Aurora Odysseus

Development

Aurora Flight Sciences announced the Odysseus in November 2018.[1] In spring 2019, Aurora planned to fly a High-Altitude Long Endurance drone powered by solar cells and batteries, Odysseus, to study the Earth atmosphere or as a military pseudo-satellite for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.[2] The 74.1 m (243 ft) wide carbon fibre aircraft should weigh less than a 880 kg (1,940 lb) Smart Car, can carry a 25 kg (55 lb) payload with 250W provided during several months of endurance.[2] It would compete with the Airbus Zephyr ordered by the UK Ministry of Defence and visited by the U.S. Army Futures Command, the BAE Systems-Prismatic Ltd UAV, and the AeroVironment-SoftBank telecommunications UAV.[2] The bendable wing has fiberglass upper skin panels and plastic film undersides, three tails and six propellers, with roll controlled by the outboard tails.[3] It used available, low-risk, lithium polymer batteries and gallium arsenide thin-film solar cells and first test flights were to be powered by batteries only.[3] It was designed to stay day and night above 65,000 ft (20,000 m) up to three months at latitudes up to 20°.[4] First flight was planned for April 2019 in Puerto Rico, before investigating ozone depletion in the summer over the US Midwest. [4] Its first flight was indefinitely delayed by July 2019.[1]

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