The Orion is a

Medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle A medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle flies at an altitude window of 10,000 to 30,000 feet (3,000–9,000 m) for extended durations of time, typically 24 to 48 hours.https://www.leonardocompany.com/en/products/falco-xplorer This ...

(UAV) developed by

Aurora Flight Sciences Aurora Flight Sciences is an American aviation and aeronautics research subsidiary of Boeing which primarily specializes in the design and construction of special-purpose Unmanned aerial vehicles. Aurora has been established for 20+ years and th ...

Background

Work on the Orion began in 2006, when the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

funded it as a hydrogen-fuelled “high-altitude, long-loiter” (HALL) UAV. Originally, it was conceived as a single-engine, hydrogen-fueled, high-altitude unmanned aircraft intended to carry a payload to having a

gross weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

; similar aircraft included the

AeroVironment Global Observer The AeroVironment Global Observer is a concept for a high-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, designed by AeroVironment (AV) to operate as a stratospheric geosynchronous satellite system with regional coverage. Two Global Observer ...

and

Boeing Phantom Eye The Boeing Phantom Eye was a high altitude, long endurance (HALE) liquid hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Boeing Phantom Works. The aircraft was Boeing's proposal to meet the demand from the US military for unmanned drones ...

. Aurora was selected by the

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research organization operated by the United States Air Force Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of aerospace warfighting technologies, pl ...

(AFRL) in 2007 for the Ultra Long Endurance study contract to look at fixed-wing alternatives to the Blue Devil 2 and

Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle The Hybrid Air Vehicles Airlander 10, originally developed as the HAV 304, is a hybrid airship designed and built by British manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV). Comprising a helium airship with auxiliary wing and tail surfaces, it flies usi ...

(LEMV) surveillance

airships An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air Powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding a ...

then being explored (both ultimately cancelled) and push beyond the endurance limits of the

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ( ...

and

RQ-4 Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. Th ...

; they submitted an unsolicited proposal to the AFRL for the Orion, powered by conventional engines, in 2008. The company won a joint-capability technology demonstration contract to build the Orion in 2009, which led to a contract for the Medium-Altitude Global Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and Communications relay (Magic) joint concept technology demonstration (JCTD) in 2010. By then, the Orion had been redesigned to be a twin-engine,

turbo-diesel The term turbo-diesel, also written as turbodiesel and turbo diesel, refers to any diesel engine equipped with a turbocharger. As with other engine types, turbocharging a diesel engine can significantly increase its efficiency and power output, ...

-powered, medium-altitude UAV capable of flying for 120 hours at with a payload and an increased gross weight of . The first demonstrator was rolled out on 22 November 2010, 88 days after the contract award. In 2011, the program was transferred to the Air Force's

Big Safari Big Safari is a United States Air Force program begun in 1952 which provides management, direction, and control of the acquisition, modification, and logistics support for special purpose weapons systems derived from existing aircraft and systems. ...

office.Aurora Orion UAV Could Cut ISR Costs 80%
- Aerospaceblog.wordpress.com, 30 November 2010Aurora’s Orion MALE UAV Aims For 120-hr. Flight
- Aviationweek.com, 17 September 2013Aurora Claims Endurance Record For Orion UAS
- Aviationweek.com, 22 January 2015Aurora’s Orion UAV in storage after USAF world-record flight
- Flightglobal.com, 15 September 2015

Design

The revolutionary aspect of the aircraft is meant to be its time on station cost, planned to be only 20 percent the cost per hour compared to current aerial surveillance aircraft like the Predator,

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Unit ...

, and

MC-12W Liberty The Beechcraft C-12 Huron is the military designation for a series of twin-engine turboprop aircraft based on the Beechcraft Super King Air and Beechcraft 1900. C-12 variants are used by the United States Air Force, United States Army, United S ...

through efficient aerodynamics and propulsion, lightweight airframe, reliable systems, autonomous operation, and requiring fewer takeoffs and landings. Its

ferry range The maximal total range is the maximum distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing. Powered aircraft range is limited by the aviation fuel energy storage capacity (chemical or electrical) considering both weight and volume limits. Un ...

