Wed, Dec 02, 2015
Say They Were Driven By Challenges They Faced At XCOR
After abruptly resigning from XCOR ... the company they helped found ... last week, Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong have announced their new venture.
Greason and DeLong have joined with Aleta Jackson, who also left XCOR at about the same time, to form Agile Aero, which will also be based in Midland Texas. Space News reports that Greason said XCOR and companies like it are not able to rapidly develop and test high-speed aircraft and launch vehicles, and that is the problem that they hope the new company can address.
On their website, which so far is a single page, Agile Aero says that "Many advanced aerospace projects falter because of the long development cycle for custom aerospace vehicles. Recent years have seen breakthroughs in the rapid development and the prototyping of rocket engines, satellites, and many subsystems for advanced vehicles – but integrated vehicles are still developed with traditional slow methods. Agile Aero is working to bring modern rapid prototyping to complete vehicles for space launch, hypersonic vehicles, and innovative aircraft. Once we have that capability, we will offer short schedule vehicle prototyping services.
"We also have an interest in advanced propulsion and energy systems that go beyond conventional chemical propulsion and can significantly lower vehicle cost for key missions and offer breakthrough improvements in performance."
Greason told Space News that he and DeLong decided to leave when a reorganization at XCOR took them out of management roles. He said that Agile Aero is an independant company that is free to work with any other entity in the industry ... including XCOR.
He also says he holds no ill will towards his former company. He told Space News that he still hold stock in XCOR, and wants to see it be successful.
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