The development program for the A160 began when DARPA awarded a 30-month technology demonstration contract to San Diego-based Frontier Systems in March 1998, owned by UAV pioneer Abe Karem. In June 1999, Frontier tested the autonomous flight control system with the Maverick-A, a modified Robinson R22. This test bed was lost during a crash in 2000, after having flown for 215 hours. The first prototype, a three-blade A160, demonstrated a brief hover on December 7, 2001 and performed its first forward flight on January 29, 2002.