CT drone helicopter maker Kaman being acquired for $1.8B

With a $1.8 billion vote of confidence from a Tennessee investor, Kaman is being taken private as it readies a cargo drone for the U.S. military.

Kaman is being acquired by Arcline Investment Management, a private equity investment firm based in Nashville that is an experienced aerospace industry investor. Arcline is paying $46 for each share of Kaman, more than double what Wall Street investors had valued the company as of last week. Kaman stock hit an all-time high above $72 in the spring of 2018.

Charles Kaman founded the company in 1945, which became an early helicopter pioneer on the heels of Sikorsky in Stratford. Kaman was the runner up to produce a utility helicopter for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, with the Bell “Huey” Iroquois becoming synonymous with the war.

Kaman found a niche producing SeaSprite helicopters that could land on naval ships for reconnaissance patrols and other duties.

Kaman is now developing a drone cargo helicopter for the U.S. Marine Corps. Anticipated “fly off ” demonstrations are planned for later this year against the team of Oregon drone helicopter developer Phenix Solutions and Leidos, a major Virginia-based defense contractor.

With two sets of overhead rotors extending to either side, the Kargo drone has the ability to take off vertically and carry 800 pounds of material more than 100 miles, and lighter loads up to 500 miles. The Army has also expressed interest in Kargo.

“I think we’re in good shape,” CEO Ian Walsh told investment analysts last November during a conference call. “We obviously have a very important program with Kargo.”

Over the years, the company’s bigger business has been producing high-tech fuzes that detonate guided bombs and missiles, and components for aircraft including ball bearings and seals. In 2022, Kaman spent $442 million to acquire

Parker-Hannifin’s aircraft wheel and brake business in Avon, Ohio.

Kaman reported $6 million in profits over the first nine months of last year, with revenue up 17 percent to $573 million.

Entering last year, Kaman reported a total workforce of just over 3,000 people. In addition to its headquarters manufacturing plant in Bloomfield, Kaman has production facilities in Middletown, Vermont, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado, California, and Florida, with plans to close its Orlando facility there this year; and in Germany and the Czech Republic.

The company consolidated fuze production last year in Middletown.

File Kaman press photo via Business Wire A pilot hovers a Super Seasprite helicopter in 2014 at Kaman’s headquarters facility in Bloomfield, Connecticut.