Aurora Orion RPA
Twin-diesel MALE UAS · China Lake first flight 24 Aug 2013
CORE air vehicle
Airframe for MAGIC. First flight carried no mission system. December 2014: 80-hour remotely controlled flight with 1,000 lb ballast. Confirmed air vehicle; payload stack for March 2014 remains open.
Orion began as a 2007 AFRL ultra-long-endurance study (originally a hydrogen high-altitude concept), then was redesigned to twin Austro diesels, ~11,000 lb gross, 1,000 lb payload at 20,000 ft, 132 ft wingspan. Ground tests through May 2013; shipped to NAWS China Lake July 2013; first flight 24 August 2013 (~3.5 hours, 8,000 ft), initiated remotely from a ground-control station, no mission payload. Endurance demonstration was planned June/July 2014; Aurora later reported an 80-hour remotely controlled flight in December 2014 with 1,000 lb ballast and fuel for ~37 more hours. Contemporary reporting said several multi-INT payload configurations were under consideration. Gorgon Stare was named in 2010 Aviation Week as a potential MAGIC payload — organisationally plausible (same 645 AESG), not a confirmed fit.
Sources
- USAF PB2015 PE 0305205F
- Aurora corporate timeline
Related
MAGIC
Medium Altitude Global ISR and Communications
Aurora Flight Sciences
HALE/MALE autonomy house · Orion prime
Gorgon Stare
645 AESG wide-area airborne surveillance for MQ-9
Orion first flight, China Lake
24 August 2013 · ~3.5 hours · 8,000 ft · no mission payload
Orion 80-hour remotely controlled flight
December 2014 · 1,000 lb ballast · fuel for ~37 more hours
MAGIC JCTD initiated
FY2010 Q3 · OSD/DDR&E
Orion 123-hour engine bench test
January 2012 · Manassas, Virginia
Raytheon MTS-B as Orion payload lead
Reported option · 2012–13 USAF UAV MTS bookings in the $200m class
ChatGPT share — MH370 Daily Research
g-p-6aad5907f20881918db0b926fa459fdd · 18 September 2026
Business Case Analysis of MAGIC UAV System
Naval Postgraduate School thesis · public PDF
Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems
ISIS radar · MTS for USAF UAVs · large classified SAS bookings
NAWS China Lake
Orion first flight · 24 August 2013
Broader ISR collection architecture (not “MH370 was Orion”)
Working hypothesis of the Drive research programme