DARPA’s CRANE program is aimed at developing a test aircraft for demonstrating technologies for active control of air flow that can improve aerodynamics and performance. (DARPA)
WASHINGTON — DARPA this week announced that Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences has begun building an aircraft that can maneuver without the need for traditional flight control surfaces.
DARPA’s Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program announced its Phase 3 award to Aurora on Wednesday, which noted that the company has already started making the project’s X-plane that has officially been designated the X-65. The 7,000-pound prototype with a 30-foot wingspan should be capable of reaching Mach 0.7 and is scheduled to be unveiled early next year.
The unmanned vehicle itself could fly as soon as summer 2025, according to the DARPA release. Aurora is the sole contractor after Lockheed Martin was eliminated following the program’s first phase; a December 2023 Pentagon notice previously listed the cumulative value of the CRANE contract at nearly $90 million.
Through the CRANE initiative, DARPA and Aurora are trying to break the mold of a feature foundational to aviation’s century-plus existence. Whereas aircraft have been operated with flight control surfaces — e.g. flaps and rudders — the CRANE drone is being designed to instead leverage pressurized air using active flow control (AFC) actuators to shape an aircraft’s flight.
The research agency says the AFC actuators can reduce weight and complexity as well as improve performance, though the X-65 will be built with traditional control surfaces and the new actuators. Once the actuators prove themselves, tests will progressively “lock down” the traditional flight control surfaces and gradually expand the role of the AFC devices, DARPA says.
The CRANE program is not the only purpose the X-65 can serve, as DARPA expects the prototype to live on as a valuable test asset, according to program director Richard Wlezien.
“We’re building the X-65 as a modular platform — wing sections and the AFC effectors can easily be swapped out — to allow it to live on as a test asset for DARPA and other agencies long after CRANE concludes,” Wlezien said in the release.
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