WASHINGTON, DC (AUVSIs Unmanned Systems North America 2009, Booth #1041) August 11, 2009 -- Parvus Corporation today announced the successful first flight of the Aurora Common Mission Computer (ACMC) units onboard the Excalibur a new tactical Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) designed to combine high speed and vertical flight using unique turbine hybrid electric propulsion.

The ACMC is part of Aurora Common Avionics Components and the Excalibur Air Vehicle flew with two units. Jean-Marie Bourven, Aurora ACMC Product Manager, reports the ACMC key considerations were to use industry standards to support long term system evolution and reliability.

The ACMC computer is a small-form factor rugged computing system based on Parvus COTS DuraCOR 820 subsystem, designed to accommodate the environmental and physical requirements of Auroras airborne vehicles. The computing architecture for this Parvus subsystem is based on a low-power mobile Pentium CPU, solid state memory, Linux operating system, Military-grade power supply, and various peripheral and network inputs.

Parvus has a long history of successfully supplying key military contractors, such as Aurora, with advanced MIL-grade Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) computing solutions tailored to specific UAV platforms, said Les Goodman, president of Parvus Corporation. The Excalibur will prove to be a valuable aircraft to the militarys arsenal of UAVs and Parvus is honored to participate in this important program.

Excaliburs unique configuration enables both VTOL and high-speed flight modes at speeds up to 400 knots; thereby providing the Warfighter with a survivable capability for quick response weapons delivery or logistics resupply from remote, austere forward operating bases or from air cable ships operating in the littorals.

Excalibur is the third program from Aurora to use the ACMC units from Parvus. Auroras other tactical systems operating with these customized systems include GoldenEye 80.

About Parvus

Parvus Corporation is a leading supplier of rugged COTS computing and IP networking subsystems for Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constrained military, aerospace, and homeland defense applications. Parvus tactical mission processors, network routers and Ethernet switch products provide highly reliable command, control, computing and communication (C4) capabilities for situational awareness and mobile data processing in airborne, ground vehicle, and naval installations. Parvus was founded in 1983 and is part of the Eurotech Group, a world leader in small form factor and high performance computing with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.parvus.com..

About Aurora Flight Sciences

Aurora Flight Sciences designs and builds robotic aircraft and other advanced aerospace vehicles for scientific and military applications. Aurora is headquartered in Manassas, VA and operates production plants in Bridgeport, WV and Columbus, MS and a Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. To view recent press releases and more about Aurora please visit www.aurora.aero.

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