Orion’s first flight carried no mission system
Confirmed by contemporary September 2013 reporting and consistent with PB2015’s FY2014 “best of breed” sensor-selection language. December 2014 endurance attempt was flight 18 with 1,000 lb ballast — also not an ISR-payload demonstration. Those two flights do not decide what Orion was, and they do not decide March 2014.
First flight proves air vehicle and a remote ground-control station, not the ISR stack. Flight 18 (December 2014) carried 1,000 lb of ballast, so it is not evidence of a mature collector on 8 March 2014. It is also not evidence that Orion was an empty research toy: USAF budget documentation selected it as MAGIC’s multi-day, multi-sensor ISR aircraft. Payload on sorties 2–17, and whether the ‘second flight series’ PB2015 said was being scheduled had begun by 8 March, remain open. Aurora’s January 2015 release dates the maiden flight 23 August 2013; USAF PB2015 and contemporary Aviation Week use 24 August 2013. The programme date used here is 24 August.
Sources
- USAF PB2015; contemporary 2013 trade reporting
Related
Aurora Orion RPA
Twin-diesel MALE UAS · China Lake first flight 24 Aug 2013
Orion first flight, China Lake
24 August 2013 · ~3.5 hours · 8,000 ft · no mission payload
What sensors were actually on Orion by March 2014?
Orion flight 18 — 80-hour record with 1,000 lb ballast
December 2014 · not an ISR-payload demonstration