Drone med 74m vingespenn - AW&ST

This Is Aurora's Massive Solar-Powered Stratospheric Unmanned Aircraft

Nov 14, 2018

Graham Warwick | Aviation Week & Space Technology

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  Odysseus “looks more like Daedalus than Vulture,” said Aurora CEO John Langford, who led the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Daedalus team that in 1988 set three world records for human-powered flight that still stand today. 

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  Aurora Flight Sciences

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Aurora Flight Sciences has returned to its roots under new owner Boeing and built a massive solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed to stay aloft in the atmosphere up to three months.

The 243-ft.-span (74-m) Odysseus is in ground testing, split into three sections because it is too big to fit in the hangar here at Aurora’s headquarters in Manassas, Virginia. On completion of the tests, the aircraft is to be shipped by container to Puerto Rico in late February 2019 to begin flight testing. A second aircraft is under construction, and work is beginning on a third.