DARPA’s X-65 Test Plane Faces Delay but Advances Air-Steering Technology Aviation News – DARPA’s experimental X-65 aircraft, designed to steer using controlled bursts of air instead of traditional moving surfaces, is now expected to make its first flight in late 2027 following a program pause and restructuring. The unmanned aircraft, developed by Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was originally scheduled to fly more than two years earlier.