In March 2008, the firm was acquired by Rockwell Collins. Athena Technologies was established in 1998 as a spin-off from Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, with the specific aim of commercializing flight-control technologies whose heritage is in Aurora's high-altitude unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Athena Technologies is focused to development and manufacture of control and navigation solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs,) and military and civilian manned aircraft. Athena's technological expertise in controls design is critical to the success of a wide variety of UAVs including the US Armyâs Shadow Tactical UAV, the Air Forceâs Subscale Aerial Target, GA Sky Warrior, Thales Watchkeeper, Aleniaâs Sky-X and many others. Athenaâs compact and affordable GuideStar® control and navigation products have over 250,000 flight hours operating in the harshest conditions. Athena is now providing products to the general, commercial and business aircraft industries leveraging these field-proven systems. For the first time ever, civilian aviation can obtain flight control and navigation systems with the highest level of performance and reliability, at an affordable