AeroVironment Awarded Contract for Development of Global Observer Stratospheric Unmanned Aircraft System

I wouldn't jump the gun on success. They have not proven the propulsion systems work yet and, it should be noted that they have been working on this for years and still have a ways to go to prove that the motors even work which still to this day, they have not done.

AV is plagued by a non experienced management typical of most So Cal companies. They are overbudget on most of their programs, late on most deliverables and not meeting performance requirements at current for almost all of their programs.

They ran out of money last year and now, with congress looking into the wish lists of Mr Bush, this program has had it's funding cut at the beginning of 2008 since it is not part of the war budget.

AV also has no experience with mfg planes of this scale either. What they do know how to manufacture is small scale models such as hand held UAVs and have proven to be a success. They are really doing well with those small RC planes but were struggling with the airframe molds never mind the design of the airframe and propulsion systems during 2007. They just can't get it to work as intended and really don't have the experience needed in my opinion to build it correctly.

It should also be noted that AV has lost all but one of it's top PhD engineers in 2007. The company has changed from both a management and internal perspective. Not only did they lose the leader of the dream, (Dr Paul McCready) but they lost almost all of the super bright people that helped to bring AV to where they are. Since they lost all those people, they have remained stagnant and have not come up with anything new in a while. While other companies are moving ahead, AV remains stagnated still churning out the same old products from years ago.

They lost their Sr. Motor Engineer, a Sr EE battery guru who was doing all the battery designs, and, they also lost their Principal Scientist for Energy Technology among a few other top Engineers & PhDs from the Simi Valley site that were working on Global Observer.

I don't think they have the intelligence over there anymore or the resources or the financial backing not to mention a solid management team needed to make Global Observer a reality.