AeroVironment

Vehicles developed

• Gossamer Condor - The first successful human-powered airplane. The Gossamer Condor is on display at the National Air and Space Museum, since it won the first Kremer Prize in 1977.
• Gossamer Albatross - In 1979 this human-powered plane flew across the English Channel and claimed the largest prize in aviation history. Another of these planes is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.
• Gossamer Penguin - A solar-powered variant of the Gossamer Albatross.
• Solar Challenger - This plane flew from Paris France to England on solar power.
• High Altitude Solar -This solar-powered unmanned aircraft was sponsored by the CIA in the 1980s as the first unmanned solar-powered aircraft in history prototyped for national security missions. It was declassified and transferred to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993 where it was modified as a high altitude, long endurance UAV technology demonstrator capable of becoming weaponized to destroy theater ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was the executing agent for the BMDO program. Dr. Nick Colella and Dr. Lowell Wood led the LLNL efforts for the BMDO program manager, LtCol Dale Tietz. Ray Morgan led the program in AeroVironment alongside Dr. Paul MacCready and Tim Conver. This was a fast-paced demo program supported at the highest levels of government. The ultimate goal was to develop the world's first "fly forever" HALE UAV that could be configured for a variety of national security missions. The program was cancelled in 1995 due to budget reductions in the Clinton Administration at which time the aircraft, called Pathfinder, was transferred to NASA for a new program. Pathfinder flew several flight test missions at NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center before the property transfer occurred. BMDO and LLNL also started initial development of new, ultra-lightweight hypersonic interceptor rockets that could be deployed from Pathfinder and its derivatives. The interceptor, called Astrid, flew several successful missions during this time period at Vandenberg AFB, CA.
• NASA Pathfinder and Pathfinder Plus - This unmanned plane, built by AeroVironment as a part of the NASA ERAST Program, demonstrated that an airplane could stay aloft for an extended period of time fueled purely by solar power. After initial successes, the Pathfinder was rebuilt into the larger Pathfinder Plus, which is also on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Dale Tietz from the Pentagon's BMDO program transferred the Pathfinder aircraft to NASA for the ERAST Program, where AeroVironment managed its development as a non-weaponized variant.
• NASA Centurion - The Centurion was an expansion of the Pathfinder concept, designed to achieve the ERAST Program goal of sustained flight at altitude.
• NASA Helios Prototype - Derived from the Centurion, this solar cell and fuel cell powered UAV set a world record for flight at. It was intended to be the prototype for the production Helios aircraft, envisioned as an "atmospheric satellite". The ERAST program was terminated in 2003, and as of 2008 Helios has not entered production. In actuality, it has been reborn in the form of the Global Observer UAS, currently in development under a Joint Concept Technology Demonstration led by USSOCOM. The key technology shift was switching from solar power to liquid hydrogen power.
• AeroVironment Global Observer - The Los Angeles Times reported first flight of Global Observer happening at the Mojave Desert in the first week of January, 2011. Global Observer is powered from hydrogen, appears to have 4 motors with twin-bladed props, has a wingspan, maximum altitude, airspeed greater than, and 5 to 7 day maximum flight duration.
• Sunraycer - This solar-powered car won the first world's first solar car race in Australia in 1987. The next fastest car finished two days after the Sunraycer. This car is at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
• GM Impact - This was an electric car, developed as a serious prototype for a mass-production consumer car.
• AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven - a small military UAV. It is hand launched with a wingspan of and a weight of, providing color and infrared video to its handheld ground control as well as remote viewing stations. Over 9,000 Ravens have been delivered or are on order as of June 2008.
• AeroVironment Wasp III - a miniature, hand-launched production UAV that provides aerial observation at line-of-sight ranges up to. In 2007, the Wasp was selected by the US Air Force as the choice for their BATMAV Program. As of 2008, over 1,000 Wasp aircraft have been delivered to customers worldwide.
• AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma - a small lightweight, battery powered, hand-launched production UAV that provides aerial observation at line-of-sight ranges up to. Puma's avionics enable autonomous flight and precise GPS navigation. It was originally designed to demonstrate advanced propulsion technologies for such aircraft. It flew in June 2007 for five hours powered by an onboard "fuel cell battery hybrid energy storage system." Another attempt in November 2007 saw a flight time greater than seven hours. These experimental flights integrated ProCore fuel cell from Protonex Technology Corporation and hydrogen generation technology from Millennium Cell, Inc. On July 2, 2008, U.S. Special Operations Command selected the Puma AE variant as its All Environment Capable Variant solution.
• AeroVironment Nano Hummingbird - Announced in 2011, a hummingbird look-alike drone equipped with a camera, can fly at speeds of up to per hour. It can climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forward and backward, as well as rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise by remote control for about eight minutes.
• AeroVironment SkyTote - a VTOL-fixed wing hybrid UAV, which has attained the advantages of both plane designs.
• Aerovironment Switchblade - A miniature, electrically powered, armed unmanned drone kamikaze weapon, for use by deployed military troops in the field.
• AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer
• AeroVironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye
• AeroVironment Puma LE
• AeroVironment VAPOR Helicopter

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