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Luminati Aerospace

Government November 8, 2018

With Riverhead’s nod, CAT set to soar in Calverton

By GREGORY ZELLER // A development team with big plans for a reinvigorated Long Island aerospace industry spread its wings Wednesday night, soaring straight toward its long-desired nest. Calverton Aviation & Technology, a 2017 LLC formed by partners Luminati Aerospace and Triple Five Worldwide Group, was deemed “qualified and eligible” by the Riverhead Community Development Agency, clearing the runway for a $40 million, 1,643-acre purchase agreement previously negotiated by Luminati and the Town of Riverhead….

Newsletters October 12, 2018

No. 348: Lobsters and babies in Huntington, a no-fly zone in Riverhead and gunning for greatness with Janam Tech

TGIF: The finish line approaches, dear readers – the end of another productive workweek and the beginning of another autumn weekend. Speaking of autumn weekends, check out this handy dandy pumpkin-picking guide by our friends over at the Long Island Press. Dig it: Continuing the theme of things grown and picked, today is Oct. 12, which also happens to be National Farmer’s Day. That doesn’t mean what it once did on Long Island. But agriculture…

Invention October 11, 2018

EPCAL delay diverts Luminati VTOL to upstate landing

By GREGORY ZELLER // An aerospace company looking to make a splash in the emerging field of solar-powered flight has reached back through the decades to power up an ambitious new division. Over the last year, Calverton-based Luminati Aerospace has gobbled up entire helicopter-manufacturing firms, and key assets from several other rotor-based companies, including Gyrodyne LLC (formerly Gyrodyne Company of America) and Rotor Flight Dynamics. These acquisitions of companies, designs and manufacturing rights are the…

Economic Development September 25, 2018

Brookhaven IDA backs Triple Five’s Dowling plan

By GREGORY ZELLER // A New Jersey-based developer with high-flying plans for a new Long Island aviation hub has earned an assist from the Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency. The IDA on Tuesday announced its final approval of an economic-incentives package that will help Triple Five Aviation Industries LLC, a subsidiary of East Rutherford-based Triple Five Worldwide Group, redevelop the former Dowling College campus in Shirley into what the development agency called an “aviation…

Newsletters August 3, 2018

No. 328: They’re feeling a little high at SmartCoparent and Luminati … and that’s before Albany legalizes pot

End run: The finish line is in sight, dear readers – the conclusion of another busy workweek and the beginning of another well-earned weekend. Enjoy the ride: Before we wrap up this sultry week in socioeconomic innovation, a warm welcome to new newsletter subscribers Disha, Murat, Isaac, Carolina, Joel, Chad, Brendan, Scottie J, Steve, David, Chris and Jon. Please keep your hands inside the car at all times. And a special hello this Aug. 3…

Invention August 2, 2018

Perpetual flight, endless optimism at Luminati

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the Bodies in Motion Tend to Stay in Motion file comes Luminati Aerospace, which has achieved what it’s calling “perpetual stratospheric flight.” According to the Calverton-based company, a “groundbreaking in-flight experiment” and two years of subsequent data-crunching prove “perpetual stratospheric flight by means of fully automated vortex-seeking formation flight” is possible. In English: The startup aerospace company’s solar-powered planes can stay aloft virtually forever – a potentially ginormous breakthrough that…

Newsletters March 21, 2018

No. 291: Bond and Bueller age, Farrell Fritz looks north and a Stony Brook specialist fills a pathological need

Yes, it is the first full day of spring: Despite copious meteorological evidence to the contrary, spring has sprung. The March (or Northward, or Vernal) Equinox occurred just on schedule around midday Tuesday, with an almost exact amount of daylight and night yesterday across most latitudes on Earth. This “Winter Storm Toby,” however, will have none of it, with Tuesday-evening models suggesting one of the strongest East Coast winter storms of this brutal season, and…

Newsletters January 19, 2018

No. 274: Out-of-the-Voxx thinking, a literal lightbulb moment, an Amazonian longshot and making waves in Hauppauge

