Unmanned Systems
AAI is one of a limited number of companies engaged in the design and full-rate production of a successfully fielded, operational UAS for the DoD. AAI first began development work on the unmanned systems product line in 1985, winning a competitive fly-off with its Pioneer Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV).
The company's unmanned aircraft systems include the Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System, which is designated RQ-7B by the U.S. Army, as well as the Shadow 400 and 600 systems. Worldwide, as of July, 2007, Shadow systems have flown more than 445,000 flight hours and 47,000 sorties—with more than 88 percent of those hours in support of U.S. and allied combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The company’s UAS capabilities expanded with the 2006 acquisition of Australian UAS manufacturer Aerosonde Pty. Ltd. This fleet's newest model is the Aerosonde Mark 4.7 small unmanned aircraft system. In late 2009, AAI conducted a shipboard demonstration of the system aboard the M-80 Stiletto ship.
In September 2008, AAI announced that it had teamed with Aeronautics Ltd. to provide the Orbiter miniature unmanned aircraft system in selected markets.
The company's One System Ground Control Station is fielded as part of the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System, as well as the One System Portable Ground Control Station and One System Remote Video Terminal.
On 16 November 2009, AAI entered a 40 year exclusive license agreement with Carter Aviation concerning a possible autonomous slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) aircraft with potential for increased speed (250 knots) and range (1300 nautical miles) delivering 3000 pounds cargo, compared to traditional rotorcraft. It is to be based on the Carter PAV.
AAI is developing an RQ-7 Shadow also with a Carter rotor on top for vertical take-off and landing, to fly in 2012.
AAI also intends to use this technology as the basis for their proposal to DARPAs "Flying Humvee" Transformer program.
Read more about this topic: AAI Corporation, Products & Services
Famous quotes containing the word systems:
“What avails it that you are a Christian, if you are not purer than the heathen, if you deny yourself no more, if you are not more religious? I know of many systems of religion esteemed heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites merely.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)