Army Signs Contract with Aurora for Continued Orion HALL Development

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Columbus, MS (Aurora Flight Sciences)

Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that it has signed a contract with the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command (SMDC/ARSTRAT) for the continued development of the Orion HALL ultra-long endurance unmanned air system.

Orion HALL’s primary mission is to serve as the demonstration testbed for an advanced hydrogen propulsion system. Aurora is currently testing a Boeing hydrogen engine in its ultra high altitude test facility in Manassas, Virginia. With such an engine, the Orion HALL Objective System would be able to carry payloads of up to 400 pounds to altitudes of up to 65,000 feet for endurances over 100 hours.

A conventionally powered version of Orion HALL is also under study. This version could have endurances approaching two weeks at altitudes of around 20,000 feet.

Development of Orion HALL began in 2006. It builds upon more than a decade of earlier design experience accumulated by Aurora developing the Perseus and Theseus high altitude aircraft for NASA.

Total value of the Army contract signed today is $6.1 million. The contract contains options that, if exercised, would bring the total contract value to $27.7M. First flight is planned for 2009.

Operational versions of Orion HALL could serve a variety of military missions. Also, Orion will provide persistent surveillance, monitoring and tracking targets of interest on the ground. Orion will revolutionize global change and environmental research, where, for example, the UAV could monitor and track the formation of hurricanes and other severe storms, with the goal of improving track forecasting accuracy.

About Aurora Flight Sciences

Aurora Flight Sciences develops and provides robotic aircraft and other advanced aerospace vehicles for scientific and military applications. Aurora is headquartered in Manassas, VA and operates production plants in Clarksburg, WV and Columbus, MS and a Research and development Center in Cambridge, MA. Please visit our web site at www.aurora.aero.