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The Aurora legend started in 1985, when the Los Angeles Times [5] and later Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine broke the news that the term "Aurora" had been inadvertently included in the 1985 U.S. budget, as an allocation of $455 million for "black aircraft production" in FY 1987. [6]
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.
The Lockheed CP-140 Aurora is a maritime patrol aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The aircraft is based on the Lockheed P-3 Orion airframe, but mounts the electronics suite of the Lockheed S-3 Viking. "Aurora" refers to the Roman goddess of dawn who flies across the sky each morning ahead of the sun. [1]
In 2009, as Aurora developed small vertical take-off UAVs known as the Aurora Goldeneye, the third variant of this family, the GoldenEye-80, was first flown publicly at Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's Unmanned Systems North America trade show. On 5 October 2017, Boeing announced that it would acquire Aurora Flight Sciences.
On 12 November 2024, the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane broke the sound barrier for the first time, becoming the first airplane designed and manufactured in New Zealand to do so. The flight, the spaceplane's 57th, attained a top speed of Mach 1.1 and a maximum height of 82,000 ft (25,000 m). [30] [31]
The Aurora D8, also known as the D8 Airliner, is an airliner concept under development as of mid 2017. [2] The project was initiated in 2008 by Aurora Flight Sciences , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pratt & Whitney under NASA 's sponsorship of $2.9 million (£2.19 million).
In December 2014, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to study the feasibility of building the SR-72's propulsion system using existing turbine engine technologies, The $892,292 (~$1.13 million in 2023) contract funded a design study to determine the viability of a TBCC propulsion system by combining one of several current turbine engines, with a very low Mach ignition Dual Mode Ramjet (DMRJ).
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]