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Aurora Flight Sciences (AFS) is an American aviation and aeronautics research subsidiary of Boeing that specializes in special-purpose unmanned aerial vehicles. Aurora's headquarters is at Manassas Regional Airport .
The Aurora XV-24 LightningStrike is an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle created by Aurora Flight Sciences and partners Rolls-Royce and Honeywell. It was developed for the Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft program. [1]
Electra creator John Langford founded Aurora Flight Sciences in 1989, sold to Boeing in 2017. [2] The first test flight happened on November 11, 2023, all-electric powered, from Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia. [3] On November 17, it flew again for 23 minutes, powered by its hybrid-electric drivetrain, reaching 3,200 ft (980 m). [3]
The December flight was the 18th for the Orion, logging 158 total flight hours. Aurora hoped the flight would convince the Air Force to procure the Orion for persistent surveillance, and the company looked at several other roles including a communications relay and to compete against the MQ-4C Triton naval recon UAV. [2] [4] [5] [6]
First, a model 1:10 was used to test the concept; it was flown with and without a fuselage. Further flight tests, with a 1:4 scale concept aircraft, were also conducted by Aurora. [2] The PAV first flew on January 22, 2019, in Manassas, Virginia, [3] [4] hovering before further tests and a transition to forward flight.
Aurora Flight Sciences embarked on the development of an experimental X-plane, as part of the DARPA's CRANE programme, in November 2020. Wind tunnel testing was also conducted in San Diego, California, in May 2022. DARPA allocated funds for the detailed engineering design of a full-scale X-plane in December 2022.
In 1988, NASA decided to obtain a HALE UAV named "Perseus" to deal with these problems, designating the effort the Small High-Altitude Science Aircraft (SHASA) program. Perseus was designed by a startup company named Aurora Flight Sciences of Manassas, Virginia. The Perseus design effort struggled along on skimpy funds until 1991, when NASA was ...
He founded Aurora Flight Sciences in 1989 in order to design and manufacture high altitude UAVs that could be used for global climate change research, [1] [2] and was its President and C.E.O. [3] In 2004, Langford received Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist award for his contribution to business development in Virginia.