Horizon Aerobotics is excited to announce a strategic partnership with Aerium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to catalyzing aviation innovation and shaping tomorrow's workforce in Pennsylvania. This partnership marks a significant milestone in our nationwide expansion and positions Cambria County, Pennsylvania as a cornerstone of our operations.
National Operations Hub
Horizon Aerobotics has entered into an agreement with Aerium to establish our first and primary Remote Operations Center (ROC) at the Mid-Atlantic Opportunity Park at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. This facility will serve as the hub for our nationwide UAS operations, enabling us to deliver 24/7 autonomous aerial intelligence services to customers across the country.
We're deploying our first fully-integrated systems of drones, docking stations, flight operations and fleet management in Cambria County. Full-system integration testing and validation of our infrastructure for AI-augmented drone inspection and security solutions, and integration of our operations into the National Airspace System, are being conducted at multiple test sites in and around Cambria County.
Building the Workforce of the Future
Our growth trajectory includes approximately 247 new employees to staff remote operations and maintenance centers supporting our expanding nationwide operations. We have strategically partnered with Aerium to develop training and workforce pipelines in Pennsylvania to meet our local and regional recruiting and hiring goals.
Compliance with regulatory requirements for advanced UAS operations demands a qualified workforce with unique next-generation aviation training and experience. The advanced skills required for complex operations—including many-to-one drone operations and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight—have historically been difficult to acquire through traditional commercial or academic channels. Aerium and its partners have recognized this gap and are providing the education and workforce development programs that our business requires now and in coming years.
Expanding Partnerships Through the Aerium Ecosystem
We have expanded our partnerships and industry collaborations by leveraging the rich ecosystem of advanced air mobility and aviation partnerships that Aerium has created in the region. The ecosystem of industry partnerships Aerium has catalyzed is proving to be a valuable accelerator to our own vision and plans.
We're particularly encouraged by collaborations emerging with members of Aerium's education and workforce development ecosystem. St. Francis University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and University of Pittsburgh Johnstown are all proving to be willing, interested, and capable partners in our workforce development journey—and potentially in technology development as well. These relationships, at various stages of maturity, represent the kind of education-to-industry pipeline that will define the future of aerospace workforce development.
Validating Solutions in the Region
Beyond building our own operational infrastructure, we are collaborating with customers and partners in the region to operationally validate railroad inspection solutions aimed at improving railroad efficiency and safety. Pennsylvania is proving to be an ideal environment not just for scaling our operations, but for demonstrating the real-world value of autonomous aerial intelligence in critical infrastructure applications.
Looking Ahead
Aspirationally, we're exploring the potential to deploy and expand a multi-use shared infrastructure of drones and docking stations that could serve a variety of public benefit applications—including highway and infrastructure inspection, disaster response, search and rescue, and security of sensitive infrastructure and facilities. These possibilities reflect the breadth of opportunity we see in the region and the tremendous potential for autonomous aerial intelligence to serve the public good.
"We are genuinely excited to continue and deepen our collaboration with Aerium and our growing network of partners in the region," said Denver Hopkins, CEO of Horizon Aerobotics. "Aerium's vision and efforts are remarkably well aligned with our own operational goals. What they have built in Pennsylvania—connecting education, industry, and innovation—is exactly the ecosystem that companies like ours need to grow and succeed. We're proud to be part of it."