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AeroVironment, Inc. is an American
defense contractor A defense contractor is a business organization or individual that provides products or services to a military or intelligence department of a government. Products typically include military or civilian aircraft, ships, vehicles, weaponry, and ...
headquartered in
Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...
, that designs and manufactures
unmanned aerial vehicles An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
(UAVs). Paul B. MacCready Jr., a designer of
human-powered aircraft A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport. As its name suggests, HPAs have the pilot not only steer, but power the aircraft (usually propeller-driven) by means of a system ...
, founded the company in
1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
. The company is best known for its lightweight human-powered and solar-powered vehicles. The company is the US military's top supplier of small drones —notably the
Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...
,
Switchblade A switchblade (also known as switch knife, automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, flick knife, gravity knife, flick blade, or spring knife) is a pocketknife with a sliding or pivoting blade contained in the handle which is extended ...
,
Wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...
and Puma models.


History

On January 7, 2024, AeroVironment was sanctioned by the Chinese government due to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. On March 4, 2025, the
Chinese Ministry of Commerce The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) is an executive department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China responsible for formulating policies on foreign trade, export and import regulations, foreign direct investments, consumer prot ...
placed 15 U.S. entities (including AeroVironment) on its export control list, barring the export of dual-use commodities to that business.


Vehicles

Among the vehicles the company built are: *
Gossamer Condor The MacCready ''Gossamer Condor'' was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight; as such, it won the Kremer prize in 1977. Its design was led by Paul MacCready of AeroVironment, Inc. Design and development T ...
– The first successful human-powered airplane. The Gossamer Condor is on display at the US
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...
(NASM), since it won the first
Kremer Prize The Kremer prizes are a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer. Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group The Royal Aeronautical Society's "Man Powered Aircraft Group" was formed in 1959 b ...
in 1977. *
Gossamer Albatross The ''Gossamer Albatross'' is a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr Paul B MacCready's company AeroVironment. On June 12, 1979, it completed a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer ...
– In 1979, this human-powered plane flew across the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
and claimed the largest prize in aviation history. Another of these planes is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum. *
Gossamer Penguin The ''Gossamer Penguin'' was a solar-powered experimental aircraft created by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. MacCready had built the '' Gossamer Condor'' in 1977 which won the Kremer prize for the first human-powered flight, and the '' Gossame ...
– A solar-powered variant of the Gossamer Albatross. *
Solar Challenger The Solar Challenger was a solar-powered aircraft designed by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. The aircraft was designed as an improvement on the Gossamer Penguin, which in turn was a solar-powered variant of the human-powered Gossamer Albatr ...
– This plane flew from
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, France, to England on solar power. * High Altitude Solar (HALSOL)-This solar-powered unmanned aircraft was sponsored by the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
in the 1980s as the first unmanned solar-powered aircraft prototyped for national security missions. It was declassified and transferred to the
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) was an agency of the United States Department of Defense that began on 20 May 1974 with the responsibility for all U.S. ballistic missile defense efforts. It was renamed the Missile Defense Agenc ...
(BMDO) in 1993, where it was modified as a high altitude, long endurance (HALE) UAV technology demonstrator capable of becoming weaponized to destroy boost-phase theater ballistic missiles ( Boost Phase Intercept).The goal was to develop the world's first "fly forever" HALE UAV that could be configured for national security missions. The program was cancelled in 1995, due to budget reductions in the
Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...
at which time the aircraft, called Pathfinder, was transferred to NASA. Pathfinder flew flight test missions at NASAs Dryden Flight Research Center before the transfer. * NASA Pathfinder and Pathfinder Plus – This unmanned plane, built by AeroVironment as a part of the
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology The Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology, or ERAST program was a NASA program to develop cost-effective, slow-flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could perform long-duration science missions at altitudes above . The proje ...
(ERAST) Program, demonstrated that an airplane could stay aloft for extended periods fueled by solar power. After initial successes, the Pathfinder was rebuilt into the larger Pathfinder Plus, which is on display at NASM. *
NASA Centurion The NASA Centurion was the third aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and S ...
– 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 A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.
and
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
powered
UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...
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
United States Special Operations Command The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States A ...
(USSOCOM]). The key technology shift was switching from solar power to liquid hydrogen power. * Global Observer – The ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' reported first flight of Global Observer in the
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
in January, 2011. The aircraft was powered by hydrogen. It appears to have 4 motors with twin-bladed props, a wingspan, maximum altitude, airspeed greater than , and 5 to 7 day maximum flight duration. *
Sunraycer The Sunraycer was a solar-powered race car designed to compete in the World Solar Challenge, the world's first race featuring solar-powered cars. The Sunraycer was a joint collaboration between General Motors, AeroVironment, and Hughes Aircraft ...
– This solar-powered car won the first world's first solar car race in Australia in 1987. The next fastest car finished two days later. This car is at the
Smithsonian National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...
. * GM Impact – This was an
electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...
, developed as a prototype for a mass-production consumer car. *
RQ-11 Raven The AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven is a small hand-launched remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (or SUAV) developed for the United States military, but now adopted by the military forces of many other countries. The RQ-11 Raven was originally ...
– 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 and remote viewing stations. Over 9,000 Ravens had been delivered or were on order as of June 2008. * Wasp III – a miniature, hand-launched 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 had been delivered. * 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 via
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
navigation. It was designed to demonstrate advanced propulsion technologies. It flew in June 2007 for five hours,"Puma Small UAS Achieves Record Flight Using Fuel Cell Battery Hybrid System", ''
Aerotech News and Review ''Aerotech News and Review Inc.'', established in February 1986, is an American bi-weekly aerospace trade journal and publishing company with corporate headquarters in Lancaster, California. Aerotech News is currently publishing 4 base newspap ...
'', June 29, 2007
powered by an onboard "fuel cell battery hybrid energy storage system". A flight in November 2007 lasted more than seven hours. On July 2, 2008, USSOCOM selected the Puma AE variant as its All Environment Capable Variant (AECV) solution. * Nano Hummingbird – Announced in 2011, a
hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...
look-alike drone equipped with a camera, it could fly at speeds of up to per hour. It could climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forward and backward, as well as rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise by remote control for about eight minutes. * SkyTote – a
vertical take-off and landing A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing ...
(VTOL)-fixed wing hybrid UAV, which offered VTOL takeoff capability and decreased energy usage. *
Switchblade A switchblade (also known as switch knife, automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, flick knife, gravity knife, flick blade, or spring knife) is a pocketknife with a sliding or pivoting blade contained in the handle which is extended ...
– A miniature, electrically powered, armed unmanned drone
kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
weapon, for field use. Now deployed in two configurations, the 300 for attacking personnel and the 600 for attacking armor. *
FQM-151 Pointer The AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer is a small UAV used by the United States Army and Marine Corps for battlefield surveillance. It was designed by AeroVironment Incorporated, formerly led by Paul MacCready, noted for such pioneering aircraft ...
* RQ-14 Dragon Eye * Puma LE (Long Endurance) * VAPOR Helicopter * Shrike – quadrocopter drone designed for "perch and stare" surveillance, weighs 5 lb (2.27 kg) with a 40 minute endurance while hovering or can land and transmit for several hours. * Snipe – a
quadrotor A quadcopter, also called quadrocopter, or quadrotor is a type of helicopter or multicopter that has four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity u ...
design small enough to be deployed by an individual to collect surveillance. It weighs , can reach speeds of with a range of more than . It has flight times of 15 minutes, can withstand winds of , and is equipped with EO/IR. It is low light-capable and includes long-wave
infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...
sensors to take photos or video in day or night conditions. In May 2017, the first 20 Snipes were delivered to an undisclosed U.S. military customer. * Quantix – drone, 40 km range, 45 min flight time, 2.3 kg weight, controlled via encrypted radio, automated, programmed autonomous flights possible, multifunctional camera. * Red Dragon –
loitering munition A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to Loiter (aeronautics), loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.IDIQ (indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity) contract from the
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...
to develop UAV propulsion technologies. The contract also provided for specific tasks such as integration of solar cells into aircraft wings, electric motor efficiency improvement, and hydrogen storage systems. In 2023,
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
submitted a request to the
US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
for 200 Switchblade 600 attack drones. As of 7 November, it is unclear whether the request has been approved.


