Organization and Significant Accounting Policies Other - Government Contracts (Details) - USD ($)	3 Months Ended		6 Months Ended
	Oct. 27, 2018	Oct. 28, 2017	Oct. 27, 2018	Oct. 28, 2017	Apr. 30, 2018
Government Contracts
Reserves for incurred cost claim audits	$ 179,000		$ 179,000		$ 77,000
Numerator for basic earnings per share:
Continuing operations attributable to AeroVironment	7,047,000	$ 7,756,000	27,384,000	$ 3,385,000
Net (loss) income from discontinued operations	(990,000)	(33,000)	6,003,000	(1,521,000)
Net income attributable to AeroVironment	$ 6,057,000	$ 7,723,000	$ 33,387,000	$ 1,864,000
Denominator for basic (loss) earnings per share:
Weighted-average common shares outstanding, excluding unvested restricted stock (in shares)	23,667,400	23,477,914	23,621,720	23,407,500
Dilutive effect of employee stock options and unvested restricted stock (in shares)	431,433	355,045	437,674	308,497
Denominator for diluted (loss) earnings per share (in shares)	24,098,833	23,832,959	24,059,394	23,715,997
Number of shares reserved for issuance that are anti-dilutive	598		7,130	14,820
Potentially dilutive shares	0