Aurora Flight Sciences has finished its conceptual design of an experimental vertical-takeoff-and-landing plane for the Pentagon and is moving into the following phase.
Aurora’s blended-wing design for the SPRINT, or Speed and Runway Independent Technologies, program will now start the preliminary design process, the corporate said Monday.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants its SPRINT vertical takeoff aircraft, dubbed X-plane, to have the opportunity to fly at speeds between 400 and 450 knots, far faster than the V-22 Osprey’s maximum speed of 270 knots. SPRINT also should have the opportunity to hover in a stable manner, transition from hovering to forward flight, and have a distributed energy system that effectively powers all of the propulsion technology during that transition, a DARPA official told Defense News in December 2023.
DARPA is leaving it as much as corporations to come to a decision whether their aircraft needs to be crewed, uncrewed or in a position to fly autonomously.
4 corporations — Boeing subsidiary Aurora, Bell Textron, Northrop Grumman and Piasecki Aircraft Corp. — received six-month contracts from DARPA in November 2023 to begin their conceptual designs.
DARPA awarded Aurora a $25 million contract modification on April 30 to maintain working on its version of SPRINT. This represents a big boost to Aurora’s funding, which was previously $4.2 million.
Thus far, Aurora is the one company to receive one other contract to maneuver forward on the SPRINT program, but more might be on the way in which. DARPA said in December that it plans to chop not less than certainly one of the 4 corporations from contention after the conceptual design phase.
The agency declined to comment Tuesday on potential SPRINT contract awards.
Aurora’s blended-wing aircraft design would use three embedded lift fans to fly vertically after which shift to a set of embedded engines to fly forward. This design would cut down on drag and permit it to fly at high speed, the corporate said, making the concept well fitted to air mobility and special operations missions.
The corporate released recent concept art Monday that shows its aircraft can be uncrewed and have a composite exterior. The firm said the aircraft can reach a cruise speed of 450 knots.
Aurora said it could add more lift fans to its fan-in-wing design — if the military’s requirements for such an aircraft chang — and create a crewed aircraft using the identical fan technology.
Aurora said its SPRINT team expects to complete the preliminary design review in about one 12 months, with a goal of its first flight in three years.
Bell is taking a special approach than Aurora on SPRINT, having released concept art in November 2023 showing a tiltrotor design not far off from the standard Osprey aircraft.
DARPA also awarded Aurora an $8.3 million contract modification earlier this month to maintain designing an experimental heavy cargo seaplane, often called Liberty Lifter.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.