The end of the tunnel (and lights): Welcome to the blessed end of another work week. Today is Jan. 19 and the 135th anniversary of the first-ever electric lighting system employing overhead wires – Thomas Edison’s novel system started juicing Roselle, NJ, on this date in 1883. Speaking of bright ideas: The neon tube light was patented on this date, by inventor George Claude (1915), and the granddaddy of wordy board games, Scrabble, made its…

Newsletters December 15, 2017

No. 266: Luminati back at the dance, LIREDC on top and the LIRR on track three

Glad tidings: Happy Friday, readers old and new, and a special hello to Innovate Long Island’s newest sponsor, Uniondale law firm Ruskin Moscou Faltischek. Welcome to the show! Yellow peg: One of the great board games in history was “first conceived” on this date, according to ThoughtCo.’s unofficial History of Trivial Pursuit, which pegs Dec. 15 as the day Canadian newspapermen Chris Haney and Scott Abbott – over a game of Scrabble, natch – invented…

The Debrief September 5, 2017

Debrief: Happy landings with Daniel Preston

With the fate of Riverhead Town’s Enterprise Park at Calverton still very much in the air, Daniel Preston would like to throttle things back a bit. Half-truths and wild speculation have been part of the EPCAL story since Grumman pulled out a quarter-century ago, and CEO Preston’s Luminati Aerospace LLC, which is looking to purchase the storied property for $40 million and revive Long Island’s dormant aerospace industry, has not been spared: It’s already parted…

Economic Development July 28, 2017

Aerospace is swell and all, but this is about land

By GREGORY ZELLER // Make no mistake: For Greek-American billionaire John Catsimatidis, this is a land deal, pure and simple. The owner of Gristedes Foods, the largest grocery chain in Manhattan, can issue press statements noting his “deep roots and interest in aviation,” as he did after word spread that United Refining Energy Corp. – one of several companies under the umbrella of Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Group – would back Luminati Aerospace LLC’s efforts to…

News June 16, 2017

Plant 6 reopened, Luminati says it’s ready for takeoff

Long Island is taxiing back toward the forefront of aerospace manufacturing. One year after a ballyhooed test flight of its solar-powered VO Substrata solar-powered aircraft, Luminati Aerospace LLC held a grand reopening of sorts Friday, cutting the ribbon on Plant 6 at its Enterprise Park at Calverton facility – once a thriving manufacturing hub for Grumman Aerospace Corp. The ceremony included former NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean…

News March 30, 2017

Luminati in deal to buy giant former Grumman site

Luminati Aerospace has signed a letter of intent to acquire the Town of Riverhead’s 2,300-acre Enterprise Park at Calverton for about $40 million. The deal includes about 600 acres of developable property, buildings and two runways at the site, a former Grumman test facility for the F-14. Luminati, which is developing solar-powered aircraft and other next-gen avionics, bought a former sky jumping school at the park last year. It plans to expand its own operations and…

News June 20, 2016

A small ship, and the sun to steer her by

By GREGORY ZELLER // Soaring high above the South Shore and numerous New York City landmarks, the V0 Substrata this weekend made its most ambitious, most adventurous series of flights – a flashy shakedown cruise that also generated critical data for Luminati Aerospace. Just one week after the 27-horsepower “motorglider,” the first plane developed and manufactured on Long Island since the Grumman Aerospace Corp. pulled out 22 years ago, made its public debut with a…

News June 10, 2016

Sky King, and his World of Tomorrow

By GREGORY ZELLER // A gallery of high-ranking observers watched Dan Preston’s dreams take flight Friday – and along with them, a potential rebirth of a once-great Long Island industry. In a sun-splashed coming-out party attended by an impressive gallery of regional rainmakers, Preston’s Luminati Aerospace officially debuted the V0 Substrata, a light solar-electric craft that can be piloted or fly autonomously and represents a soaring climb toward Luminati’s perpetual-flight objectives. The big picture: Unmanned…