HAPSMobile

HAPSMobile is a subsidiary of
SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...
planning to operate
High Altitude Platform Station A high-altitude platform station (HAPS, which can also mean high-altitude pseudo-satellite or high-altitude platform systems), also known as atmospheric satellite, is a long endurance, high altitude aircraft able to offer observation or communi ...
(HAPS) networks, with AeroVironment as a minority owner. HAPSMobile develops the Hawk30 solar-powered unmanned aircraft for stratospheric telecommunications, and has a strategic relationship with
Loon LLC Loon LLC was an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary working on providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. The company used high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere at an altitude of to to create an aerial wireless network with up to 1 M ...
, a subsidiary of Google's parent
Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...


Subsidiaries

AeroVironment owns Skytower, Inc., which was formed in 2000 to develop the technologies and government approvals to use high altitude UAVs as "atmospheric satellites", or high altitude communications relay platforms. In July 2002 the NASA/AeroVironment UAV Pathfinder Plus carried commercial communications relay equipment developed by Skytower to test using the aircraft as an "atmospheric satellite". Skytower, in partnership with NASA and the Japan Ministry of Telecommunications used the aircraft to transmit both an
HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...
signal as well as an
IMT-2000 IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000) is the global standard for third generation ( 3G) wireless communications as defined by the International Telecommunication Union. In 1999 ITU approved five radio interfaces for IMT-2000 as a ...
wireless communications signal from . It was the equivalent of a tall transmitter tower. Because of the aircraft's high angle, the transmission utilized only one watt of power, or 1/10,000 that required by a terrestrial tower to provide the same signal."SkyTower Successfully Tests World's First Commercial Telecom Applications from More Than in the Stratosphere"
''Ewire'', July 22, 2002. Retrieved September 11, 2008.
According to SkyTower's Stuart Hindle, "SkyTower platforms are basically geostationary satellites without the time delay." Hindle said that such platforms flying in the stratosphere, as opposed to actual satellites, can achieve much higher levels of frequency use. "A single SkyTower platform can provide over 1,000 times the fixed broadband local access capacity of a geostationary satellite using the same frequency band, on a bytes per second per
square mile The square mile (abbreviated as sq mi and sometimes as mi2)Rowlett, Russ (September 1, 2004) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved February 22, 2012. is an imperial and US unit of measure for area. One square mile is equa ...
basis." In January 2021, the company acquired Arcturus UAV, the manufacturer of the Arcturus T-20 UAV for US$405m.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aerovironment Aircraft manufacturers of the United States Defense companies of the United States Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States Companies listed on the Nasdaq 1971 establishments in the United States 1971 establishments in California Technology companies established in 1971 Companies based in Arlington County, Virginia American entities subject to Chinese sanctions