DARPA grants Aurora Flight Sciences VTOL plane program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced on Thursday that it has awarded a Phase 2 contract for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) X-Plane to Aurora Flight Sciences.

The primary goal of the program is to change the way that aircraft take off and land, aiming to streamline and simplify the process, which has remained fairly static, even as technology has advanced.

“Just when we thought it had all been done before, the Aurora team found room for invention—truly new elements of engineering and technology that show enormous promise for demonstration on actual flight vehicles,” Ashish Bagai, a program manager at DARPA, said. “This is an extremely novel approach. It will be very challenging to demonstrate, but it has the potential to move the technology needle the farthest and provide some of the greatest spinoff opportunities for other vertical flight and aviation products.”

Aurora’s design for the Phase 2 VTOL X-Plane includes a an unmanned aircraft with two large rear wings and two smaller short winglets mounted near the nose of the aircraft.

The plane will feature a turboshaft engine — one used in a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft—mounted in the fuselage would yield three megawatts (4,000 horsepower) of electrical power, the equivalent of an average commercial wind turbine.

“This VTOL X-plane won’t be in volume production in the next few years but is important for the future capabilities it could enable,” Bagai said. “Imagine electric aircraft that are more quiet, fuel-efficient and adaptable and are capable of runway-independent operations. We want to open up whole new design and mission spaces freed from prior constraints, and enable new VTOL aircraft systems and subsystems.”