Boeing, Aurora to Move Into R&D Space in Kendall Square Via MIT Initiative

Aerospace giant Boeing has agreed to lease 100,000 square feet in an MIT-owned space in the heart of Kendall Square. The Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center, at 314 Main Street in Cambridge, MA, is slated to open by the end of 2020 and will focus on autonomous aircraft and related technologies. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

MIT spinout Aurora Flight Sciences, which was acquired by Boeing (NYSE: [[ticker:BA]]) last year, plans to move its Kendall Square employees into the new space. Aurora is headquartered in Virginia but has long had an R&D presence in Kendall.

The center will be part of MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative, which aims to develop six local sites for research and development, retail, housing, and other uses.

Here’s more on Aurora’s history and Boeing’s agreement with MIT.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.