In October 2017, Boeing announced a plan to acquire Aurora Flight Sciences, a Virginia-based developer, and manufacturer of autonomous flight systems. Yesterday, the aerospace giant completed the acquisition, which will give Boeing a boost as it works to bring advanced aerospace platforms to modern airplanes.
The company is behind some innovative design work, such as the experimental LightningStrike vertical take-off and landing plane that uses hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fans; the Orion unmanned aircraft, which can travel for 3,000 miles in a single mission; and the SideArm, which is quite literally a giant arm used to launch UAVs.
Aurora Flight Sciences will operate as an independent subsidiary of Boeing's Engineering, Test & Technology division. With its headquarters in Manassas, Virginia, Aurora employs 550 people and has operations in six different locations both in the US and Europe. These include Research and Development operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Switzerland, as well as manufacturing facilities located in Bridgeport, West Virginia and Columbus, Mississippi, and offices in Dayton, Ohio, and Mountain View, California.
The news comes only three weeks after Boeing's innovation arm, HorizonX, invested in Near Earth Autonomy, a private company spun off from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute that also specializes in enabling autonomous flight.
Who knows, we may soon be flying the friendly skies without a pilot at all.