New Vision for Lift Fan Aircraft Family Grows From Special Operations X-Plane Program
9th October 2024
Aurora Flight Sciences has released new renderings of an uncrewed fan-in-wing vertical take-off-and-landing capable demonstrator aircraft it is currently working on, as well as of a revised vision for a scaled-up cargo aircraft based on the same technology. The demonstrator is being developed under a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program centered on interest in a new high-speed, runway-independent special operations transport plane. Aurora’s unveiling of the new renders also comes amid growing interest from the U.S. Air Force in similar capabilities to support more general distributed logistics missions, especially in contested environments during future high-end conflicts.
Aurora, a subsidiary of Boeing, shared the new renders and provided more information about the work it is doing as part of DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program earlier today. DARPA awarded new SPRINT contracts to Aurora, as well as Bell, earlier this year. SPRINT, which kicked off last year, is directly tied U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing (HSVTOL) project.