Aurora’s Orion UAV in storage after USAF world-record flight

The US Air Force appears to have no room for Aurora Flight Sciences’ long-endurance Orion unmanned aerial vehicle in its inventory, despite the aircraft successfully demonstrating 80 hours of endurance in a world-record flight last December.

The aircraft is designed to operate for 120 hours (five days) and recently completed its flight demonstration programme.

It is now sitting idle in an Aurora hangar with no mission and little hope of being fielded by the air force after five years of development.

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