AeroVironment, Inc. is a technology company in Monrovia, California, and Simi Valley, California, that is primarily involved in energy systems, electric vehicle systems, and 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.
Among the vehicles the company built are:
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 23 miles (37 km) 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 163 miles (262 km) from Paris France to England on solar power.
Pathfinder and Pathfinder Plus - This unmanned plane, built by Aero Vironment 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.
Centurion - The Centurion was an expansion of the Pathfinder concept, designed to achieve the ERAST Program goal of sustained flight at 100,000 feet (30,000 m) altitude.
Helios Prototype - Derived from the Centurion, this solar cell and fuel cell powered UAV set a world record for flight at 96,863 feet (29,524 m). 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 byUSSOCOM. The key technology shift was switching from solar power to liquid hydrogen power.
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 175-foot (53 m) wingspan, 65,000-foot (20,000 m) maximum altitude, airspeed greater than 120 mph (190 km/h), 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.
Raven - a small military UAV. It is hand launched with a wingspan of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) and a weight of 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg), 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.
Wasp - a miniature, hand-launched production UAV that provides aerial observation at line-of-sight ranges up to 3.1 miles (5.0 km). 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.
Puma - a small lightweight, battery powered, hand-launched production UAV that provides aerial observation at line-of-sight ranges up to 6.2 miles (10.0 km). 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 (USSOCOM) selected the Puma AE variant as its All Environment Capable Variant (AECV) solution.
Nano Hummingbird - Announced in 2011, a hummingbird look-alike drone equipped with a camera, can fly at speeds of up to 11 miles (18 km) 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.
SkyTote - a VTOL-fixed wing hybrid UAV, which has attained the advantages of both plane designs (respectively VTOL takeoff capability and decreased energy usage).
Switchblade - A miniature, electrically powered, armed unmanned drone kamikaze weapon, for use by deployed military troops in the field.
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.
As a US-based provider of products and technology for clean energy and efficient vehicles, AeroVironment has received a United States patent for technology that facilitates the optimal charging, management, control and maintenance of battery packs, chargers and electric vehicles (EVs).
AeroVironment offers a 240V home-charging station for electric vehicles. It is compatible with the SAE J1772 standard for level 2 charging. Nissan selected AeroVironment to supply this home charging station and installation services for the Nissan Leaf electric car. AeroVironment also sells level 3 high-voltage DC fast-charge stations compatible with the CHAdeMO standard that can charge a Think electric car to 80% in 15 minutes.
AeroVironment participates in various government and industry initiatives to create an electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
AeroVironment also sells the PosiCharge line of industrial electric vehicle charging systems for forklifts and other warehouse vehicles.
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 in a test of using the aircraft as a broadcast platform. Skytower, in partnership with NASA and theJapan Ministry of Telecommunications, tested the concept of an "atmospheric satellite" by successfully using the aircraft to transmit both an HDTV signal as well as an IMT-2000 wireless communications signal from 65,000 feet (20,000 m), giving the aircraft the equivalence of a 12 miles (19 km) tall transmitter tower. Because of the aircraft's high lookdown angle, the transmission utilized only one watt of power, or 1/10,000 of the power required by a terrestrial tower to provide the same signal. According to Stuart Hindle, Vice President of Strategy & Business Development for SkyTower, "SkyTower platforms are basically geostationary satellites without the time delay." Further, 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 basis."
The Yamaha PES1 and PED1 electric motorcycles debuted at the 2013 Toyko Auto Show, and the Japanese motorcycle maker has greenlit both for production. This marks Yamaha’s entry into the growing electric motorcycle market, and could disrupt the domination of startups like Zero and Brammo.
Yamaha hasn’t released any sort of performance specifications yet, but is promising both bikes will be quite light. The concept PES1 tipped the scales at just 221 pounds, and the PED1 comes in at an even-lighter 187 pounds. That’s a full 200 pounds lighter than the Zero ZF11.4 electric streetbike, and is due in large part to the minimalist styling of these Yamaha EVs.
