UAV i megastørrelsen

New Mexico State University Lands Support Role for DARPA Vulture Project

Posted on July 20, 2012 by The Editor

With a wingspan of 400 feet, the Vulture will be the largest unmanned aircraft ever flown in the world, but for New Mexico State University’s Physical Science Laboratory it’s only the latest in a long string of groundbreaking projects PSL has been working on for decades.
On September 30, NMSU announced that PSL had entered a multi-million-dollar contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to assist in the development and flight-testing of the Vulture unmanned aircraft, the prime contractor of which is Boeing. Along with its 400-foot wingspan, the Vulture II will weigh between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds — light by other aircraft standards.
“This is our first contract with DARPA,” said Steve Hottman, Associate Dean and Deputy Director for Research at PSL. “To be able to be in a relationship with DARPA is very important for the university. When you think of what they are trying to design and a platform that can remain up in the atmosphere for five years, that’s a lot of design challenges and it’s pretty exciting stuff.”
If successful, the Vulture programme could perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and communication missions. The aircraft will be fueled by solar cells and an energy storage system that utilizes hydrogen. The craft will be designed and built by Boeing.
Sjekk video: http://tinyurl.com/bndq9sj