Earlier today DARPA announced
Aurora Flight Sciences won the VTOL X-Plane competition. The $89M contract is to design/build/fly a demonstration aircraft with a GW of >10,000 lbs and a useful payload of at least 40% of the GW.
The Aurora concept is interesting because it uses a hybrid turbo-electric distributed propulsion system. It uses a single 6,200 shp Rolls-Royce AE1107C engine to drive a set of 3 generators. The generators provide power to two dozen small diameter ducted rotors distributed along the main wing and forward canard spans. Both the canard and main wing tilt to provide VTOL capability.
Aurora claims the unmanned demo aircraft will have a top speed approaching 400 kts. Scheduled to fly sometime in 2018.