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Beehive Industries, an American manufacturer of advanced propulsion systems for uncrewed aerial defense applications, has announced the successful completion of high-altitude testing for its 200 lbf Frenzy™ engine, marking another major milestone in the company’s rapid development program and confirming readiness for flight testing in the first quarter of 2026.

The achievement for the Denver, CO-headquartered company that opened a new 60,000-square-foot facility in West Knoxville in May 2024, underscores Beehive’s ability to deliver cutting-edge propulsion to the warfighter at the speed of need — advancing American defense with innovation built for operational advantage.

The high-altitude test campaign, conducted at a government test facility in Ohio, validates Frenzy’s performance and capability across the full flight envelope. With this success, Beehive has completed altitude testing on schedule and is preparing to scale production to meet surging customer demand.

“The milestone confirms Frenzy’s readiness for flight integration,” said David Kimball, Chief Technology Officer at Beehive Industries. “In less than a year, we’ve gone from concept to proven high-altitude performance — and we’re doing it ahead of schedule because of the talented and determined team at Beehive. Frenzy is now flight-ready, and our production system is ready to scale alongside it.”

The altitude campaign capped an extraordinary year of progress for Beehive’s Frenzy program. Following the company’s September announcement of successful ground testing on six engines in just four months, Beehive shipped two prototype engines to a government testing facility in Ohio on schedule in October for a series of high-altitude tests. The results — performance, ignition at altitude, operability, and durability — all met or exceeded challenging Air Force requirements, validating the disruptive capability of the Frenzy engine. To recap the test campaign, the Frenzy engines demonstrated:

1. Successful ignition and operation across the flight envelope;
2. Rapid acceleration from light-off to 100 percent engine speed;
3. Turbine temperatures and thrust-specific fuel consumption better than predicted; and
4. “Like new” hardware condition after mission-life equivalent runtime.

These results validate Beehive’s additive-first manufacturing approach, which allows the company to compress traditional aerospace development cycles from years to months while delivering disruptive cost and performance at unmatched scale.

“This test campaign not only demonstrates the full potential of our engine, but also how we move with speed through a highly iterative, cross-functional development program,” Kimball added. “Each milestone strengthens our confidence in the architecture, our ability to deliver on our commitments, and the disruptive path we’re charting for next-generation propulsion. We’re not just accelerating development timelines — we’re ensuring America’s warfighters have the technology they need, when they need it most.”

With flight testing set for early 2026, Beehive is preparing to integrate the Frenzy engine with its first flight vehicle — the final step before entering low-rate initial production. The company’s facilities in Denver, Cincinnati, and Knoxville are already ramping capacity to meet anticipated production demand.

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