Aurora Flight Sciences' Goldeneye 80 vertical take-off and landing ducted fan unmanned air vehicle made its first public demonstration flight at Webster Field annex at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland on 10 August.

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©Billypix

 Above: Aurora Flight Sciences Goldeneye 80 ducted fan UAV makes its public debut at AUVSI's 10 August demo day at Webster Field
The Goldeneye 80 is the culmination of Aurora's internal funding and earlier work with the prototype called 50 that was brought about by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's organic air vehicle two programme.

Aurora's chief technology officer Tom Clancy told Flight Daily News: "We are looking for a launch customer [for Goldeneye 80 and] we are looking at export opportunities with our state department. If we gain any international interest we would apply for export licences."

The 80 uses a heavy fuel engine capable of operating on Jet-A, JP-8 and/or aviation gasoline. Its payload has day/night imaging systems, including electro-optical/infrared sensors, a laser designator and laser rangefinder capabilities. Planned improvements include the addition of winglets to increase range and endurance and a conformal antennae mounted in the duct structure to enable communications and electronic intelligence sensors.

Source: Flight Daily News

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