Local inventor creates revolutionary new drone

A Southwest Missouri man is bound for Germany where his efforts as an inventor will move into high gear with a creation that has international implications. 
 
Kelly Echols, 53, son of Carol and the late Wayne Echols of rural Verona, spent 20 years working as a patent attorney, specializing in the chemical arts. Back when his oldest daughter was a baby and he was a freshman at the University of Arkansas in Fayetttville, Echols was doing father things and he had a wild thought. 
“Something about my daughter’s pacifier bothered me,” he recalled. “I looked at it and then it hit me. The pacifier was the perfect shape for a hover craft.”
 
Echols saw the mouthguard as a wing, oriented to the ground, and the nipple as something that could have air blown through it for lift. He envisioned the pacifier as the genesis for a new wing structure. 
 
The idea sat with Echols for 25 years. 
 
“Each time I went through a job change, I thought of pursuing this,” he recalled. “Over time the internal question had morphed from ‘Will it work?’ to ‘Do I have what it takes to launch a company?’ I worked as a patent attorney with startups. I knew the trials and ups and downs of entrepreneur life. It became really important to answer that question. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were moving from Utah to Missouri to be near family. I was still a partner at the law firm. It was the right time to start putting time and money into this. My wife, Kate, was on board.”
 
In January 2023, Echols left his secure career and started LeVanta Tech as chief executive officer, marketing sea launched aerial drones. Its website is LeVantaTech.com. 
 
“Levanta is a Spanish name for ‘raise,’ to honor my father, who had a love and commitment for Hispanic people in southwest Missouri,” Echols said. “‘Levanta’ describes our technology and mission. We create an air cushion under the wing that changes our buoyancy and causes the vehicle to raise up in the water. Likewise, we want to lift and raise communities. Half of my motivation is to create jobs in southwest Missouri.” 
 
The idea began to take shape. Progress was slow at first. The wing structure evolved a lot from the first concepts. LeVanta’s drone was initially seen as a tool by the offshore wind industry for tracking real time marine animals that become “a critical pain for them.” Then it pivoted to a defense-first strategy. In that role, the drone can perform a number of different missions. 
 
“The years of 2023 and 2024 were very lean,” Echols admitted. “I found a company in Romania, which was very affordable. I was their first customer. We began working together. They helped build the first prototype, which we showed at a helicopter show in Madrid. I was accepted into Gulf Blue and brought the prototype to Gulfport, Mississippi. In June 2024 we had our first sea trial.”
 
Then came two grants, one for $1.8 million from the US Air Force and another for $1.4 million from the US Navy. “Fast forward, we now have 12 employees in the US and one in Estonia.”
 
The company now has a handful of prototypes. The team in Romania continues development. 
 
“It’s all been by the skin of our teeth,” Echols said. “What’s special about our drone is that it can persist on the ocean for a month or more. When it’s needed, it can take off, fly rapidly, and do missions. It has the ability to float and self-right. Sea planes, helicopters, and conventional drones have a high center of gravity. Our Hoverfoil’s wings are submerged and provide a low center of gravity while in the water. During takeoff we blow air to the underside of the Hoverfoils, pop up the wings to the surface, and skate on the surface as we accelerate into flight.”
 
Echols credited Congressman Eric Burlison and US Senator Eric Schmitt for their support of the growing company. “They have been great advocates,” he said. “There is significant interest in long duration persistence couple with rapid flight. This is a capability that does not exist today.” 
 
“Our family is moving to Germany now,” Echols said. “The US team in thriving. There’s an opportunity for us to explore and pursue support for Ukraine, as well as expand operations in the Baltics and Nordic countries."
 
“LeVanta Tech is a Missouri company. Monett is still my home base. That’s not changing. We’re going to live abroad for a while. The US market is still our main focus. You’ve not seen the last of us,” he added.