On Monday, July 24th, 2023, Whisper Aero and the City of Crossville held a Groundbreaking ceremony for Whisper Aero’s Flight Test Center co-located at Crossville Memorial Airport. Construction of the new 8,000 sq ft hangar is made possible through a $1.2M appropriation from the State of Tennessee. Building should commence later this year with an intended completion early next year.

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Esteemed attendees of the event included: 

• Tennessee Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton
• Whisper Aero COO, Chief Product Officer, Co-founder, Ian Villa
• City of Crossville Mayor, RJ Crawford
• Cumberland County Mayor, Allen Foster
• Tennessee Department of Transportation, Director of Aeronautics,  John-Paul ("J.P.") Saalwaechter, P.E.
• Crossville City Manager, Greg Wood
• LaunchTN CEO, Lindsey Cox
• LaunchTN Chief Investment Officer, Monique Villa

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Whisper Aero’s Flight Test Center will feature high bay areas for Whisper to test and integrate its propulsion system on future aircraft as well as office spaces for onsite engineering.

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“This is another partnership with the state to help the city and to help Whisper Aero to build something that’s very needed, that’s very unique, that hasn’t been done in Tennessee before,” said Tennessee Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton.

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As part of this project, the airport, City of Crossville, and Whisper Aero are also collaborating to install high-power charging at this hangar for the next-generation aircraft that will utilize Whisper Aero’s propulsors.

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For Whisper, this is another step in advancing the future of propulsion in Tennessee. The flight test center will provide additional space for Whisper’s growing team to engineer outside of its 8,000 sqft engineering campus in Nashville and 40,000 sqft manufacturing and ground center in downtown Crossville.

"Crossville Memorial Airport — it's not just an airport. This is really where we started a lot of the testing for our technology; it's where we were actually able to integrate this in that hanger right there. And so this is a very special spot for us,” said Ian Villa, COO of Whisper Aero.

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Whisper is currently hiring for eager engineers and technicians looking to build a future that’s as considerate as it is compelling across its Tennessee locations.