Aurora Flight Sciences Dedicates New Product Development Facility

Manassas Facility Will Lead Development of Tactical and Planetary Unmanned Aircraft

( MANASSAS, Va., August 1, 2006 ) - Aurora Flight Sciences yesterday dedicated its new Product Development Facility during a ceremony at the Manassas Regional Airport. The 50,000 square foot facility almost doubles Aurora's footprint at the airport and will create enough space for the company to add more than 100 employees.

The facility will house the company's Engineering, Tactical Systems and Science Applications organizations. Aurora specializes in developing innovative unmanned aircraft for demanding missions. Among the aircraft development programs that will be housed at the facility are NASA's ARES Mars Airplane and Aurora's GoldenEye-50, GoldenEye-OAV and Excalibur tactical systems.

"Aurora's continued corporate growth and growth across the industry demonstrate that unmanned aircraft are no longer the novelties they were five or 10 years ago," said Aurora Flight Sciences President John S. Langford. "They are a critical component of military operations around the world and will soon become just as critical to civilian agencies like NASA and NOAA."

"Aurora is on the cutting edge of designing high technology systems that are so essential to helping our men and women of the armed forces fight the war on terror," said Senator John Warner (R-VA).

At its Manassas facility, Aurora is currently developing a next-generation unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Army that will give small teams of soldiers the reconnaissance and strike capabilities of much larger units. In conjunction with NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., Aurora is helping to develop an unmanned aircraft currently competing for a 2011 mission to Mars. If selected, the ARES aircraft would become the first airplane to fly in the atmosphere of another planet.

Source : Aurora Flight Sciences

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