Aurora's GoldenEye Surpasses DARPA Acoustic Requirements

Aurora's GoldenEye Surpasses DARPA Acoustic Requirements: " Tests Validate Company's Quiet Ducted Fan Technology

MANASSAS, Va., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Aurora Flight Sciences announced
today that during recent acoustic testing its GoldenEye-50 unmanned aerial
system (UAS) demonstrated acoustic signatures consistently below limits set by
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for its OAV-II program.
Team GoldenEye, an industry team led by Aurora Flight Sciences with Northrop
Grumman, Signal Systems Corporation and General Dynamics Robotics Systems,
conducted the tests. GoldenEye's low acoustic signature is a key enabler of
the aircraft's clandestine surveillance mission because it reduces the
standoff distance required for the aircraft to perform surveillance without
being observed.
'Over the past two years, our work on GoldenEye's muffler system has
created a new standard in acoustic signature suppression for ducted fans
without sacrificing engine power or payload capacity,' said Matt Hutchison,
Aurora's Vice President of Tactical Systems.'
The GoldenEye-50 is Aurora's third generation of small, ducted fan
vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAS. The GoldenEye system has its origins
in technology Aurora developed with previous DARPA funding. Over the past
five years, Aurora's design refinements have reduced the aircraft's size while
increasing its maneuverability, speed and reliability. Today, GoldenEye-50 is
small enough to fit in the back of an unmodified HMMWV (Humvee), and it has
greater range and higher cruise speed than similarly sized VTOL UAS because it
uses high-speed, wingborne flight.
The GoldenEye-50 made its first flight in July 2004 and, after extensive
hover tests, made its first autonomous transition to and from horizontal
flight in April 2005. Since April, the rapidly maturing system has completed
more than three dozen transition flights and demonstrated its operational
capabilities to Army Ranger, Cavalry and Artillery and the forces of a NATO
country.

About Aurora Flight Sciences
Aurora Flight Sciences is a leader in unmanned aerial systems technology
for research, defense and homeland security organizations. For more than 15
years, Aurora Flight Sciences has expanded the limits of unmanned flight
through the design and manufacture of innovative aircraft. Learn more about
Aurora Flight Sciences by visiting the company's website at
http://www.aurora.aero.


SOURCE Aurora Flight Sciences
Web Site: http://www.aurora.aero "