Shares of AeroVironment (AVAV: chart) gained as much as 54% on their first day of trading Tuesday. Shares of the company opened 47% higher at $25 on the Nasdaq.

On Monday AeroVironment priced 6.7 million shares at $17 in a bid to raise $114 million. The price came above the expected range of $14-$16 a share.

The company offered about 4.5 million shares, while selling stockholders offered about 2.2 million shares.

The underwriters have an option to buy up to one million additional shares from AeroVironment and the selling stockholders to cover over-allotments.

Goldman Sachs acted as a lead underwriter of the offering, while Friedman Billings, Jefferies, Raymond James, Stifel Nicolaus, and Thomas Weisel acted as co-managers.

The Monrovia, California-based company designs, develops, produces and supports a technologically advanced portfolio of unmanned aircraft systems and fast charge systems.

The company has developed a series of remotely operated aircraft which can be launched by a single person and provide video images for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

For the six months ended October 28, 2006 net income of the company decreased to $6.5 million from $7.3 million a year ago. Revenue increased to $77 million from $73.3 million.