A local aircraft engine manufacturer has raised a $3.5 million round and now plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Baltimore.
North American Wave Engine Corp. plans to build a 7,500-square-foot facility at the Baltimore Heliport on the Canton Waterfront to develop and manufacture engines and aircraft.
“Since we build and test aircraft engines, we need an industrial location, and Baltimore City has good industrial locations in close proximity to city life,” CEO Daanish Maqbool said in an email.
The company is developing a new type of jet propulsion engine that does not require moving parts. Instead of using rotating compressor blades like a traditional jet engine, Wave Engine Corp. uses pressure waves to generate thrust for aircraft. The company is exclusively focused on drones and small personal aircraft. Maqbool said the engine will run on different types of fuels, from gasoline and jet fuel to bio-fuels. The engine is supposed to be simpler than a conventional jet engine, so it will be cheaper and easier to maintain.
The second seed round of funding, announced on Nov. 18, was led by Columbia’s Gula Tech Adventures, with other participating investors including Kevin Mahaffey, the Abell Foundation, the Maryland Momentum Fund, and Asymmetry Ventures. The $3.5 million raise is the second wave of funding for Wave Engine Corp. after the company raised $1.45 million in a seed round in 2018. The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also invested $2.85 million in the company in 2019.
Maryland is starting to become a stronger hub for drone companies, in part because of initiatives like the Baltimore Heliport and the University of Maryland UAS Research and Support Center. Wave Engine Corp. will be joining former Under Armour executive Scott Plank's MissionGO at the heliport. Plank's War Horse Cities investment company owns the heliport, and MissionGO's drones fly out of Canton. MissionGO recently won a $50 million contract with a California utility to carry out infrastructure maintenance. Outside of Canton, public company Nordic Unmanned plans to employ 100 people at its North American headquarters in the Baltimore area.
