Whisper Aero cuts ribbon on $1.2 M flight test center in Crossville
In four years, the start-up has grown from two founders to more than 50 employees creating silent thrust for a variety of industries.
Whisper Aero is somewhat of a unicorn company in Cumberland County – perhaps not yet in the way of valuation, but through the means of the hope, promise, and prosperity it has brought to a little town nestled in the Cumberland plateau.
Just four years ago, the company’s Founders Mark Moore and Ian Villa embarked on an enormous entrepreneurial vision that almost nobody believed was possible. But, the Crossville community did.
On Thursday morning, Whisper Aero cut the ribbon on its first 8,000-square-foot flight test center at the Crossville Memorial Airport.
The new facility was funded by a $1.2 million direct appropriation from the Tennessee General Assembly to support economic development in the region. It provides a large space for engineers to begin work on the company’s next wave of products.
Whisper Aero is known for its invention of cleaner, quieter, and more efficient thrust. So far, that has been demonstrated as effective through their prototypes for drones, gliders, jets, and even leaf blowers.
Hundreds of people drove out to the new facility to support one of the region’s most innovative companies. Several of the company’s products were on display, and visitors even got to experience the silent power of the thrusters.
“One of the most powerful emotions you can have is gratitude. It’s something so powerful that you can feel it through your entire soul,” Moore said tearing up in front of the crowd. ” Today is one of those days for me.”
In the crowd was a notable group of guests from across the state. Notably, Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter, Senator Paul Bailey, City of Crossville Mayor RJ Crawford, and Cumberland County Mayor Allen Foster were all in attendance and spoke in adoration of the fast-growing start-up.
Speaker Sexton gave a moving speech about how the propulsion company has completely changed the Upper Cumberland ecosystem, making it ripe for more innovation.
“Having innovative companies like Whisper Aero in the community who want to shoot for the sky and the stars is incredible,” Sexton said. He continued by adding his gratitude for the company’s recruitment of talented people to the region.
Currently, Whisper Aero has about 40 employees, not including its (at least) 15 interns, all of which have been recruited from across the United States. Additionally, many of the full-time engineers joined from some of the best schools and companies in the region because they support the Whisper Aero mission and vision.
McWhorter spoke in support of the recruiting efforts, gave gratitude to Whisper Aero, and also community partners – such as the ReConnecTN Coalition, which is focused on enabling Regional Air Mobility.
“Tennessee is fortunate to have a vast network of research institutions statewide that provide immense support to our industry partners,” he said. “We are proud to have this cutting-edge brand in Tennessee and believe their continued investment will further strengthen and build out our innovation ecosystem in the years to come.”
Finally, the leadership who backed Moore and Villa when Whisper Aero was just an idea took the podium. Crawford and Foster, the local mayors, were so proud of the company’s growth in the last four years.
“I tell every person that will listen about Whisper Aero and all they’ve done for Cumberland country,” Foster said.
“It is so cool to see an innovative business like this, in a city like this,” Crawford said.
With the opening of the new facility comes even bigger, better, and “quieter” ideas. Ahead of the ribbon cutting, Villa explained that the aviation industry is a $200 billion industry that is primed for disruption. They hope to take the skies by storm with new drones, jets, air taxis, and planes.
“Our vision is to provide air travel at the same cost – or a lower cost than ground transportation. It’s going to take a lot of work, but we can get there,” Villa said.
The company took time during the ribbon-cutting ceremony to provide live demonstrations of its high-efficiency, ultra-quiet propulsors from five pounds of thrust up to over 70 pounds as examples of its future testing plans.
Ultimately, the team intends to use hangar space to install newly built propulsors from its 40,000-square-foot Crossville headquarters onto customer airframes at multiple sizes. At the flight test center opening, the team showcased its Whisper Jet cabin mockup alongside a new Whisper Swift Glider featuring its largest thruster to date. These aircraft concepts showcased how Whisper’s propulsion systems can be installed in innovative ways to unlock a low-noise future of flight that’s as considerate as it is compelling.
It is safe to say that the ribbon cutting is only the beginning of a bright future for the team at Whisper Aero.
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