Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, has been driving innovation in small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), developing cutting-edge platforms that push the boundaries of endurance, autonomy, and adaptability. From the company’s first ultra-light-weight reconnaissance drone to today’s long-range electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) platform, Aurora’s sUAS have delivered mission-critical performance where it matters most.
Skate
In 2010, Aurora debuted its first sUAS, called Skate. The 1-kilogram, all-electric sUAS was designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions; target acquisition and detection; and search-and-rescue operations. Made of ruggedized foam, the Skate airframe could be deployed from a standard military pack in seconds. It featured an electro-optical video payload and an optional infrared camera for nighttime missions.
Twin independently articulating motor pods allowed Skate to rapidly transition between vertical and horizontal flight to achieve high maneuverability and to increase endurance to levels far beyond those of traditional eVTOL drones at the time. Skate was also highly modular and lacked traditional fasteners. Instead, components were attached with magnets for easy assembly and disassembly.
Red Team
As sUAS technology became more common, the need for counter-UAS (C-UAS) solutions grew. Aurora’s Red Team unmanned aerial targets included quadcopter and fixed-wing drones designed for testing and training C-UAS platforms. The fully autonomous Red Team platforms could mimic high-performance improvised threats. They required minimal operator training and could be launched and recovered in any terrain.
The Red Team Multi-Rotor offered VTOL capabilities and an open-architecture modular payload bay, which supported the integration of advanced capabilities such as swarming, 4G communications, and GPS-denied navigation. The Red Team Fixed-Wing had a top speed of 130mph and was Aurora’s second sUAS that used foam construction, which reduced cost and weight and made the aircraft well-suited to its role as an aerial target.
Aurora continues to use its Red Team drone fleet for testing and development of various autonomous capabilities and multi-vehicle teaming.
Modular Intercept Drone Avionics Set (MIDAS)
In 2021, Aurora’s MIDAS, an AI-enabled C-UAS platform, participated in the Pentagon’s first counter drone technology demonstration in Yuma, AZ. Outfitted with optical sensors and a customized payload, MIDAS was designed to autonomously intercept and defeat multiple adversary sUAS targets in a single flight. MIDAS fired bolo projectiles that entangled the target’s propellers and disabled the vehicle without endangering bystanders.
MIDAS demonstrated advanced autonomous capabilities including the use of perception and guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms to search for, track, and target adversary drones within range of the vehicle’s perception sensors. These algorithms provided a localized position of the target in real time and determined its autonomous intercept and firing solution. The vehicle then used the information from these algorithms to provide control commands to the autopilot system and fire the drone disablement device.
SKIRON-X and SKIRON-XLE
Aurora’s past platforms have directly influenced today’s sUAS innovations through advancements in endurance, communication reliability, autonomy, and more.
