LightningStrike (VTOL X-Plane, Vertical Take-Off and Landing Experimental Aircraft), Aurora Flight Sciences, Manassas, Virginia, USA

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Developer - Aurora Flight Sciences

VTOL X-Plane on Wikipedia

 

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Aurora's LightningStrike VTOL X-Plane

Published on Mar 3, 2016

Aurora’s revolutionary aircraft design includes the first-ever distributed hybrid-electric propulsion system.

 

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VTOL X-Plane Phase 2 Concept Video

Published on Mar 3, 2016

DARPA’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program seeks to provide innovative cross-pollination between fixed-wing and rotary-wing technologies and by developing and integrating novel subsystems to enable radical improvements in vertical and cruising flight capabilities. In an important step toward that goal, DARPA has awarded the Phase 2 contract for VTOL X-Plane to Aurora Flight Sciences.

 

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Aurora successfully flies subscale X-Plane aircraft

Published on Apr 18, 2016

DARPA Vertical Take-Off/Landing X-plane (VTOL x-plane) Program Achieves Critical Milestone. Aurora Flight Sciences announced today that a subscale vehicle demonstrator of its LightningStrike, VTOL x-plane for DARPA was successfully flown at a U.S. military facility. The flight of the subscale aircraft met an important DARPA risk reduction requirement, focusing on validation of the aerodynamic design and flight control system.

 

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NASA’s new X-Plane looks goofy but packs some serious tech

Published on Jun 21, 2016

The X-57 will be essentially like flying a Tesla. It's part of NASA’s goals to reduce fuel use, emissions, and noise with innovative aircraft design.

 

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DARPA completes testing of subscale Hybrid Electric VTOL X-Plane

Published on Apr 4, 2017

DARPA has completed flight-testing of a sub-scale version of a novel aircraft design as part of its Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) X-Plane program, and is proceeding with work to develop a full-scale version of the groundbreaking plane. Developed and fabricated by Aurora Flight Sciences, the revolutionary aircraft includes 24 electric ducted fans—18 distributed within the main wings and six in the canard surfaces, with the wings and canards tilting upwards for vertical flight and rotating to a horizontal position for wing-borne flight. The successful tests suggest there is a time in the not-so-distant future when VTOL aircraft could fly much faster and farther than any existing hover-capable craft, and take off and land almost anywhere.