Cedarville Magazine Summer 2018

Brian Montague ’04 was about four months out of college, newly married, and working at his first engineering job, when he was told his employer, SeaLandAire Technologies, Inc., was out of money. The fledgling drone development company — a place where he had interned since high school — had been focused on a single project. When the project died, the money dried up and the president retired. “It was stressful,” Montague said. “But God provided for us in a way that’s even hard for us to understand when you think of all the things that had to happen.” Soon after he stopped getting paid, Montague placed second at a national speech contest for engineers — an event he qualified for while still at Cedarville. The competition featured a cash prize, which helped him and his wife get through the next two months. At work, David Sparks was named company president, and he relied on Montague to help him submit proposals to save the Jackson, Michigan, company. They began winning bids on small jobs. “Once we started hearing back on a few of the bids, that was very exciting,” Montague said. “But it was also trying.” The small projects were great, but for SeaLandAire to stay afloat it needed a lucrative deal. On December 27, 2004 — Sparks’ birthday — the big deal came: a two-year, $1.6 million job with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a small autonomous boat. Two months of no paychecks was over, and the company was viable again. “We couldn’t have done it without Brian,” Sparks said. “I believe that. He added so much to our proposals.” SeaLandAire has been depending on Cedarville engineering graduates ever since in its quest to develop small autonomous vehicles for sea, land, and air that aid the U.S. military in surveillance and reconnaissance. Brian Montague ’04 works with drone technology for SeaLandAire Technologies, Inc. Cedarville Magazine | 17