by AUVSI News 

On March 3, Aurora Flight Sciences announced that DARPA has awarded the company the prime contract for phase two of the agency’s Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Plane, or VTOL X-Plane, program.

“Aurora is proud to support DARPA on what we all hope to be a truly historic breakthrough in aviation technology,” says Dr. John Langford, chairman and CEO of Aurora. “If successful, VTOL X-Plane’s radically improved flight capabilities could lead to revolutionary advancement to the U.S. military’s future mission capabilities. We’re honored to have been selected by DARPA to build and flight test the demonstrator aircraft.”

VTOL X-Plane seeks to develop a technology demonstrator that could achieve a top sustained flight speed of 300 to 400 knots, raise aircraft hover efficiency from 60 percent to at least 75 percent, present a more favorable cruise lift-to-drag ratio of at least 10, and carry a useful load of at least 40 percent of the vehicle’s projected gross weight of 10,000 to 12,000 pounds.

The technology demonstrator was designed in close collaboration with Aurora’s team members, Rolls-Royce PLC and Honeywell International Inc., who developed design features such as Rolls-Royce AE 1107c turboshaft that would power three Honeywell generators. 

“The Aurora team’s goal is to help redefine the future of vertical flight,” says Mark Wilson, chief operating officer of Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks. “Rolls-Royce LibertyWorks is proud to contribute both proven components and innovative new technologies in turbo-electric distributed propulsion to this exciting program.”

Aurora plans to conduct the first flight tests of the technology demonstrator in the 2018 time frame.

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