Photo Courtesy Of SCLA
By Staff Reports
(Victorville)– – In an announcement to align its flight test activities to a location that is
closer to where the Boeing unmanned helicopter is produced, SCLA has received notice that
the Boeing A-160 flight test program is being relocated to Arizona. The Boeing Hummingbird
program has operated out of SCLA dating back to July of 1995 when it was originally developed
by a company called Frontier Systems. The Boeing Hummingbird conducted its first unmanned
flight test in 2004. Over that period of time, the Boeing Hummingbird program had expanded
into a total of 39,868 square feet of hangar space located at SCLA. Boeing’s flight test activity
had taken place in a specially designated airspace for unmanned flight systems that is
controlled by SCLA’s air traffic control tower.
“We are saddened to see the Boeing Hummingbird program leave SCLA, however, it has
reminded us how important we have been to each other in achieving our respective goals”, says
Ryan McEachron, Chairman of SCLA and Mayor for the City of Victorville. “Operating at SCLA,
Boeing has been able to prove the unmanned Hummingbird helicopter as flight worthy and it
has helped prove SCLA as an ideal location for the development of aviation systems and flight
test operations”, says McEachron.
More Despite the Boeing Hummingbird departure, there remain a number of Boeing operations
functioning at SCLA including the Boeing service contract recently signed with Pacific
Aerospace Resources and Technology (PART) of March 28, 2012. Boeing Corporation has
been a tenant at SCLA since 2001, conducting various aviation operations that have evolved
and expanded over the past 11 years. It is expected that the Hummingbird facilities will be
vacated within 90-days and it is believed, that based on current demand for hangar facilities,
that the Hummingbird hangar units will be occupied by a tenant conducting like operations.