{"id":260965,"date":"2026-04-10T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T11:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:00:23","slug":"hypersonic-drone-maker-moves-to-el-segundo-from-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260965\/","title":{"rendered":"Hypersonic Drone Maker Moves to El Segundo From Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hermeus, an aerospace startup developing hypersonic drones, is moving to Los Angeles after closing a $350 million Series C funding round, bringing its valuation to $1 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company will relocate its headquarters from Atlanta to El Segundo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/losangeles\/news\/2026\/04\/07\/hermeus-aerospace-moves-hq-el-segundo.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">L.A. Business First reported<\/a>, where it will expand its prototyping operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis new funding lets us build multiple aircraft at the same time and scale our manufacturing capabilities,\u201d Founder and CEO AJ Piplica said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The company will occupy two buildings with a total 67,000 square feet at 888 North Douglas Street in El Segundo. The structures are part of a 30-acre complex owned by Hackman Capital Partners that previously belonged to defense contractor Northrop Grumman. Hackman, the largest independent owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2025\/12\/17\/hackman-capital-loses-regardless-of-warner-bros-outcome\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">film studios<\/a> in the L.A. market, bought the property in 2016 and repositioned it as a creative campus.<\/p>\n<p>Hermeus spokesperson Farshad Shadloo called El Segundo \u201cthe heart of the world\u2019s premier aerospace corridor,\u201d with access to talent and \u201cprototyping infrastructure that simply doesn\u2019t exist anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The drone maker joins a list of aerospace firms moving their main office to Southern California. They include <a href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2026\/03\/04\/varda-space-leases-former-mattel-facilities-in-el-segundo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Varda Space<\/a>, which will also relocate its headquarters to El Segundo, and <a href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2025\/03\/21\/aerospace-firm-to-move-hq-to-123k-sf-plant-in-carson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trio Manufacturing<\/a>, which took 125,000 square feet in Carson last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The funding round will accelerate Hermeus\u2019s transition from prototype development to mission-ready, high-Mach unmanned aircraft for national security applications. The company recently completed the successful flight of its Quarterhorse Mk 2.1. Hermeus plans to scale production to a fleet of three F-16-sized aircraft, advancing toward Mach 3 capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Hermeus will retain its 110,000-square-foot footprint at 3960 Dekalb Technology Parkway in Atlanta, which will function as its manufacturing facility. The company maintains another Southern California facility at 3401 Jack Northrop Avenue in Hawthorne, according to L.A. Business First.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Joel Russell<\/p>\n<p>\tRead more<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"BlogrollPost\" href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2026\/03\/04\/varda-space-leases-former-mattel-facilities-in-el-segundo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LA-Aerospace-expansion-in-El-Segundo-as-startup-leases-former-Mattel-toy-factory-MAIN-200x133.jpg\" class=\"FeaturedImage_image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Varda Space Industries CEO Will Bruey and 2031 E. Mariposa Avenue\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Varda Space launches HQ move in red-hot industrial market El Segundo<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"BlogrollPost\" href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2025\/03\/21\/aerospace-firm-to-move-hq-to-123k-sf-plant-in-carson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"142\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Aerospace-firm-to-move-HQ-to-123K-sf-plant-in-Carson_FT-Thumbnail-200x142.jpg\" class=\"FeaturedImage_image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Aerospace Firm to Move HQ to 123K SF Plant in Carson\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Aerospace firm to move HQ to 123K sf plant in Carson<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"BlogrollPost\" href=\"https:\/\/therealdeal.com\/la\/2025\/12\/17\/hackman-capital-loses-regardless-of-warner-bros-outcome\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LA_Hackman-Studios-200x133.jpg\" class=\"FeaturedImage_image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Michael Hackman and Culver Studios\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Hackman faces dwindling studio demand as Netflix, Paramount battle over Warner Bros.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hermeus, an aerospace startup developing hypersonic drones, is moving to Los Angeles after closing a $350 million Series&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[114858,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-260965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-hermeus-relocates-to-el-segundo","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}