Boeing buys Manassas plane designer

WASHINGTON — Boeing completed its acquisition of Manassas,Virginia-based Aurora Flight Sciences for an undisclosed sum, getting a company with government contracts for designing the planes of the future.

Boeing says Aurora Flight Sciences will operate under Boeing Engineering, Test & Technology as a subsidiary called Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, and will retain an independent operating model.

The deal was first announced in October.

Aurora has more than 550 employees, and operates in six locations, including research and development centers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Luzern, Switzerland. It also has manufacturing facilities in Bridgeport, West Virginia and Columbus, Mississippi, with other offices in Dayton, Ohio and Mountain View, California.

Aurora develops both manned and unmanned flight technology and has both NASA and FAA contracts for developing aircraft concepts. One of its designs, the D8 concept, would be more than 50 percent more fuel-efficient than current commercial aircraft by moving away from the classic tube-and-wing design

Last year, its Orion unmanned aircraft broke the world flight endurance record with an 80-hour flight.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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