Rocket motor manufacturer X-Bow Systems Inc. of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has acquired Spencer Composites Corp. of Sacramento, with plans to keep Spencer’s 50,000-square-foot manufacturing and prototyping space in North Natomas as well as its local employees.
Jason Hundley, X-Bow's CEO, declined to disclose the terms of the deal, but said Spencer’s 26 employees will remain with X-Bow, bringing it to more than 200 full-time and part-time workers.
"We have collaborated extensively with Spencer Composites over the past several years on our solid rocket motor designs," said Hundley, in a news release.
He said the two companies have complementary product lines, and that the Spencer acquisition is a “significant vertical integration for X-Bow, ensuring a seamless supply chain for critical components within our commercial modular motor and hypersonic booster large solid rocket motor programs."
X-Bow develops advanced manufacturing systems for rocket motors and launch vehicle propulsion, and it builds modular solid rocket motors and small launch vehicles.
Spencer makes specialty parts using composite materials for the defense, aviation, industrial, aerospace, deep water and petroleum industries.
Spencer CEO Brian Spencer will remain with X-Bow as an operations technical principal and subject matter expert.
"I am very proud of the company my wife, Linda Spencer, and I started 30 years ago," said Spencer, in a news release. "Thirty years is just the beginning. I see continued technological innovation in collaboration with X-Bow Systems and expect the expertise from both organizations will leverage to optimally achieve advanced composite solutions for our collective customers."
Spencer Composites started up in 1994 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The family moved to Sacramento in 2000 and opened the business in a 50,000-square-foot space in North Natomas.
Since late last year, X-Bow has received several contract awards, including a $64 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense for rocket motor design qualification, an $18 million follow-on contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop one of the company's manufacturing capabilities and, most recently, a pair of Navy rocket motor contracts worth $3.4 million and $4.1 million, respectively.
X-Bow is designing and building solid rocket motor and launch vehicles for both orbital and suborbital launch services.
The Spencer acquisition includes the transfer of several key patents, X-Bow said. Spencer had more than 20 patents.
In addition to structures for rockets and other uses, Spencer has developed a variety of other technologies over the years. In 2019, Spencer Composites received a patent for a device that can create an electrical charge from the expansion of a person’s lungs during normal inhaling and exhaling.
The device can be strapped around a person’s chest, and their breathing is enough to run it. It could also work by being strapped to a thigh while walking — anything that expands and contracts, Spencer said at the award of the patent.
