Aurora Flight Sciences Wins 2010 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award.

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – November 08, 2010) – Aurora Flight Sciences and its team members MIT and Pratt & Whitney were recently awarded a 2010 Breakthrough Award by Popular Mechanics for the D-series aircraft concept. The award was presented on October 5 at the Hearst Tower in New York City.

The MIT/Aurora/Pratt & Whitney D-series aircraft was developed under NASA’s N+3 program, which seeks to identify advanced airframe and propulsion concepts and enabling technologies that can be ready for commercial aircraft entry into service in 2030-2035. The D-series, which is designed to replace a 737-class passenger airplane, boasts 70% reduction in fuel burn, 87% reduction in emissions, and additional reductions in noise and runway length requirements. “We are honored that our work was selected for this award,” said Jeremy Hollman, the Aurora Project Manager for the program. “We feel that our aircraft concept has the potential to drastically impact the future of commercial aviation, and to have our work selected for this award is great in that others see the significance of the concept.”

The D-series aircraft was highlighted on the cover of the November 2010 issue of Popular Mechanics, where each of the year’s Breakthrough Awards were discussed.