is projected to be , longer than even the Global Hawk, which enables a time-on-station capability ranging from 113 hours at to 47 hours at . With a mission range possible to over , the Orion can be positioned much further from the patrol area, reducing costs that would otherwise be needed to transport an aircraft to a closer main operating base; unit price is expected to be less than the Reaper. The aircraft has an empty weight of and carries of fuel. It has the capacity to carry of sensors and weapons spread through the airframe, able to support in the nose, in the aft fuselage, and under the wings. The base sensor is the

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

MTS-B

electro-optical Electro–optics is a branch of electrical engineering, electronic engineering, materials science, and material physics involving components, electronic devices such as lasers, laser diodes, LEDs, waveguides, etc. which operate by the propaga ...

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

turret, but options can include a

ground moving target indication Moving target indication (MTI) is a mode of operation of a radar to discriminate a target against the clutter. It describes a variety of techniques used for finding moving objects, like an aircraft, and filter out unmoving ones, like hills or trees ...

(GMTI) radar under the nose, a multi-camera wide-area surveillance sensor in the aft bay, and external fuel tanks and

Hellfire missile The AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-ground missile (AGM) first developed for anti-armor use, later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets. It was originally developed under the name '' Heli ...

s under the wings. Its wingspan is only slightly longer than the Global Hawk's, made of a long-span, one-piece, low-drag, light weight composite wing from tip-to-tip, which reduces weight and cost but prevents it from being disassembled and airlifted to another location. Top speed is slow at by design to balance fuel efficiency and power consumption with weather tolerance. Propulsion comes from a pair of Austro Engine AE300

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s rather than more expensive and less fuel efficient

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

s. Although it is designed to fly for five days carrying standard payload weight, it could fly for a week with a lighter payload.

Operational history

Flight testing

The first flight was expected by August 2011, but progress was limited by funding. Orion's first flight occurred on 24 August 2013, flying for 3.5 hours at at an airspeed of . From 5–8 December 2014, the Orion performed an 80-hour flight at

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Installat ...

witnessed by the

National Aeronautic Association The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...

, breaking the 30.4-hour endurance record set by the Global Hawk in 2001; the aircraft flew between with of ballast to simulate payload. Upon landing, it had of fuel remaining, enough to fly for an additional 37 hours, but endurance was limited by the window of availability of the range for testing; four pilots rotated over the course of the flight. 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 The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton is an American high-altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) under development for the United States Navy as a surveillance aircraft. Together with its associated ground control station, it is an ...

naval recon UAV. After five years of development and completing its flight demonstration program, by September 2015 the aircraft was relegated to a company hangar with the Air Force deciding not to buy it. Several reasons were given to explain this, including budget problems, a 40 m (132 ft) wingspan that cannot fit in many existing Air Force hangars, less speed, payload, and weapons capacity compared to the MQ-9 Reaper, and primarily the lack of an operational requirement for a multi-day, long-endurance unmanned aircraft. Aurora is looking internationally to try to bring the Orion into service for missions like long-range surveillance and

maritime patrol {{Unreferenced, date=March 2008 Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities. Maritime patrol refers to ac ...

. The company is trying to raise money from private equity sources to build a system of three Orions to be leased to customers. Even though interest might not be in buying them, flight time could be made available for rent to users and combatant commanders on a fee-for-service basis with services provided; this has been done by the

U.S. Special Operations Command The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States Arm ...

(SOCOM), buying ISR services from

Insitu Insitu Inc. is an American company that designs, develops and manufactures unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and has several offices in the United States, the United Kin ...

for much smaller

ScanEagle The Boeing Insitu ScanEagle is a small, long-endurance, low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, and is used for reconnaissance. The ScanEagle was designed by Insitu based on the Insitu SeaScan, a co ...

drones flown by contractors. By September 2016, the Orion was being taken out of storage to fly again. A plan was approved by the company to build one three-vehicle system and offer the capability to the military as a contractor-owned or operated ISR service. The new Block 1 design features a few exterior changes, such as a slightly smaller tailplane surface, as well as changes to other structures and systems to offer by late 2019. A series of demonstrations are planned with the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

to experiment with surveillance missions over maritime borders.Aurora revives Orion UAV production for 2019 delivery
- Flightglobal.com, 5 April 2017

References

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External links