US Air Force Awards Beehive Industries $12.4M to 3D Print Engines for Unmanned Vehicles

Beehive Industries, an additive manufacturing (AM) contract manufacturer based in Colorado, has been awarded a $12.4 million contract by the US Air Force to print engines for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as drones and cruise missiles. The company will partner with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) to fulfill the contract.

Beehive plans to leverage the company’s $4 million, 60,000-square foot facility in Knoxville, Tennessee to design and produce 30 engines. Beehive officially opened that facility in May 2024, as part of an ongoing expansion plan for the company.

In March 2024, Beehive completed a successful fire test of a jet engine demonstrator that took the company only sixteen months to finish, a much faster pace than the industry norm. According to the company, the design’s 90 percent part consolidation enabled a cost reduction of around 50 percent, by comparison with conventional manufacturing methods.

In a press release about Beehive Industries’ $12.4 million contract with the US Air Force, the company’s chief product officer, Gordie Follin, said, “Beehive is excited to have this opportunity to bring its capabilities to bear on the affordable mass challenge for the US military in collaboration with the University of Dayton Research Institute. Our state-of-the-art [AM] approach opens up new possibilities to radically alter the traditional relationships between cost, performance, and scalability while delivering high performance engines purpose built for their applications.”

Beehive’s positive momentum in 2024 is encouraging evidence that restructuring can be effectively executed in the AM industry. In July 2023, the company underwent significant layoffs, reducing its workforce by almost 20 percent, an action that seems to have largely affected its Cincinnati offices.

This looks like it was the correct decision, as Beehive is now planning to expand its personnel beyond what it was even prior to the layoffs. In an industry that, collectively, has more or less been in a state of restructuring for around three years now, Beehive Industries may provide an instructive lesson.

As always, the most important factor in determining an AM company’s condition remains the choice of the right applications to target. I may turn too often to Ursa Major as an example, but if I do, that’s simply because the company is one of the brightest spots for the US AM industry thus far this decade.

Additionally, given that Ursa Major is producing rocket motors and Beehive Industries is making engines, the comparison is undeniably apt in this particular context. The lesson isn’t so much to cling to military funding as a blanket solution, but rather to follow the money. Pay attention to where the largest manufacturing stakeholders globally are directing their investments, determine a critical component that conventional manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the demand for, and become obsessively focused on mastering that part.

Images courtesy of Beehive Industries