| Aurora Flight Sciences spreads its wings
Virginia Business
September 2004
John
Langford knows that it’s risky for little companies
in the defense-contracting industry to mess around with
the big ones. But Langford, 47, has managed to sandwich
his small company, Man-assas-based Aurora Flight Sciences,
between two industry giants in the increasingly hot
market for unmanned air vehicles, called UAVs.
The company’s newest deal, announced this summer,
is with California-based Northrop Grumman and Israel
Aircraft Industries, one of the world’s leading
aerospace firms. Aurora gets the license to build UAVs
based on Israel Aircraft’s designs, and Northrop
Grumman will market them in the U.S. for military and
civilian missions.
Aurora, which Lang-ford founded in 1989, is “a
tiny, tiny player” in the aerospace industry.
Its revenues this year will be around $30 million, while
Northrop Grumman expects to top $28 billion. As part
of the deal Aurora had to give each of its two partners
a 15 percent ownership stake, but at least it wasn’t
bought outright. “A lot of what we wanted to do
was to find a way to allow Aurora to still be Aurora,
and at the same time have the strategic alliances you
need,” says Langford.
Much of Aurora’s recent growth — revenues
are up 66 percent this year over last — comes
from work it already does for Northrop Grumman helping
to design and build the Air Force’s Global Hawk,
a medium-sized airplane that can stay airborne at high
altitudes for hours. The aircraft has given U.S. military
commanders images of Taliban campfires in Afghanistan
and Republican Guard troop movements in Iraq.
Aurora, which has grown to 300 employees, plans to expand
and hopes to stay at its current site at the Manassas
Regional Airport.
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