Aurora Flight Sciences will proceed designing an experimental heavy cargo seaplane for the U.S. military, which has now officially dropped General Atomics’ pitch for the Liberty Lifter aircraft program.
The Pentagon announced Thursday that Aurora, a subsidiary of Boeing based in Manassas, Virginia, has received an $8.3 million contract modification to maintain working on its mobility seaplane design.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in February 2023 chosen Aurora and General Atomics for this system, officially called the Liberty Lifter Seaplane Wing-in-Ground Effect.
DARPA originally envisioned Liberty Lifter as having concerning the same size and capability of an enormous C-17 Globemaster mobility aircraft, but has since scaled back the demonstrator program to concerning the size of a C-130 Hercules. But DARPA’s budget documents for fiscal 2025 show that a future Liberty Lifter aircraft may very well be built to roughly a C-17′s scale once there’s proof the concept works.
The Globemaster’s wingspan is greater than 169 feet, its length 174 feet and its height about 55 feet. It could carry 170,900 kilos of cargo. Compared, the Hercules’ wingspan is greater than 132 feet. The longest of the variants is about 97 feet, and the tallest is about 38 feet. One variant can carry a payload of 44,500 kilos.
Liberty Lifter can be intended to give you the option to take off and land in sea state 4, or weather conditions that produce waves of as much as about 8 feet, and will sustain operations even in sea state 5, or rough waves of as much as 13 feet.
General Atomics proposed a version of Liberty Lifter with an unorthodox twin-hull design, which was intended to make the aircraft more stable on water. Concept art of General Atomics’ design showed the plane’s noses would have lifted as much as deploy cargo and allowed vehicles to directly roll onto a beach.
Aurora’s design was closer to a standard flying boat aircraft with a single hull and high wings that angled down on the ends. In January, Aurora released a picture of its updated design, which had moved the aircraft’s floats to its wingtips and adjusted its tail design. Aurora said the brand new tail, which can be shaped just like the symbol for pi, would higher accommodate the plane’s aft cargo door.
DARPA’s Liberty Lifter manager, Christopher Kent, told Defense News in a press release that this system needed to maneuver efficiently “to create transformational change,” and that General Atomics’ design couldn’t meet its ambitious goals.
“After we reached the purpose where we realized just one performer was meeting our aggressive schedule and technical goals, we streamlined this system to proceed to deliver innovation” as soon as possible, Kent said when asked why DARPA didn’t proceed including General Atomics.
C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesman for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said in an email to Defense News that the corporate desires to proceed working with DARPA on other programs and needs the Liberty Lifter program success.
“I believe all of us recognize the Liberty Lifter concept represents an actual technological shift for future combat operations, and we made a robust proposal informed by quite a lot of experience and expertise,” Brinkley said. “You mostly wish to win and keep working on this stuff, but greater than that we just wish to see this system thrive and deliver a singular capability for the warfighter and the nation.”
Aurora Flight Sciences declined to comment on the contract modification. The corporate is working on the aircraft with ReconCraft, a shipyard based in Oregon that has expertise with maritime manufacturing, and Leidos subsidiary Gibbs and Cox, a naval architecture and marine engineering company.
Aurora will now proceed to design its Liberty Lifter and reduce its risk because it gets ready for a preliminary design review in early 2025, DARPA said. If the design review is successful, DARPA noted Aurora will proceed refining the design after which construct its Liberty Lifter.
After that time, DARPA said, Aurora will float, fly after which show Liberty Lifter’s capabilities, with its first flight intended to occur in late 2027 or early 2028.
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.