SAN ANTONIO – A local company that created medical units to place inside a cargo aircraft is now developing units that can transport items via rockets.
“Imagine a rocket cargo going across the earth and within two hours can deliver humanitarian aid and other means to support natural disasters,” Michael Knight, senior vice president of international sales at Knight Aerospace said.
What Knight describes is being designed at Knight Aerospace located at Port San Antonio.
“We received a small business innovation research contract from the United States Air Force to support future aspirations of moving cargo, humanitarian aid by using rockets,” Knight said.
Knight’s grandfather started the company that quite simply, just continues to grow.
“We’re seen as an industry leader in cargo handling systems and cargo movement,” Knight said.
Knight Aerospace started in 1992 and created units to transport high ranking military officials and others. Today, they are designing the units for medical purposes.
“The entire module is 100% sealed. It’s a negative pressure system bringing air out and before it goes into the cargo bin, it goes through various filtration systems,” Knight said.
They have created two units for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“It’s meant to transport medical situations for the Air Force or the Canadian government or allied nations. It’s also being utilized to transport infectious disease patients by COVID, Ebola, or other means of safely transport in the back of military planes,” Knight said.
Knight says the first unit delivered has already been used in different situations.
“Successfully moved a family, a Royal Canadian Air Force individual and his family from Africa back to Canada in a safe means utilizing the medical module. Since then, they’ve used it a lot domestically to transport individuals from hospitals to other hospitals that aren’t overcrowded,” Knight said.
He said he is excited for the future of the company.
“We’re moving with the times of different means of transportation, with the rocket being the next one,” Knight said.