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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Wanted: Investors in Tiny Plane

AeroVironment Inc. is seeking customers willing to invest to improve the miniature Nano Hummingbird aircraft. The Monrovia-based company built the lightweight, 6 ½-inch prototype with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In 2011, the company demonstrated the robot could hover and fly forward under battery power. Now AeroVironment is exploring how to improve the aircraft by adding to its payload capacity and ability to fly longer using lighter materials and battery technology, said Steve Gitlin, a company spokesman. “There are ideas to have it navigate its own way through closed spaces,” Gitlin said. Aerovironment develops and manufactures unmanned aircraft primarily used by the U.S. military for reconnaissance. Its aircraft systems are launched by hand in combat area with soldiers using a hand-held control to operate them. The aircraft are designed, built and tested in Simi Valley. The Nano Hummingbird is the smallest aircraft developed by the company with a weight of two-thirds of an ounce including the motor, batteries, video camera and communications systems. AeroVironment has talked with customers who might be interested in financing improvements to the aircraft although details could not be released, Gitlin said. The flying robot received worldwide attention upon demonstrating its flying abilities and was named one of the best 50 inventions of 2011 by Time magazine. That the aircraft caused such a sensation was due to people being fascinated with hummingbirds because of the different way they fly, Gitlin said. “This is a mechanical representation that comes close to the real thing,” Gitlin said. “That is very intriguing to people.” — Mark R. Madler

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