Centaur
Optionally piloted aircraft used for research, testing and training with an onboard safety pilot.
Maturity not rated
Prime · United States
Aurora Flight Sciences
HQ ManassasFounded 1989501-1000 employees
Federal Prime Contracts$264M obligated · FY2018–FY2026
- Obligated
- $264M
- FY2018–FY2026
- Contract actions
- 206
- 41 awards
- Peak year
- FY2024
- $73.0M
- Top buyer
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- 65% of obligations
’18’20’22’24’26
Show as table
| Fiscal year | Obligated | Actions | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 (to date) | $1.6M | 0 | — |
| FY2025 | $37.8M | 0 | — |
| FY2024 | $73.0M | 0 | — |
| FY2023 | $52.9M | 0 | — |
| FY2022 | $8.1M | 0 | — |
| FY2021 | $10.4M | 0 | — |
| FY2020 | $20.8M | 0 | — |
| FY2019 | $54.8M | 0 | — |
| FY2018 | $4.4M | 0 | — |
Top buyers
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency$173M 65%
- U.S. Air Force$75.1M 28%
- U.S. Navy$10.3M 3.9%
- NASA$3.4M 1.3%
- U.S. Army$1.8M 0.7%
- Federal Railroad Administration$536K 0.2%
- Departmental Offices$0 0.0%
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration−$2K -0.0%
- Defense Contract Management Agency−$22K -0.0%
Defense programs
Only actions coded to a DoD acquisition program.
What they sell (PSC)
- National Defense R&D Services; Department of Defense - Military; Experimental Development$84.8M 32%
- National Defense R&D Services; Department of Defense - Military; Applied Research$82.5M 31%
- Aircraft, Fixed Wing$69.5M 26%
- R&D- Defense Other: Other (Applied Research/Exploratory Development)$21.9M 8.3%
- Space R&D Services; Space Flight, Research and Supporting Activities; Basic Research$3.4M 1.3%
- R&D- Defense System: Electronics/Communication Equipment (Advanced Development)$551K 0.2%
- Transportation R&D Services; Water Transportation; Applied Research$536K 0.2%
- Unmanned Aircraft$441K 0.2%
- Education/Training- Other$85K 0.0%
- National Defense R&D Services; Defense-Related Activities; Applied Research$0 0.0%
- R&D- Defense Other: Other (Advanced Development)$0 0.0%
- Space R&D Services; Space Flight, Research and Supporting Activities; Applied Research$0 0.0%
- R&D- Other Research and Development (Applied Research/Exploratory Development)$0 0.0%
- Support- Professional: Engineering/Technical$0 0.0%
- R&D- General Science/Technology: Environmental Sciences (Basic Research)−$0.01 -0.0%
Where the work is done
- Va$256M 97%
- Ma$6.7M 2.6%
- Fl$993K 0.4%
- Md$378K 0.1%
Largest awards10
- Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (Crane)program Phase 2 and 3.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency · USAspending ↗$78.6MDec 7, 2022
- Acat III Big SafariU.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$69.5MJun 21, 2018
- The Liberty Lifter Program Will Design, Build, and Flight Test An Affordable, Innovative, and Disruptive Seaplane.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency · USAspending ↗$41.8MJan 27, 2023
- Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (Sprint) Program.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency · USAspending ↗$30.7MNov 1, 2023
- Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (Crane) Program Phase 0 and 1. Design, Build, and Test of An X-plane That Incorporates Active Flow Control (Afc) As the Primary Design Consideration.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency · USAspending ↗$23.8MJun 19, 2020
- Base Period (Linc Program)U.S. Navy · USAspending ↗$6.2MFeb 8, 2023
- R&D Contract to Create Scenarios That Provide Context for Developing and Assessing the Impact of Aviation Technologies. Develop the Models for the Design and Optimization of Truly Integrated Vehicles & Applying Those Models to Vehicle Trade Studies.NASA · USAspending ↗$3.4MSep 24, 2024
- Autonomy/ Ai Specific Modeling and Simulation Environment (Asme) for Swarms and Counter-swarmsU.S. Navy · USAspending ↗$2.9MOct 25, 2023
- Asaptr Wing Structure Design&manufacturing (Wisdm)U.S. Air Force · USAspending ↗$1.9MJun 18, 2018
- Nexgen UasU.S. Army · USAspending ↗$1.5MSep 30, 2018
Signed obligations on federal prime contracts (award types A–D) from USAspending, FY2008 through Jun 26, 2026. Obligations are money the government committed, not company revenue, and include de-obligations. Subcontracts and grants are excluded. Matching is by registered UEI.
