Service To Entrepreneurship: The Path Of Mike Dowell

By Wendy Klug

husband-and-wife team, Mike and Sandy Dowell (not pictured) know what it’s like to support each other through every adventure that life brings. Married for 37 years, Sandy and Mike met shortly after he finished his tour in the Army. Mike was a tank commander in which he was in charge of many important missions.

“The military set me up for success," said Mike. "It taught me how to be a leader and how to persevere through hard times. The Army taught me the importance of teamwork. Being a tanker gave me the strength of independent leadership. One takeaway from my tour in the Army is, ‘Fight a good fight, for tomorrow will still come.’ I use all these skills from my time in the service daily in all aspects of my life, especially for my business ventures.”

After his four-year stint in the Army, Mike and Sandy set out on multiple business ventures ranging from automotive to digital photography, each one leading closer to the culmination in Mobile Recon Systems (MRS). They started MRS in 2014 with the intent of designing and prototyping a ground-based unmanned vehicle, an Advanced Video Rover, or AVR. It was outfitted with multiple cameras with full 180-degree coverage and a six foot depth of field robotic arm, and a footprint comparable to a laptop computer. Its intended purpose was for border patrol. This design progressed to an airborne variant as they determined that fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or (UAVs) descending from gliders had already penetrated the market, but multi-rotor aircraft had been barely touched, especially for heavy payloads with long endurance. A short time after designing and building some of their earlystage multi-rotors, they caught the attention of the National Science Foundation and received a grant. This NSF grant enabled MRS to refine its designs. By 2018, the company reached a point where they needed to expand.

Mike Dowell (middle)

MRS works to solve problems that drones have such as low lift capacity, short flight time, high cost, limited by weather and more. Mike states, “With the technology that we bring to the Unmanned Aircraft Systems, we are able to help advance the UAS world with breakthrough technology to find solutions to problems drones typically have. We are able to break barriers that help improve time efficiencies, costs and keep workers safe. Drones can help with surveillance work, carrying cargo for military, border patrol, search and rescue missions, imagery and seeding for agriculture and more!”

MRS was one of the first drone companies that designed a drone that could carry true heavy weight. This was a huge breakthrough in the UAS world. Offering three different drone models, each one serves a specific purpose and has a variety of different capabilities. The MR-10 is most efficient with a payload of 10 pounds. The MR-20 is most efficient at a 20-pound payload and has the ability to carry 50-pound payloads. The Dauntless MR-100 is efficient with 100 pounds and can carry up to 250 pounds. The MR-20 and Dauntless MR100 are both in the prototype stage, with the MR-20 scheduled to launch in Q3 2021.

First located in Kentucky, MRS relocated its manufacturing operations to Grand Forks, North Dakota in 2020. When asked why they moved their business to Grand Forks, Tom Nickell, CEO, stated, “We were looking to expand in an area that offers a skilled workforce, research support and people knowledgeable about the UAS industry. Because North Dakota has all these options, we relocated here. The ecosystem is vital for our business and we are grateful to be part of a UAS community that embraces just that, being a community. The spirit of working together - among the business community, city, state, universities, and military bases - is tremendous. “ MRS benefits from having both a veteran and woman team that founded the company. MRS designs and assembles its products in the USA to ensure quality. They can integrate various payloads for modularity of functions, ranging all types of sensors to cargo, to devices for airborne distribution of both solids and liquids.

Mike and Sandy, along with their CEO Tom Nickell, are very excited about the future holds for the UAS Industry and for Mobile Recon. Sandy stated, “I didn’t know what to expect when moving to Grand Forks North Dakota. After being here it feels like home. The community has embraced us personally and professionally. Making the move to North Dakota was a decision we are glad we made.”

To learn more visit movilereconsystems.com