Aurora Goldeneye

Role	Reconnaissance UAV
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Aurora Flight Sciences
First flight	2003 (Goldeneye 100) 2004 (Goldeneye 50)

The Aurora Goldeneye is a reconnaissance UAV under development in the United States of America during the first decade of the 21st century. It is a ducted fan design in roughly the same class as the Sikorsky Cypher II. This UAV was built under a DARPA contract and is apparently focused on covert or special forces operations.

The Goldeneye is a "tail-sitter" or "pogo" machine that takes off and lands straight up. ^[1] 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 ^[2] in the UK. It has an autonomous flight control system with GPS-INS navigation.

The aircraft 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.

The Goldeneye was initially developed and manufactured mainly by Aurora Flight Sciences, though later versions (i.e. the goldeneye 50 & 80) were developed by "Team Goldeneye", led by Aurora, in collaboration with Northrop Grumman, Signal Systems Corporation and General Dynamics Robotics Systems. ^[3]

Specifications (Goldeneye 100)

General characteristics

• Crew: None
• Wingspan: 10 ft 0 in (3.00 m)
• Diameter: 3 ft 0 in (0.90 m)
• Height: 5 ft 6 in (1.70 m)
• Empty weight: 105 lb (48 kg)
• Gross weight: 150 lb (68 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × UAV Engines AR741 , 38 hp (28 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 185 mph (295 km/h, 161 kn)
• Range: 620 mi (1,000 km, 540 nmi)

Specifications (Goldeneye 50)

Data from https://defense-update.com/20040426_goldeneye50.html

General characteristics

• Crew: None
• Capacity: 1 kg payload
• Wingspan: 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in)
• Height: 0.7 m (2 ft 4 in)
• Empty weight: 7 kg (16 lb)
• Gross weight: 10 kg (22 lb)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 280 km/h (170 mph, 150 kn)
• Cruise speed: 100 km/h (62 mph, 54 kn)

References

1. Knight, Will. "Copter-plane flies through tests". New Scientist. Retrieved 2025-10-24.
2. "Home". uavenginesltd.co.uk.
3. admin (2004-04-26). "GoldenEye Ducted-Fan VTOL UAV - Defense Update" . Retrieved 2025-10-24.

This article contains material that originally came from the web article Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by Greg Goebel, which exists in the Public Domain.