASA's Orion spacecraft Hulc-Human exoskeleton |
Number of employees | 50 (2009) |
| Website | [1] |
Griffon Aerospace is a Madison, Alabama based small business founded by Larry French. Established 3 January 1995 the company was originally formed to design, develop, and manufacture a manned composite kit Aircraft. Griffon's first aircraft was the single engined 6 seat Lionheart. The design and developmnet began at Larry's home in Harvest, Alabama where he worked designing and developing a sleek composite aircraft formed around the legendary Pratt & Whitney R-985 450 horsepower radial engine. The staggerwing design pays complement to the classic Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing. Pre-sales of the Lionheart took place in 1995 and 1996 at the Annual Experimental Aircraft Show at Osh-Kosh. Lionheart's first flight was 28 July 1997 and 48 hours later it flew in to the annual Osh Kosh show. Lionheart was a hit at Osh Kosh and was featured on the cover of the October 1997 Kit Planes Magazine. Enough orders and excitement were generated the kit industry that Larry French took on Griffon Aerospace his full time occupation and moved into a 5,000 sq foot facility located at 901 Nick Fitchard in Huntsville. Griffon also gain some interested investors that helped to provide working capital for the new company.
In 2002, Griffon began to expand into composite structures for NASA applications through a subcontract with Northrop Grumman for composite cyrogenic tanks. During that same time period, Griffon also began designing a prototype 130 pound gross wieght unmanned aircraft eventually designated the MQM-170A Outlaw. In February 2003, Griffon submitted a proposal in response to the US Army AMCOM Remotely Piloted Vehicle Target(RPVT)offering and Griffon was awared the RPVT contract in August 2003. A few months later Lockheed awarded Griffon a large contract to build a full scale composite Crew Capsule.
In 2004, the addition of the US Army's new five year RPVT production contract allowed Griffon Aerospace expanded quickly, producing over between 50 and 80 Outlaw aircraft per month at one piont. Griffon also put together flight crews to fly the unmanned aircraft for the US Army and Foriegn Military customers. As of 2009, Griffon has produced over 2,000 unmanned aircraft and has flown over 55,000 sorties and maintained a 1.2% loss rate to date. In 2009, Griffon Aerospace successfully won the recompete for the Outlaw MQM-170A. Also in 2009, Griffon was awarded a sole-source contract for the MQM-171A Broadsword a 600 pound gross wieght unmanned aircraft. Finally the US Navy also awarded Griffon Aerospace a contract for the manufacture, operation, and maintenace of a modified version of the successful Outlaw MQM-170A. Griffon was awarded the Northrop Supplier of the Year for 2009 for its advanced composite work on the NASA MLAS program.
In 2010 griffon sussufully passed ISO 9001:2008 compliance audit and is registered with Perry Johnson Registrars.
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