Facebook Twitter You Tube LinkedIn Google Plus HOME ABOUT » SOLUTIONS » NEWS & EVENTS » MEDIA CENTER CAREERS » INVESTORS CONTACTS » 1977: GOSSAMER CONDOR 1979: GOSSAMER ALBATROSS 1981: SOLAR CHALLENGER 1985: QN An innate energy exists within us all, but it’s been our power to transform our energies into innovative, real-world solutions that has defined and differentiated our people and our company from the start. Solutions that anticipate life. Solutions that improve life. It was on an August morning in 1977 that an amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot climbed into the gondola of the Gossamer Condor and began to pedal. Designed and built by one of Time Magazine’s “greatest minds of the 20th Century,” AeroVironment founder Dr. Paul MacCready, the experimental aircraft did something no other human-powered aircraft had ever done. It performed a controlled flight. But while human legs powered the Gossamer Condor off the ground, it was a different kind of human power-our very Human Power™ to imagine the impossible and do it-that made that plane truly soar. Since our beginnings in 1971, we realized that securing the future would require more than clean power to drive our transportation needs, protect our infrastructure and sustain our resources; it would require that inexhaustible power...human power. Indeed, from building the world's first effective human-powered and solar powered airplanes to developing the world's first modern passenger electric car, that same pioneering spirit that inspired the late Paul MacCready has impassioned a whole new generation of AeroVironment innovators. Today, whether we are empowering the 21st Century warfighter with our integrated and interoperable family of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or the 21st Century commuter with our home and public electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, human power gives us the vision, persistence, passion, agility and speed to meet our customers' continuously evolving needs and transform their lives. As a result, our growing family of products and services are more than just that, they are truly different and remarkable solutions, critical for the well being of our nation and our society. Our small UAS provide cost-effective, reliable situational awareness that gives our armed forces and our allies the power to reconnoiter and even target the dangers ahead. While our practical and comprehensive EV charging solutions, like home chargers and fast chargers, are paving the way for a safer, cleaner and brighter world. At AeroVironment, it's the power to protect and serve...to charge and go...to innovate and transform. But most of all, it's 40+ years of Human Power and it's giving our customers the power to win. HOME ABOUT SOLUTIONS NEWS & EVENTS MEDIA CENTER CAREERS INVESTORS CONTACTS TERMS & CONDITIONS PRIVACY POLICY GLOSSARY Copyright © 2014 AeroVironment, Inc. - All rights reserved. AeroVironment and AV are trademarks of AeroVironment, Inc. Feedback Site Map