High-Flying Solar Drones at EPCAL? And Why Not?
Aerospace could be coming soon to the former Grumman airstrip in Calverton, at least in some strange new form.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter announced at Thursday’s town board work session that a firm called Luminati Aerospace had purchased Skydive Long Island, which has been running skydiving lessons at the former Grumman airstrip for decades.
“They make very, very large solar-powered drones that fly in the atmosphere at about 60,000 feet,” said Mr. Walter. “Thats what I can say. That’s what I know.”
Mr. Walter described Luminati as a “research and development manufacturing company that will set the stage for the rest of what happens at EPCAL.”
Skydive Long Island, founded by Raymond Maynard, has permanently closed, according to an announcement on their website thanking their customers for “29 years of wonderful memories.”
“We enjoyed every day of it!” they said. “We have permanently closed but wish you blue skies always.”
Mr. Walter said he plans to bring representatives of Luminati Aerospace to meet with the town board about a runway use agreement next Thursday, Oct. 8.
He promised that their presence in Riverhead was not election-month posturing, but a real shot at making over EPCAL into what Riverhead Town Board members have hoped it could be for decades.
“Forget what you know about EPCAL,” he said. “We have accomplished something that will have charted the course for the next 20 years at EPCAL. It took a little bit of doing, but we landed them.”
Luminati Aerospace registered for an N-number with the FAA this July, just one week after it was incorporated as an LLC at an address on Conover Street in Brooklyn.
The N-number is for a gyroplane manufactured by the French firm DTA, which specializes in “trikes,” three-wheeled, ultralight helicopters.
The model Luminati has registered with the FAA is a J-RO 914, and the registration runs through July of 2018.
The company’s web page, luminati.aero, is simply a home page containing a sketch of the zodiac, with no further information. No contact information for the company’s principals is currently available online with corporate filing information.
Riverhead’s Oct. 8 work session begins at 10 a.m.
Editor’s Note: Our full coverage of the Oct. 8 work session is online here.
