Kansas Aerial Spray Company Strikes Deal With Maker of Pelican Spray

Pyka, maker of the world’s largest autonomous electric crop protection aircraft, recently announced that Heinen Brothers Agra Services (HBAS), based in Seneca, Kansas, is the first U.S. company to purchase its Pelican Spray plane. HBAS is one of the largest privately owned aerial application service providers in North America. Headquartered in Alameda, California, Pyka produces proprietary technology that includes autonomous flight control software, flight computers, high energy density batteries, advanced electric propulsion systems, and carbon composite airframes.

Heinen Brothers Agra Services will now begin integrating Pelican Spray into its extensive fleet of agricultural aircraft. The addition will enhance its operations across the Midwest, South and Western regions of the U.S., enabling it to better meet peak customer demand through large-scale automation of their aerial application services.

This partnership follows the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval for the commercial operation of Pelican Spray in the U.S. – making it the largest ever Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) authorized by the FAA for commercial use.

“We’ve been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to begin operations with Pelican Spray,” said Lukas Koch, Chief Technology Officer at Heinen Brothers Agra Services. “As experts in aerial application, we see the potential for UAS to revolutionize our industry, offering significant cost-saving benefits to American farmers.”

Pelican Spray is the first autonomous agricultural aircraft that delivers the necessary work rate and spray performance needed to provide a viable commercial solution to begin augmenting the current fleet. “Ultimately,” Koch said, “we want to keep the pilots of our manned aircraft safer, so we are adopting a proactive approach that will allow UAS to handle certain workloads that will get our traditional pilots home safely to their families and loved ones.”

On an agronomic front, HBAS explained, timing is very important for crop health. “New tools like Pelican Spray will help us better serve our customers and their fields,” Koch noted. “These are groundbreaking times, and we hope to facilitate even more agricultural innovation through collaboration with future companies that can unlock even more value from platforms like the Pelican Spray. We are excited for the future of ag aviation and look forward to a long and productive partnership with Pyka.”

Heinen Brothers is a forward-thinking organization that embraces new technologies to enhance the capabilities of American producers and improve the nation’s food production systems overall, said Volker Fabian, Chief Commercial Officer at Pyka. “We are thrilled to partner with them and excited to commence U.S. operations with Pelican Spray.”

Work On The Ground

As it ramps up to lift off with Pelican Spray, HBAS, a nationwide leader in agricultural aerial application and firefighting, has created a subsidiary company – Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems focused on the commercialization of UAS exclusively in the agricultural sector.  

Through a relationship with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the FAA approved a nearly 49,000 square mile unmanned aerial systems test range covering parts of four states allowing for advanced drone testing on systems that are not readily available to public users. This privately managed test range will provide a unique opportunity for developers and manufacturers to evaluate the system’s efficacy in a low-risk environment while helping these products reach commercialization faster through collaboration with key parties in the value chain.

“Unmanned aerial application in agriculture is accelerating faster in other countries, than it is here in the United States” Koch said. The Kelly Hills FAA approved test range covers partial airspace in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. The range provides the ability to host fixed-wing, multirotor, and rotary-wing systems testing applications on ten different crops including corn, soybeans and milo. Test range tenants have access to elite private and shared hangar options.

“Heinen Brothers and Kelly Hills are true leaders and pioneers in the agricultural aviation sector,” said Koch. “The company has thirty years of experience with aerial applications. This test range has the potential to drive environmentally conscious innovation, improve safety of pilots, and change the economic dynamics for the American farmer.”