Back to life: How Shield AI’s future unmanned fighter made decades-old tech new again

LYNN, Mass.— Three decades ago, GE Aerospace demonstrated a technology that could have enhanced the agility of the F‑16. The system never entered service and remained stored until Shield AI, a defense startup, reached out for the solution. “They asked if we still had that capability,” recalled Steve “Doogie” Russell, GE’s vice president and general manager of Edison Works. “We hadn’t fielded it. After the demonstration, it went into storage. We offered Shield an F110 engine equipped with what we call the axisymmetric vectoring exhaust nozzle, or AVEN.”

Reusing existing technology saved Shield AI time and accelerated flight testing for its collaborative combat aircraft, X‑BAT, an autonomous fighter designed for vertical take‑off and landing. “X‑BAT always needed thrust‑vector control capability for vertical flight,” said Shiva Vallabhaneni, senior propulsion engineer at Shield AI. “We looked for existing solutions rather than starting from scratch.”

The aircraft must be able to maneuver quickly in any direction, according to GE’s Russell, who discussed the project during a tour of the company’s Lynn facility. The propulsion system needed to meet a special set of requirements, so GE paired its 30‑year‑old AVEN nozzle with an F110 engine—the same powerplant used in the F‑16—for the X‑BAT program. 

“The aircraft needs high thrust for vertical take‑off and landing, plus good fuel efficiency once airborne,” Russell explained. “It also requires a nozzle that can move during landing to balance the aircraft and help it dock. That is a significant and unique propulsion challenge.”

Within a year, the partners dusted off the AVEN hardware, refurbished it, and rewrote the software. The nozzle, now designated AVEN One, uses nearly 100 percent of the original 1990s hardware, according to Vallabhaneni. “That was the key to getting a prototype flight test this year,” he said. “Building a thrust‑vector nozzle and validating it quickly was harder than obtaining the engine.”

The companies recently completed engine‑nozzle integration testing at GE Aerospace’s Peebles, Ohio, facility. The next milestone is a tethered vertical flight test before year‑end, which will demonstrate hover and stability. The prototype will be suspended from a 180‑foot crane, and success will be indicated by controlled slack in the tether. 

Data gathered during the test will enable engineers to develop vertical‑flight control laws. “Shield AI’s mindset—similar to SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other new space firms—is to be hardware rich and take calculated risks,” Vallabhaneni noted. “The tether gives us peace of mind while we learn quickly.”

Shield AI intends to produce additional AVEN nozzles for further testing and to refine the design for future performance gains. “Our goal is lighter, faster, and more capable versions of AVEN,” Vallabhaneni said. “This is just the beginning, and we are honoring the original engineers who created the technology.”

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