Virgin Galactic Selects Boeing Subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to Build 2 New WhiteKnightTwo Aircraft
- Agreement with Aurora Flight Sciences to Deliver Two Vehicles, Each Designed to Fly Up To 200 Launches Per Year
- First New Mothership Expected to Enter Service in 2025
- Outsourced Manufacturing Approach Will Improve Speed to Market, Provide Access to Labor Pools, Minimize Supply Chain Disruption, and Realize Efficiencies
TUSTIN, Calif. (Virgin Galactic PR) — Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) (the “Company” or “Virgin Galactic”), an aerospace and space travel company, today announced an agreement with Aurora Flight Sciences (“Aurora”), a Boeing company, to partner in the design and manufacturing of the Company’s next generation motherships. The mothership is the air launch carrier aircraft in Virgin Galactic’s space flight system, that carries the spaceship to its release altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.
Headquartered in Virginia, Aurora brings more than 30 years of experience building cutting-edge aircraft from concept to delivery and specializes in novel aircraft configurations and complex composites. Virgin Galactic has been working with Aurora for the past several months to develop design specifications as well as workforce and resource requirements in preparation for this long-term project. The two-vehicle contract announced today will enable Aurora to immediately begin development.
Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said: “Our next generation motherships are integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year. Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us as we build our fleet to support 400 flights per year at Spaceport America.”
Virgin Galactic’s manufacturing strategy is designed to leverage third party suppliers to improve efficiency, access new innovation and technology, and tap into existing highly skilled labor pools. This allows the Company’s in-house team to focus on complex and critical elements such as design, engineering and final assembly.
Aurora plans to manufacture the aircraft at its Columbus, Mississippi and Bridgeport, West Virginia facilities. Final assembly of the motherships will be completed at the Virgin Galactic facility in Mojave, California.
“With Aurora, we are accessing the best of the nationwide aerospace ecosystem,” said Swami Iyer, President of Aerospace Systems. “As a subsidiary of the world’s largest aerospace company, Aurora has some of the industry’s top engineers and manufacturing facilities.”
Todd Citron, Boeing Chief Technology Officer and Vice President and General Manager of Boeing Research & Technology added: “Boeing is excited to contribute our culture of safety, our operational excellence, and our expertise in aircraft design and manufacturing to help advance human space travel. Today’s announcement expands our collaboration with Virgin Galactic to accelerate transformative aerospace technologies.”
“This partnership between Aurora and Virgin Galactic brings together teams that share a passion for aerospace, innovation, and exploration,” said Per Beith, Aurora President and CEO. “Aurora’s decades of experience in aircraft design, composite manufacturing, and vehicle integration, coupled with our world-class engineers and manufacturing technicians, enables us to provide the unique expertise and capabilities necessary to complete these next generation aircraft. We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to support Virgin Galactic’s mission to pioneer space travel.”
The first new mothership is expected to enter service in 2025, the same year Virgin Galactic’s first Delta-class spaceship is expected to begin revenue payload flights. The Company’s upcoming commercial missions are expected in Q1 2023.
About Virgin Galactic Holdings
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is an aerospace and space travel company, pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers with its advanced air and space vehicles. It is developing a spaceflight system designed to connect the world to the wonder and awe created by space travel and to offer customers a transformative experience. You can find more information at https://www.virgingalactic.com/
About Aurora Flight Sciences
Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, advances the future of flight by developing and applying innovations across aircraft configurations, autonomous systems, propulsion technologies, and manufacturing processes. With a passionate and agile team, Aurora delivers solutions to its customers’ toughest challenges while meeting high standards of safety and quality. Learn more at www.aurora.aero
19 responses to “Virgin Galactic Selects Boeing Subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to Build 2 New WhiteKnightTwo Aircraft”
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So much for them staying with Scaled Composites for additional aircraft. Wonder how much they are going to cost going with a Legacy Space firm.
Aurora is a bit different than a legacy firm (despite its parent company). I’m more interested if the contract is fixed-price or cost-plus.
I wonder how much of the design belongs to Scaled Composites and how much to Virgin Galactic. Also Scaled Composites tends to be old fashion in the design of its cockpits while Boeing will likely want something that is state-of-the-art.
WK2 VMS Eve was never planned to go into service. it was a proof of concept prototype. I’m sure the design has been updated in an attempt to avoid the problems they had with the first one.
If so it will be interesting to see what the new Boeing design looks like. Since it is Boeing they will probably do it proper with actual wind tunnel tests, not just computer guesswork.
It isn’t Boeing, it’s Aurora, a company of fairly recent vintage that was acquired by Boeing. I’m sure Aurora has its own engineering culture quite distinct from that of Boeing – at least I sure hope so.
Yes, they seem to be specialize in UAV and advanced cockpit design. None of the aircraft they designed for pilots ever reached the flight stage. It could be a good match for VG…
Reading those two sentences together was good for a chuckle.
It appears the Aurora was founded by members of Project Daedalus at MIT, so in a sense they did produce one piloted aircraft, the Daedalus. From this press release from 2017 it seems Boeing bought Aurora to strengthen it’s UAV business. The more I dig the more I wonder about VG selecting them for their next generation White Knight aircraft…
https://www.boeing.com/feat…
Unmanned, Unmatched, Unleashed: Boeing and Aurora join to accelerate autonomy
Boeing acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences promises to advance autonomous aviation.
November 08, 2017 in Technology
I’m guessing buying Aurora was Boeing’s answer to Airbus’ Zephyr drones:
https://www.thedrive.com/th…
Seems like similar technology…
Or at least closer to the state of the art.
It seems to be a combo plate of fixed-price and cost-plus pieces with incentives for finishing early and penalties for going over schedule. Seems complicated, but cutting the thing into a number of task order chunks might prove to be wise. We’ll see.
They were never going to go back to Scaled. Ever. It wasn’t going to happen. Doubtful Scaled would want to build any more of those things. Or work with VG.
Sounds like there is an interesting story of the two firms that started out on this road together falling out. I assume that it has nothing to do with NG buying them out.
VG SEC 8-K https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.clou…
So the contract is a mix of fix price/cost plus with incentives and penalties. Since the new aircraft will only enter the flight testing program in 2025, and will need to get all new certification by the FAA, it may be quite a while before it actually enters service.
So much for the great Ansari X-Prize advancing space tourism. They would be better off cutting deals with Blue Origin and SpaceX for space tourist services.
If VG had, at any given significant decision point, done the opposite of what it actually chose to do, it would be better off.
True, they do seem to be so stuck on Burt Rutan’s model they have become blind to the opportunities around them, just as the Titanic’s Captain was so focused on setting a speed record on its maiden voyage he ignored everything else…
Got to keep the illusion that VG will ever actually deliver on any of its promises going…