General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. announced that its Predator®/Gray Eagle®-series aircraft family has reached a historic industry ...
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. announced that its Predator®/Gray Eagle®-series aircraft family has reached a historic industry milestone: two million flight hours. The noteworthy achievement occurred on Sept. 9, with more than 150,000 total missions completed and nearly 90-percent of all missions flown in combat.
The identification of the specific aircraft and customer that achieved the milestone is unknown as every second of every day approximately 50 GA-ASI aircraft are airborne worldwide. On Sept. 9, 24 Predators, 15 Predator Bs, six Gray Eagles, and five Sky Warrior® Alphas were in operation. Flight hours have seen tremendous growth in recent years, with 500,000 flight hours achieved from 1993 to 2008, one million just two years later in 2010, and one-and-a-half million the following year in 2011. The aircraft family is currently logging more than 45,000 flight hours a month.
Predator/Gray Eagle-series aircraft are in constant daily operations supporting the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the Italian Air Force, the Royal Air Force, and other customers in the execution of a wide variety of missions
Over 550 aircraft have been produced since the company’s first aircraft, the GNAT® 750, took flight in 1993. Today, GA-ASI is building six aircraft and five Ground Control Stations (GCS) per month, with the capacity to double production if needed.
