Date: 11 Apr 2004
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation has confirmed that its GoldenEye-100 unmanned aerial vehicle has successfully completed its initial flight test programme. Flight testing began in September 2003 and all the flights, including the first flight last autumn, have been in fully autonomous control mode. “The initial flight test programme validated the GoldenEye-100's vertical takeoff and landing capability, thrust vectoring, long-duct acoustic suppression, torsionally disconnected wings, stability and control, hovering flight, waypoint navigation and ability to carry payloads,” the company told uavworld. “In addition, the GoldenEye-100 successfully completed a radiation detection and measurement demonstration carrying a client payload.”
Originally developed under DARPA's Clandestine UAV (CUAV) programme, GoldenEye-100 is designed to carry a 22-pound payload, has a gross takeoff weight of 150 pounds and is a VTOL UAV designed ‘low-cost, clandestine reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions’.
"The focus of the initial flight test programme was to demonstrate the GoldenEye-100's maneuvering stability and performance in the low speed regime of the flight envelope," said Carl Schaefer, programme manager for local area surveillance, Aurora Flight Sciences. "The lessons learned over the past nine months from the GoldenEye-100's initial flight test programme are being rolled into the GoldenEye-50."
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