The US Air Force is preparing to award $38 million in funds for the Phase 1 of its Agility Prime project that aims to field a “flying car” capability by 2023.
AFWERX, the service’s innovation program, is recommending more than 250 proposals as part of its X20D Small Business Technology Transfer, or STTR, Open Topic solicitation, a record in the program’s nearly three-decade history.
“After successfully completing weeks of evaluations, selectees are undergoing final due diligence activities prior to proceeding to contract award,” said Maj. Jared Evans, AFVentures’ STTR Open Topic program manager. “While this is only the fourth STTR Open Topic, the X20D cohort is on track to be the largest single cohort in the STTR program’s history – representing a collective Phase 1 effort worth over $38 million.”
The objective of this Open Topic Focus Area was to explore potential commercial technologies being developed in the emerging eVTOL market to field flying organic resupply bus, or ORBs, for disaster response, humanitarian aid and logistics missions. The sub-topic is intended to survey a large scope of technologies such as autonomy, advanced aircraft materials and manufacturing, rapid planning for dense air environments and logistics efficiencies, and electrical power storage, generation and charging.
The Open Topic does not limit proposals based on technology or application, but this cohort was an out-of-cycle solicitation highlighting a single focus area, the AFWERX Agility Prime initiative. Agility Prime is a non-traditional program seeking to operationalize “flying cars” for government missions in a way that accelerates the emerging commercial market.
Agility Prime aims to bring together industry, investor, and government communities to establish safety and security standards while accelerating commercialization of this revolutionary technology. The establishment of a rapid contracting mechanism beginning in 2020, coupled with a “Race to Certification” series, is aimed at driving government procurement of operational capability by 2023.
