This company is based in California and was founded by Paul MacCready. AeroVironment specializes in flying machines, most notably unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and solar-powered airplanes. Innovation has been a prime goal of this company for something like forty years. This company created an all-electric, solar-powered airplane, named Solar Challenger, that successfully flew from France to England in 1981. No fuel! Think about that for a second: an international flight that used zero gallons of fuel. In the same decade, AeroVironment collaborated on the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered car that won the first World Solar Challenge.
Two of the most significant projects that AeroVironment has today are Raven and Global Observer. The Raven is a UAV that is small enough to be launched by hand. Over 13,000 have been made, and many of them are used by the United States military (especially in Iraq). Various foreign countries also use the Raven, such as the U.K. and Netherlands. Once launched, the Raven can fly for over an hour, reaching speeds exceeding thirty miles per hour and altitudes around two miles up.
The Global Observer is still in development, but it is very promising. It is a high-altitude UAV that should become a versatile alternative to some space satellites. Soaring eleven miles above Earth, the Global Observer burns hydrogen to power its four motors for up to a week. When it runs low on fuel, it will be relieved by a second Global Observer and land for refueling. It may require two UAVs to take the place of one satellite, but flying on hydrogen is cheaper than launching a huge rocket into space. Some of the desired uses for the Global Observer include spying on terrorists, capturing real-time data on weather and natural disasters, and serving as as communication relay.
AeroVironment's latest innovation is called the Nano Hummingbird. This miniscule UAV is capable of flying in any direction and hovering, just like a live hummingbird. It has a built-in camera for surveillance and weighs less than one AA battery. Its wingspan is only six inches long! The DARPA-funded Nano Hummingbird is likely to generate controversy in the coming years. While such devices are great for spying on terrorists, the possibility exists of spying on local citizens (either by the government or other citizens). America has been struggling to find a satisfactory balance between security and privacy lately, and the Nano Hummingbird will not make that struggle any easier. But it will probably save some soldiers' lives and make their jobs a little safer.
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” -Thomas Edison
Nowadays it seems there are two popular approaches to solving nationwide energy needs. One is to greatly expand our use of “green” energy sources, such as wind and solar power. The aim here is to decrease pollution and use more sustainable sources of energy. The other approach is to increase our use of domestic fossil fuels. This way people who have invested their lives in an industry do not lose their jobs. Proponents of both approaches want one thing: energy independence. Rising oil prices are teaching us that global economic interdependence is not always a good thing. Is there any way to please both sides? Maybe solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are an answer.
SOFCs are devices that harvest energy from the high-temperature reactions between oxygen and various fuels. Instead of using heat from the chemical reactions (as in traditional power plants) to drive turbines, a SOFC takes electrical energy directly from the chemical reactions. This means greater efficiency—more electricity for a given amount of fuel. Also, it is supposedly cleaner to put fuel through a fuel cell than to simply burn it. Even so, no one can disobey the laws of physics and chemistry. If fuel and oxygen go into a chemical process, then something has to be produced. You guessed right—carbon dioxide. Some people are very optimistic about this technology as a solution to our energy needs. Perhaps the most well-known example of a SOFC would be the Bloom Box, a mysterious project revealed to the world last year. Bloom Energy, the company that produces Bloom Boxes, has had hundreds of millions of dollars invested and boasts companies like eBay and Google for customers.
Green technology supporters can appreciate the efficiency of this technology. It produces less carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity than a gas fired power plant. And because SOFCs can use fossil fuels, workers in the oil industry can keep their jobs. It sounds like an easy choice, but not when you consider the price tag on a SOFC. The high temperatures required for chemical reactions in a SOFC limit its functional lifetime. Exotic materials, such as Lanthanum strontium manganite and the metal scandium, are also needed for the reactions. Expensive metals and durable construction make for high cost of production. 100-kilowatt units that would be sold to businesses like Google cost over half a million dollars each. Smaller units that are suited for household energy consumption would be unaffordable to many homeowners. That is the main reason SOFCs are not yet revolutionizing how we get our electricity. Is it possible to make affordable fuel cells? Should we use SOFCs at all?
This company is based in California and was founded by Paul MacCready. AeroVironment specializes in flying machines, most notably unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and solar-powered airplanes. Innovation has been a prime goal of this company for something like forty years. This company created an all-electric, solar-powered airplane, named Solar Challenger, that successfully flew from France to England in 1981. No fuel! Think about that for a second: an international flight that used zero gallons of fuel. In the same decade, AeroVironment collaborated on the GM Sunraycer, a solar-powered car that won the first World Solar Challenge. 
