Note:Sinch search engines tend to drop you into the middle of a conversation, let me restate that I no longer work for AeroVironenment. They very rudely laid me off in 1991. This page is just one of many describing where I've worked.

AeroVironment is an environmental engineering company in Monrovia, CA. During the last recession, it underwent a major restructuring where almost half the company either was laid off or quit.

Aerovironment is/was Paul MacCready's company. Paul MacCready is the winner of two Kremmer prizes for first achieving human-powered flight over a fixed course with the the Gossamer Condor, and then across the English Channel with the Gossamer Albatross. (He designed and built the aircraft. His son flew the fixed course. A world class athlete flew across the channel.) With the money from the first Kremmer prize, he founded AeroVironment.

AeroVironment is also the company that built the GM Sunraycer, the solar powered car that won the race across Australia, and the GM Impact, a battery powered automobile, and the prototype for GM's EV-1. Aerovironment also built a radio controlled, life size, flying pteridactle, seen in the IMAX movie "On the Wing." Aerovironment is currently working on Helios, a solar powered pilotless aircraft, (UAV - uninhabited aerial vehicle) which flies at 100,000 feet. The goal is to have it aloft for days or months at a time where it could then be used as a communications relay.

Paul MacCready has four of his inventions on display in the Smithsonian. It was an interesting place to work.