X-Nico

13 unusual facts about General Atomics


Access 5

The cancellation of the program led members of the UAV National Industry Team (UNITE) alliance, which includes Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, AeroVironment, and Aurora Flight Sciences to advocate for a new national plan in testimony before the United States Congress.

Direct conversion

In the late nineties research was undertaken by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, The University of Florida, Texas A&M University and General Atomics to use direct conversion to extract energy from fission reactions.

Esperanza Fire

The California Office of Emergency Services requested NASA support, and in under 24 hours the General Atomics Altair (NASA variant of the Predator B) was launched on a 16-hour mission to map the perimeter of the fire.

General Atomics ALTUS

The General Atomics ALTUS is an unmanned aerial vehicle, designed for scientific research, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI).

General Atomics GNAT

Even though the name "GNAT" can be thought of as a contraction of GeNeral ATomics, the original name of the developing company before its acquisition by General Atomics was Leading Systems Incorporated (LSI).

The General Atomics GNAT is a reconnaissance UAV developed in the United States in the late 1980s and manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI).

Heathgate Resources

Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd is a uranium mining company owned by the US-based nuclear company, General Atomics.

Nuclear energy in Vietnam

when Vietnam - one of the first nations under the Atoms for Peace program, orders a small research reactor, the General Atomics-built TRIGA-Mark II.

Office of Atoms for Peace

The TRR-1/M1 is of the type TRIGA Mark III, built by General Atomics, and began operation in 1962 after being commissioned in 1961 as a 1MW reactor.

Ronne Froman

In November 2012 it was announced that she plans to marry Linden Blue, co-owner of General Atomics.

Storage Resource Broker

SRB development began in 1995, through the cooperative efforts of General Atomics, the Data Intensive Cyber Environments Group (DICE), and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

In 2003, General Atomics was granted an exclusive license from UCSD to develop SRB for commercial applications.

Superconducting electric machine

In 2005 the General Atomics company received a contract for the creation of a large low speed superconducting homopolar motor for ship propulsion.


Non-rocket spacelaunch

This technique was proposed in the 1950s and 60s, most notably by General Atomics in the form of Project Orion.