Griffon Aerospace

Griffon Aerospace is a Madison, Alabama based small business founded by Larry French. Established 3 January 1995 the company was originally started to design, develop, and manufacture a manned composite kit Aircraft called the Lionheart. The design of the single engined 6 seat biplane began in his Larry's home office where he worked to develop a composite aircraft around the legendary Pratt & Whitney R-985 450 horsepower radial engine. The staggerwing design is looks much like 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. During that same time period, Griffon also began designing a 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 contract to build a full scale composite Crew Capsule.

In 2002, Griffon began exanding operations into broader aerospace applications while continuing to focus on advanced compsite structures. In 2002, Griffon became involved in the testing of composite cryogenics tanks for NASA. Griffon also developed composites developed a full sized composite space capsule for Lockheed and began designing and developing unmanned aircraft In 2002, Griffon began developing a 130 pound gross wieght unmanned aircraft designated the MQM-170A Outlaw and its associated Ground Support Equipment. In 2003. Griffon was awarded a five year contract with the United States Army to manufacture, operate, and maintain the MQM-170A Outlaw. As of September 2008, 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. 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.

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