Beacon would help third-partners ‘quickly mature their mission autonomy software in an integrated, operationally relevant environment.’
Scaled Composites has announced the next stage of the partnership with its parent company Northrop Grumman for the Model 437 Vanguard aircraft as part of the latter’s “Beacon autonomous testbed ecosystem” program. Beacon will leverage the Model 437 as an airborne test platform.
Scaled Composites’ Model 437 Vanguard flew for the first time on Aug. 29, 2024 from the company’s facility at Mojave Air and Space Port, California. The development adopted Northrop Grumman’s ‘Digital Pathfinder’ “ecosystem,” which saw the company developing and building the wings of Model 437 with a ‘digital engineering’ approach, leading to its rapid development from a concept platform to a demonstrable aircraft.
Northrop Grumman describes Beacon as a “next-generation testbed ecosystem” that allows third party autonomous flight software developers and aerospace companies “deliver new autonomous mission capabilities” in an “integrated environment that mimics relevant mission scenarios.” The images released by both the companies also showed the Model 437’s tail with a new ‘Beacon’ paint scheme.
We’ve unveiled Beacon: an autonomous testbed ecosystem that will lead the way toward cutting edge mission autonomy capabilities. Learn more: https://t.co/F2Dt1zqfOH pic.twitter.com/qxkMuOpLhA
— Northrop Grumman (@NGCNews) June 18, 2025
“Following the Digital Pathfinder demonstration in 2024, Scaled transitioned to significant aircraft modifications to support Beacon integration on the Model 437,” the company said in its latest release. Northrop has publicized the pioneering design and engineering technique for its B-21 Raider strategic stealth bomber, also billed as the world’s first sixth-generation bomber, which involves creating a “digital twin/replica”. This aids exact visualization of technical changes, tweaks, upgrades and their performance, saving development time, eliminating complexities and future life-cycle costs.
‘Digital engineering’ in aircraft design
The clean-sheet Model 437 transitioned from a detailed design to its first flight within just “21 months” as a part of the “Digital Pathfinder demonstration in 2024.” Northrop says it worked “on the design and manufacturing of the wings, while Scaled Composites focused on the rapid design, fabrication and test of an aircraft platform to demonstrate the wings.”
The approach ensured “less than 1 percent of the wing design” requiring rework, “compared to the industry average of 15 to 20 percent.” Furthermore, the press release added “the project also experienced less than a 2 percent delay in its schedule,” demonstrating how a “digital ecosystem can improve timelines while reducing errors.”
“A key advancement is determinate assembly, which ensures parts arrive perfectly aligned and ready for assembly, cutting down on costly errors,” says Northrop Grumman. “Precise digitally based tooling designs save time by optimizing the tool and manufacturing operations before ever drilling the first hole.”
The company explains that “this technology allows for more creative designs,” including “complex shapes and materials that traditional methods cannot handle.”
Beacon autonomy initiative
Scaled Composites’ president Greg Morris said “modifying the Model 437 on such a short timeline” for the Beacon autonomy initiative “reflects Scaled’s ability to design, build, test – and in this case modify – at the pace of innovation.” He further added “this speed and agility is why we are an ideal partner to flight test industry-leading autonomy solutions, enabling capabilities development at an unrivaled pace.”
Before its first flight on Aug. 29, 2024, when it was seen with a standard cockpit and Scaled Composites’ Brian Maisler at the controls, the Model 437 was depicted in official renderings as an unmanned aircraft. The company said at the time the conceptual design was “based on the Model 401,” and intended as a “multi-mission low-cost attritable” platform.
With the optionally manned feature in Model 437, the Beacon autonomous test bed ecosystem would help third-partners “quickly mature their mission autonomy software in an integrated, operationally relevant environment,” and “refine their solutions through an open-access approach aligned to government requirements.” Northrop says it has “strategically teamed up” with “multiple new entrants and companies” in the autonomous flight segment.
Northrop’s corporate vice president for Aeronautics Systems Tom Jones called Beacon a “sixth generation autonomous software development” that would aid to “significantly reduce the time and cost it takes to bring new autonomous mission capabilities to our customers.” He further added “the demand for new autonomous capability has grown exponentially.”
Yesterday’s first flight of Model 437 Vanguard was Test Pilot Brian Maisler’s first time conducting the first flight of a new aircraft type!
Learn more at https://t.co/20tKvEBeoE#FirstFlightFridays #FlightTest #TestPilot #M437Vanguard #pilot #flying pic.twitter.com/yLQOdSVScT
— Scaled Composites (@ScaledC) August 30, 2024
As “an open-access autonomous testbed ecosystem aligned to government reference architectures,” Beacon will “accelerate” software deployment. Partners “can test and refine their solutions” with Beacon, and a series of flight demonstrations are already planned for 2025. The emphasis on government reference architectures for autonomous Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) is also seen in the testing of GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger, which has been flying with Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software.
Scaled is excited to share that this morning we conducted the first flight of the Model 437 Vanguard, demonstrating @northropgrumman‘s Digital Pathfinder wings with test pilot Brian Maisler in command. Learn more at https://t.co/fUqOQUD34V#FirstFlight #FlightTest #M437Vanguard pic.twitter.com/0w4HkJtN9c
— Scaled Composites (@ScaledC) August 29, 2024
Future
According to Scaled Composites, the Model 437 Vanguard is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney 535 engine with approximately 3,400 pounds of thrust. The aircraft has a wingspan of 41 feet and is 41 feet long, with a gross takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds.
It is expected the Model 437 will have a range of roughly 3,000 nautical miles and an endurance of 6 hours, following envelope expansion. Also, the aircraft can carry up to 2,000 pounds of payload in multiple locations, including an internal weapons bay able to accommodate two AIM-120s.
The Model 401 Sierra, from which the Model 437 Vanguard was derived from, was spotted in Oct. 2022 with a ventral payload which could possibly be a directed energy weapon (DEW), going by the design and the artwork on the system. Northrop Grumman, which was not chosen for the Increment 1 of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) procurement that went to General Atomics’ YFQ-42A and Anduril’s YFQ-44A, is likely to compete for the Increment 2 stage.
I’ve seen two versions of the 437 render, one looking a lot more like an unmanned Model 401, and the one on the right which looks to be the more finalized design
Still very reminiscent of the 401 w/ the lamda wings and ruddervators, but much less dihedral on the wings pic.twitter.com/Fo41CfySM0
— TaskForce23 (@Task_Force23) August 9, 2024
The B-21 Raider has been envisaged to command CCAs, and whether the current effort suggests that Northrop would pitch its own series of collaborative drones for the stealth bomber remains to be seen. However, given the USAF’s need for commonality of parts and a base design across its CCA variants for low-cost logistics and maintainability, the DoD is unlikely to acquire a separate line of unmanned aircraft just for the stealth bomber.
