Description
AeroVironment, Inc. is an American defense contractor headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that is primarily involved in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Paul B. MacCready Jr., a designer of human-powered aircraft, founded the company in 1971. The company is probably most well known for developing a series of lightweight human-powered and then solar-powered vehicles. AeroVironment is the Pentagon's top supplier of small drones — including the Raven, Wasp and Puma models.
Programs
AeroVironment holds a five-year, $4.7 million IDIQ (indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity) contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory for the development of advanced propulsion technologies for UAVs. The contract also provides for specific technological tasks such as integration of solar cells into aircraft wings, electric motor efficiency improvement technologies, and development of hydrogen storage systems for aircraft.
In 2013, AeroVironment participated in the DARPA TERN program, and received $2 million for Phase 1 and $19 million for Phase 2. The "Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node" program attempts to launch and recover a UAV from mid-size ships to provide long distance intelligence gathering. However, in September 2015 AeroVironment was not selected to move onto Phase 3 of the program.
