Aero Tec Laboratories, Inc. Founded in 1970 by Peter Regna

Aero Tec Laboratories was founded in 1970 as a design and testing facility for "flexible composite" materials. Shortly thereafter, the firm broadened its scope to include the actual fabrication of end products from its own outstanding fiber/elastomer composites.

From ambitious beginnings in engineered inflatables and crashworthy fuel cell bladders, ATL has further spread its technologies into compensators, accumulators, potable water vessels, self-healing ballistic tanks, space containerization, bulk storage bladders and scores of similar endeavors. The common thread among ATL's products is the seeming dichotomy of remarkable toughness and durability coupled with extreme light weight, high flexibility and compactness.

Over its generation of growth, ATL USA has assembled an enviable legion of agents and distributors, plus a sister company in England, ATL UK, and a range of over 100 flex-composite materials. Today, ATL enjoys sales of both "catalog" and "custom" devices to prestigious clients in the world's top 40 industrialized nations.

ATL is also an AS 9100D and ISO 9001 certified company, the highest quality standard attainable.

A little about Aero Tec Laboratories, Inc...

Key device for drones produced in Ramsey

The unmanned aerial vehicles that provide surveillance and reconnaissance for U.S. military and intelligence services couldn't get off the ground without a vital component produced by Aero Tec Laboratories (ATL) in Ramsey.

For almost a decade ATL has provided the Predator series air vehicles made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., with fuel cell bladders that hold from 40 to 200 gallons of fuel for flights of up to 48 hours.

"The purpose of these planes and the reason not to have a pilot is to keep them up for long periods of time," said ATL owner and engineer Peter J. Regna. "Our product keeps the plane up in a surveillance pattern for a long time." Predators are currently in use over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regna, who holds engineering degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Stevens Institute of Technology, describes his company — celebrating its 40th year — as the world leader in flexible composite technology. It has sales between $25 million and $30 million and products from non-exploding/crashworthy fuel cell bladders for race cars, boats and mining vehicles to spacecraft flex tanks for NASA.

ATL clients include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, NASCAR, the U.S. military, and aerospace, oceanic, and environmental firms.

Last week ATL was presented with a supplier award for outstanding quality and on-time delivery by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical. ATL maintained a 99.93 percent quality rating and a 99.57 percent on-time delivery rate of its fuel cell bladders for the Predator A and Predator B (Reaper) unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs.

What makes ATL's products desirable are their flexibility, Regna said.

"They are produced with computer-aided design [CAD] equipment," he said. "They fit the drone cavity perfectly because they're made of a strong, thin and light material — a flexible composite material."

Two fuel cell bladders are mounted in the fuselage of the Predator A, which runs on unleaded gasoline, and seven are mounted in the fuselage and wings of the larger Predator B, a turbine-powered UAV that soars on jet fuel. The lightweight design allows for more payload on the plane, Regna said.

"They are very flexible because if they have to be installed through a small hole in the fuselage they can be collapsed, inserted, and opened inside," he said. If you cut a big hole, you weaken the plane."

Regna grew ATL from a one-man operation to a firm of 200 employees with manufacturing plants in the borough, Oregon and England.

Back in the 1970s Regna measured his success by how many $200 non-exploding thermoplastic rubber fuel cells he could sell to amateur race car drivers who were priced out of the more expensive thermoset technology that was used by professional car drivers.

Regna became a hero of sorts to the amateur set on the rally and oval racing circuit.

"We were at the forefront of affordable safety," said Regna, who was raised in North Bergen and Englewood Cliffs. "There were other methods that were available, but they were very expensive — probably in the order of the magnitude of maybe 10 times more expensive than our approach. Amateur racers for the most part could not afford them, and there are thousands and thousands more amateur racers than there are professional racers."

Regna, who turns 60 in October, owns a fleet of 20 Ferrari and Rolls-Royce cars, some of which are used to test his products. He took ATL to the next level more than a decade ago by diversifying and offering products to the marine, aircraft, military, general government and industrial worlds while staying grounded in the auto world. His goal is to increase sales 5 to 20 percent a year.

"The Predator bladders are not built as safety items but as utilitarian items," he said.

"On the racing cars [and for military boats], they are built thicker and heavier to resist crash impacts."

The bottom line is preventing fuel from spewing and potentially catching fire — a scenario Regna faced while racing his own car around the track more than four decades ago.

Regna even tests his products himself, especially before delivery to a client.

"I have a ballistic tank in one of my cars to be sure it vents, dispenses fuel, and fills well," he said.