The contrast between Sheila Cummings’ worlds reveals much about her priorities. On her flower farm, nature moves at its own unhurried pace – shoots push out of the earth, and blooms emerge from buds on their own timeline.
But everywhere else, for the CEO of Cummings Aerospace, a 100-person defense technology firm, it’s about moving with a sense of purposeful urgency.
Her team developed the Hellhound S3, a 3D-printed turbojet powered kamikaze drone that flies at more than half the speed of sound, far faster than any competing system. And in tandem, her team built a state-of-the-art Hellhound manufacturing facility near Huntsville, Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal that recently achieved Manufacturing Readiness Level 7 – a critical milestone indicating the company can now produce Hellhound at low-rate production with defined workflows and established work instructions for building the air vehicles.
Developing a drone that is redefining loitering munitions and industrial production didn’t happen by accident.
From Defense Experience to Innovation Leadership
Behind the Hellhound’s story is a deeper story of defense program expertise. Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) – the critical phase where promising technologies must become combat-ready military systems – is where many innovative concepts falter. Cummings Aerospace has built its foundation on successfully navigating this challenge.
Before founding Cummings Aerospace in 2009, Sheila Cummings developed her expertise at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the Missile Defense Agency. Working on systems from the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) to ground-based midcourse defense and Aegis weapon systems, she experienced firsthand the exacting process of transitioning defense technologies from concept to deployment.
“Getting a complex system through EMD isn’t just about good engineering. It’s about mastering the transition to production,” explains Cummings. “You need the technical depth, the quality systems, and the manufacturing capability to deliver at scale. Having worked both government and contractor sides, we’ve built Cummings Aerospace specifically to bridge that gap between great ideas and fielded systems. We’ve invested in the people, processes, and production facilities because we know what it takes to succeed.”
Today, she’s assembled a team of seasoned defense engineers and manufacturing professionals who share her rigorous approach. Together, they apply this experience to Hellhound, which is proving its success. In January tests, the S3 demonstrated speeds exceeding 384 mph in flight tests – significantly faster than quadcopter and propeller-driven systems.
Building Battlefield Advantage Through Production Excellence
At Cummings Aerospace’s Huntsville manufacturing center, Sheila Cummings’ engineering philosophy translates directly into production excellence. Aerospace industry certified processes and advanced 3D-printing capabilities transform prototypes into battlefield-ready systems with military precision. This manufacturing foundation becomes particularly critical as the company prepares the S3 for the U.S. Army’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) competition.
The LASSO program aims to equip Infantry Brigade Combat Teams with the same lethal striking power as Armored brigades. Cummings has invested heavily in making Hellhound affordable through 3D-printing and commercial off the shelf parts, as well as tactically superior through its jet-powered speed. As Sheila Cummings notes, Hellhound can reach targets “while competing systems are still puttering along behind friendly lines.”
Since its founding, Cummings Aerospace has evolved from a one-woman consultancy into a specialized engineering firm supporting some of the military’s most critical defense systems. The company’s reputation has been built on solving complex challenges that require engineering innovation and production discipline.
The company’s work on the U.S. Navy’s Cooperative Engagement Capability program exemplifies this approach. For the Navy, Cummings Aerospace’s engineers are developing mission critical software to integrate sensors and weapons across multiple vessels into a unified fire control system—the kind of multifaceted challenge its experienced team has successfully tackled throughout their careers.
Community Roots Shape Company Culture
Cummings Aerospace’s hands-on engineering spirit traces back to Sheila Cummings’ childhood in Pembroke, North Carolina, where she helped her father and brothers demolish and rebuild houses. This experience instilled a problem-solving approach that she’s applied throughout her career – understanding how systems work by building them from the ground up.
The values of her Lumbee Native American community are also fundamental to her leadership philosophy. “The thing I love most about being a business owner is the people I get to work with every day,” she says. “And the capabilities we’re delivering for the warfighter are critically important. It’s one of the great blessings I have in life, to be surrounded by such incredible people doing such impactful work.”
This emphasis on building strong teams has expanded beyond North Carolina, with facilities strategically positioned in Huntsville; Tucson, Arizona; and in Largo and Niceville, Florida. Each location was selected by Sheila Cummings to support her company’s work on key defense programs and military customers.
The combination of technical capability and collaborative culture has earned Cummings Aerospace growing recognition, including a recent SeaPort Next Generation IDIQ prime contract with the Navy. However, for Sheila Cummings and her company, success extends beyond contract wins to community impact, including sponsoring STEM summer camps and 3D-printing classes for middle schoolers, and donating furniture to the San Xavier Mission School on the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation near Tucson.
As Hellhound moves toward the LASSO competition, Cummings reflects on what drives her company’s approach to defense innovation.
“Defense technology isn’t just about building faster and better solutions, it’s also about building more solutions faster, better and more affordably,” Cummings says. “When I look at Hellhound’s development, I see our team applying decades of collective experience to solve a battlefield challenge, a logistics challenge, and a cost challenge. We’re not just creating a loitering munition; we’re delivering a capability that gives our warfighters the decisive advantage they deserve, and the capacity to affordably manufacture the quantities they need. That’s what drives me, and the Cummings Aerospace team — building systems and solutions that will help our warfighters win.”