Funding3 rounds · ~$6.8M
- Equity raised
- ~$6.8M
- Latest
- UndisclosedGrowth · Mar 14, 2016
| Announced | Stage | Amount | Valuation | Lead investors | Other investors | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 14, 2016 | Growth | Undisclosed | — | Enlightenment Capital | — | Confirmed |
| Mar 14, 2016 | Strategic | Undisclosed | — | — | Enlightenment Capital | Reported |
| 2013 | Series A | ~$6.8M | — | — | — | Speculative |
- UndisclosedMar 14, 2016
- StrategicUndisclosedMar 14, 2016
- Series ASpeculative~$6.8M2013
Raised counts equity rounds; debt, secondary sales and grants are totaled separately. Amounts in other currencies are converted at the announcement month's average rate. A ~ marks an estimated or converted amount.
Systems10
Liberty Lifter
Preliminary seaplane design developed for the Liberty Lifter research program.
Maturity not rated
MIDAS
Experimental computer-vision system for detecting and tracking small uncrewed aircraft.
Maturity not rated
Orion
Remotely controlled experimental uncrewed aircraft flown in endurance trials.
Maturity not rated
Passenger Air Vehicle
Passenger air vehicle prototype used for research into autonomous flight and electric propulsion.
Maturity not rated
Newest unveiled first. Open a system for its milestone timeline, components and sources.
Sources11
Show all 11 sources and supporting evidence
Profile5
- 1
Boeing · Nov 8, 2017 · Supports Organization · acquired on, Organization · parent
“Boeing [NYSE: BA] completed the acquisition of Aurora Flight Sciences”
- 2
PitchBook · Supports Organization · employee range, Organization · founded year, Organization · linkedin url, Organization · x url
“employee_range: 501-1000 (profile: 832)”
- 3
Sixth-Domain · Supports Organization · country, Organization · kind
“{"country": "USA", "hq_iso2": "US", "id": "55efba7f-5475-4fb6-a06f-580dd8283f5a"}”
- 4
Aurora Flight Sciences · Supports Organization · description, Organization · name, Organization · website
“Advancing the Future of Flight Explore Programs At Aurora, we design, build, and fly advanced aircraft and enabling technologies.”
- 5
LinkedIn · Supports Organization · employee range, Organization · founded year, Organization · hq city, Organization · linkedin url
“employee_range: 501-1000 (profile: 501-1,000 employees)”
Systems4
- 6
Aurora Flight Sciences · Supports System
“Orion set the world record for the longest flight duration for a remotely controlled UAV in 2014”
- 7
Aurora Flight Sciences · Supports System
“- Aurora’s [MIDAS counter-UAS](https://www.aurora.aero/2022/04/25/aurora-tests-improved-midas-counter-uas-system/) demonstrated deep learning computer vision algorithms to detect, localize, and track adversary sUAS targets.”
- 8
Aurora Flight Sciences · Supports System
“### Liberty Lifter Aurora’s preliminary design work for DARPA’s Liberty Lifter, an affordable and innovative seaplane capable of takeoff and landing in high sea states and operating in ground effect, showed the technical feasibility of the seaplane design”
- 9
Aurora Flight Sciences · Supports System
“### Centaur Aircraft System Centaur is a flexible, multi-role system for R&D, testing, and training operations. A cost-effective solution, Centaur offers: - Surrogate uncrewed operations, flown from a ground station with an on-board safety pilot, to enable cost-effective flight testing in the National Airspace System”
Funding2
- 10
Enlightenment Capital · Mar 14, 2016 · Supports Funding round, Funding round · stage, Organization · ownership
“Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”
- 11
CB Insights · Supports Funding round · amount
“Series A - II”
Each fact on this page is attached to the sources that support it. Archived copies are linked when we keep one.