Aurora Flight Sciences’ revolutionary seaplane concept for DARPA uses wing-in-ground-effect flight to deliver new capabilities. Aurora Flight Scienc

Liberty Lifter: Transforming Fast Logistics at Sea

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2024-10-06 15:00:08

Aurora Flight Sciences’ revolutionary seaplane concept for DARPA uses wing-in-ground-effect flight to deliver new capabilities.

Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, recently released a new video of its Liberty Lifter seaplane concept to show benefits of combining transport at the scale of a ship with the speed of an aircraft. The video depicts a concept that can maximize efficiency by flying in ground effect and provide fast, heavy-lift transport that does not require an airstrip or shipping port.

Liberty Lifter is a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program that aims to design, build, float, and fly an affordable X-plane that demonstrates revolutionary heavy-airlift capability from the sea. The concept could transform fast logistics missions and provide sea-based search and rescue and disaster response.

As part of Phase 1 of the program, Aurora Flight Sciences is designing a 213-ft wingspan demonstrator capable of carrying up to 50,000 lbs. of cargo. The Liberty Lifter X-plane is designed to operate in standard flight at altitudes up to 10,000 ft and in ground effect very close to the surface of the ocean, extending its unrefueled range. The technologies demonstrated and tested on the X-plane would be applicable to future aircraft with cargo capacity similar to that of a C-17, 180,000 lbs.