Previously doing business in College Station, TX, Freewing Aerial Robotics Corporation designs and produces aircraft utilizing the Company's proprietary Freewing Tilt-Body technology for sale and lease to private sector and government customers in the unmanned aerial vehicle ("UAV") market. The Freewing Tilt-Body technology includes a series of inventions, for which the Company holds United States and international patents. Aircraft utilizing pivoting wing technology have a hinged wing that allows them to adjust automatically to most wind changes, thermal air currents and other causes of air turbulence. As a result, pivoting wing aircraft are less sensitive to air turbulence, creating a more stable ride than conventional fixed wing aircraft. Furthermore, pivoting wing aircraft are resistant to in-flight wing stalls, which are a major cause of aviation accidents, because their freely hinged wings automatically adjust to changes in the relative positions of the plane and the wind. The Company's Freewing Tilt-Body technology utilizes and enhances the underlying advantages of pivoting wing technology, resulting in the creation of a stable, thrust-vectored vehicle which can take off, land and near-hover much like a helicopter and yet fly rapidly over distances like a conventional airplane. Since the pivoting wing is aerodynamically decoupled from the rest of the aircraft, it becomes possible to change the attitude of the fuselage (e.g., pointing the body of the aircraft up towards the sky) independently from the pivoting wings which do not stall and continue to fly. By placing the engine in the body of the aircraft, simple and stable thrust-vectoring is achieved because the propeller will tilt up as the body tilts up, while the pivoting wings continue to automatically set the proper angle for generating wing lift without stalling. Utilizing its proprietary Freewing Tilt-Body technology, the Company's unmanned aerial vehicles are designed to (1) neutralize air turbulence to provide more stable platforms for the recording and measuring equipment they carry, in order to obtain better data and image quality from such equipment; (2) take off and land even where airport runways are not available; (3) perform UAV operations and missions when conventional aircraft would be grounded due to weather conditions; and (4) have fewer moving parts, be inherently stable, and be far less expensive to produce and maintain than rotary wing or other thrust-vectored UAVs. In March 1996 the Company signed an agreement with Rockwell International Corporation (now part of The Boeing Company) for joint marketing activities in the United States. Freewing and Boeing are presently performing a joint flight test program. The Company is in the process of establishing more such relationships in the United States and abroad. The Company is also marketing its UAVs and UAV remote sensing services to private sector customers and civilian governmental agencies for such varied activities as communications relay, power line inspection, commercial fish spotting, environmental monitoring, disaster assistance, border patrol and drug enforcement work. In this regard, the Company has a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") for the lease of Company UAVs to perform calibration services with respect to NASA satellites.
