Aurora Flight Sciences is in talks with potential system integrators to help put its Orion five-day-endurance unmanned aircraft into production if a U.S. Air Force-funded technology demonstration proves successful.

The small Manassas, Va.-based company rolled out the first of three planned Orion demonstrators at its Columbus, Miss., plant on Nov. 22, barely three months after being selected by the Air Force Research Laboratory for the first phase of the Medium-Altitude Global ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and Communications (Magic) program.

For Aurora, which has yet to see any of its previous UAV designs reach production, winning the nearly $100-million joint capability technology demonstration (JCTD) is significant because both the MQ-1 Predator and RQ-4 Global Hawk began life as similar projects and went on to become lucrative production programs.

“This is very important for Aurora as it’s our first JCTD,” says CEO John Langford. “We are very focused on how to transition to production and we do not expect to do that alone. We will need to work with a system integrator,” he adds. “The JCTD’s focus is primarily on airframe development and performance, and Aurora can do that, but we are looking for the right strategic partner to carry this through to a program of record.”

Sponsored by U.S. Central Command, the three-year Magic JCTD covers three aircraft, their payloads and an overseas deployment to assess the military utility of a UAV that can stay aloft for five days.

Orion is designed to fly for 120 hr. at 20,000 ft., carrying a 1,000-lb. multi-sensor payload. This compares with 24 hr. for the MQ-1B Predator with a 450-lb. payload.

“The revolutionary part of the Magic JCTD is the cost of time on station, not the ISR product,” says Langford. “The cost of an observing hour on combat air patrol is planned to be 20% of the cost of currently deployed systems like the MQ-1, MQ-9 and MC-12W.”

The 120-hr. endurance targeted by the JCTD translates into a time-on-station capability ranging from 113 hr. at 550-nm. range to 47 hr. at 3,000 nm. That goal is to be achieved through a combination of efficient aerodynamics and propulsion, lightweight airframe, reliable systems and autonomous operation, as well as changes in how the UAV is flown that are enabled by its long range and endurance.

Staying five days aloft reduces the number of takeoffs and landings required to maintain an orbit, reducing the accident risk and associated costs, says Langford. A mission range of more than 9,500 nm., compared with 675 nm. for the Predator, allows the Orion to be positioned farther from its patrol area, at a main operating base where fuel costs less than when transported to a forward operating location. “It all plays into the cost of time of station,” he says.

Affordability is also a requirement, and Aurora is aiming for unit price significantly under the original $10-million target for the Global Hawk. Orion will be more expensive than a Predator, which the Air Force says costs $20 million for a four-aircraft system, but Langford believes it will be cheaper than the MQ-9 Reaper, which the Air Force says costs $53.5 million for a four-aircraft system. The RQ-4B version of the Global Hawk, by comparison, has a unit cost of $55-81 million, according to Air Force figures.