Colorado-based propulsion startup Beehive Industries has secured a virtually $30 million contract from the US Air Drive to advance testing and improvement of its Frenzy line of low-cost, 3D-printed turbojets, the corporate introduced April 9.
The deal funds car integration, flight testing, and qualification of the Frenzy 8, a 200lb-thrust engine that’s Beehive’s lead product. It additionally covers prototype fabrication of the smaller Frenzy 6, which falls into the 100lb-thrust class. Choices for additional Frenzy 6 work, together with car integration and a flight demonstration, are constructed into the contract.
Funding comes from the Air Drive’s Small Expendable Turbine program, which is designed to qualify low-cost, disposable jet engines for uncrewed plane and stand-off weapons that may be produced at scale. Journal depth has turn into a urgent navy concern lately. The Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research estimates that through the first week of fight in Iran, US forces fired practically 1,700 long-range strike and air protection missiles, roughly a 12 months’s price of commercial output at present manufacturing charges.
Beehive isn’t alone in chasing that market. The six-year-old Denver firm is competing towards GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Honeywell Aerospace for small engine contracts. “By harnessing additive manufacturing to break down complicated provide chains into scalable, 3D-printed propulsion, we’re offering the reasonably priced mass important to trendy deterrence,” stated Gordie Follin, Beehive’s chief product officer. “This collaboration ensures our warfighters can have the high-volume, mission-ready capabilities they should preserve a aggressive edge in any theater.”
Beehive accomplished high-altitude lab testing on the Frenzy 8 in December and had deliberate to start flight testing within the first quarter of 2026, a goal it didn’t meet. The brand new contract means a flight marketing campaign will transfer ahead within the coming months. Two prototype Frenzy engines had been already delivered to the Air Drive in 2025 for early analysis. Engine deliveries to prime producers are additionally underway, although Beehive wouldn’t establish which primes it’s working with, saying solely that every will conduct separate Frenzy trials with their very own platforms.
If testing goes nicely, Beehive says it’s ready to launch low-rate manufacturing at services in Denver, Cincinnati, and Knoxville. An organization official confirmed it’s already ramping up manufacturing to satisfy early contract orders secured alongside the continuing check effort.
