The Aurora Goldeneye is a reconnaissance UAV under development in the United States during the first decade of the 21st century. It is a

ducted fan In aeronautics, a ducted fan is a thrust-generating mechanical fan or propeller mounted within a cylindrical duct or shroud. Other terms include ducted propeller or shrouded propeller. When used in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) applicati ...

design in roughly the same class as the

Sikorsky Cypher II The Sikorsky Cypher and Cypher II are types of unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Sikorsky Aircraft. They are vertical takeoff and landing aircraft which use two opposing rotors enclosed in a circular shroud for propulsion. Design and deve ...

. This UAV was built under a

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...

contract and is apparently focused on covert or special forces operations. The Goldeneye is a "

tail-sitter A tail-sitter, or tailsitter, is a type of VTOL aircraft that takes off and lands on its tail, then tilts horizontally for forward flight. Originating in the 1920s with the inventor Nikola Tesla, the first aircraft to adopt a tail-sitter configur ...

" or "pogo" machine that takes off and lands straight up. It is a stumpy-looking machine with four tailfins, each with landing gear on the fintip, and a wing that pivots, allowing it to be aligned with the aircraft centerline in cruise flight and at a right angle to the centerline in hover flight. The Goldeneye is built of graphite and fiberglass composites, and has a low radar, infrared, and acoustic signature. It is powered by a 28 kW (38 hp) Wankel-rotary engine from AV Engines Ltd in the UK. It has an autonomous flight control system with GPS-INS navigation. The Goldeneye can carry a small electo-optic sensor turret or other payload and features a radio datalink. Apparently the DARPA specification mysteriously required that it be able to carry "two coke-can size payloads" that were not described further. Aurora is working on a half-scale version of the Goldeneye for commercial sales.

Specifications (Goldeneye 100)

References

This article contains material that originally came from the web articl
''Unmanned Aerial Vehicles''
by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain. 2000s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Tailsitter aircraft {{UAV-stub