On Thursday, the aviation giant Boeing announced that it is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences. The lesser-known company specializes in cutting-edge aviation technologies, including electric airplanes, vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) airplanes, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Buying the company will help Boeing to beef up its capabilities in these areas, which are expected to be big growth areas for the aviation industry in the coming years.

While Aurora is much smaller than Boeing, it's not exactly a startup. Founded in 1989, the company has headquarters in Virginia and manufacturing facilities in West Virginia and Mississippi. It makes a few of its own airplanes, manufactures components like wings and doors, and also does cutting-edge design work.

The company does work for NASA, the US military, and private customers. One of its highest-profile private customers is Uber, which has tapped Aurora to build aircraft for Uber Elevate, the intra-city "flying car" Uber hopes to launch in Dallas and Dubai in 2020 (though we're skeptical they'll achieve that self-imposed deadline).

Aurora

Aurora

Aurora

Aurora

Aurora

Aurora

Boeing is making the acquisition at a time when the aviation industry appears to be on the verge of big technological shifts driven by better batteries, motors, and software.

One big shift is vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) aircraft. Because electric motors are much lighter than conventional aircraft engines, there's greater flexibility to design aircraft with a variety of propellers positioned around an aircraft. That opens up the possibility for new aircraft designs, including designs with some downward-facing propellers that allow aircraft to take off and land straight up. Using multiple electric motors can also lead to aircraft that are significantly quieter than conventional airplanes or helicopters, opening the possibility of using them in closer proximity to populated areas.

Uber envisions a future in which metropolitan areas are dotted with "vertiports"—tiny airports where small VTOL airplanes take off and land. In Uber's vision of the future a decade from now, someone traveling from San Francisco to San Jose—a trip that can take two hours in traffic—might take a short self-driving Uber car ride to a vertiport, hop on a self-driving VTOL airplane, take a 15-minute flight to a San Jose vertiport, and then catch a second self-driving taxi to her destination. Uber estimates such a flight will initially cost $130, but it could become as cheap as $20 in the long run.

Less ambitious goals include enabling more affordable short-haul flights between regional airports. Not only can short-range electric airplane flights be more energy-efficient, but self-flying airplane technology may eventually eliminate the need for pilots on small, short-range flights. This would allow the flights to be even cheaper and could revitalize smaller airports where operating large conventional commercial airplanes doesn't make sense.

Obviously, the specifics here are a matter of speculation, but there's little doubt that the next decade or two will see significant changes in the industry. Buying Aurora helps to ensure that Boeing will be able to play in all these markets.