In a follow-up segment
about a program that we have been tracking very closely over the last few
years—Northrop Grumman's potentially game-changing Firebird optionally manned
medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) surveillance aircraft—we have new
information regarding who will be operating the aircraft in the not so distant
future. Although Firebird already has orders from U.S. government agencies that
can't be disclosed, it now has its first customers that can be. Those customers
are Grand
Sky and Tenax Aerospace.
According to Northrop Grumman, Grand Sky, which
has a primary operating location at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota,
is the country's first unmanned aerial vehicle testing and training center. The
facility is co-located with vast swathes of airspace that can be used for
unmanned flights and has already been approved for beyond-line-of-sight (where
satellite data-links provide connectivity) operations of unmanned aircraft. Air
Force RQ-4 Global Hawks, another Northrop Grumman product, are also based in
Grand Forks.
Grand Sky currently offers unmanned aircraft
training, research and development, and support services, so it isn't too hard
to imagine how the ultra-flexible and low-cost Firebird fits perfectly into
that portfolio.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
Thomas Swoyer Jr., President of Grand Sky, stated
the following in an official Northrop Grumman press release:
“We are excited to bring
Firebird to Grand Sky and to utilize its long-endurance and variable payload
capabilities for commercial customers. Our goal is to support energy
infrastructure monitoring and humanitarian and disaster relief operations by
leveraging Firebird’s range, altitude and endurance... We see the incredible
efficiencies to be gained in the market with technology like Firebird, enabling
affordable data gathering on a scale not previously available to the commercial
market space.”
The other customer is one
that Northrop Grumman had discussed being deep in discussions with before regarding
Firebird—Tenax Aerospace. The idea is that
Firebird won't only disrupt the surveillance aircraft market by being
optionally manned and featuring extreme ease of converting the craft from
manned to unmanned mode, and vice-versa, but that its low acquisition and
operating cost will allow it to also break the mold when it comes to who can
afford such a capability and when. Buying Firebird's services turnkey as needed
from a company that owns and operates the aircraft themselves, Tenax Aerospace
in this case, or sharing them among a number of government or non-government
entities, or even buying payload time on flights that are already planned, are
just some of the ways the system can potentially break down the door when it
comes to a much larger potential customer base accessing this level of
surveillance capabilities.
Tenax Aerospace's Chairman, Tom Foley, stated the
following in Northrop Grumman's release:
“Firebird allows Tenax
Aerospace to bring industry-leading adaptability and flexibility in data
collection at an extremely affordable price point to meet the needs of our
sophisticated U.S. government and global security customers... Firebird
provides a unique flexibility and responsiveness that we feel is essential for
the critical missions we support today and in the future.”
With two new customers now officially under its
belt, both of which will help lay a foundation for future growth and exposure
of Firebird to potential users and purchasers, the aircraft is set to make its air show debut at the
Royal International Air Tattoo that kicks off on July 19th at RAF Fairford in
England. The aircraft was flown over to the U.K. aboard a 747
freighter—an example of its designed-in ability to be easily disassembled and
reassembled for international transport. Special shipping fixtures were
fabricated for this inaugural shipment that will likely inform the design of
future air-transport support systems for production Firebirds. The aircraft can
also self deploy, but considering it is made to loiter at lower speeds,
international trips may be better made by airlifting the aircraft into a
region.
This all comes as Firebird has just successfully
closed out its primary flight testing program. The Firebird team now looks to
execute individual demonstrations for customers at various locations over the
rest of the year and will work to further develop the system as needed based on
the demands and input of those potential customers.
The aircraft's payload-carrying capability is
totally modular in nature and it already has the ability to lug aloft a diverse
menu of roughly two dozen sensors, communications systems, and electronic
intelligence gathering payloads. Furthermore, it has been tested carrying five
separate payloads internally simultaneously and the aircraft has three external
hardpoints that could also be leveraged in the future. Northrop Grumman is
targeting a huge array of users for Firebird, from militaries to law
enforcement and border agencies to environmental and wildlife monitoring groups
to the commercial sector. With this in mind, the program is openly inviting
companies that may have applicable payloads to integrate them with the
aircraft.
As for performance, according to the Firebird
team, the aircraft has proven to be even more efficient during flight testing
than what its designers had originally modeled and it will be able to fly its
30-hour endurance or more at typical weights and configurations. Keep in mind,
it is doing this using an avgas-sipping piston engine derivative that is common
in the general aviation community.
We'll see if any other potential Firebird
customers publicly show interest or even get announced as purchases at RIAT.
Yet it is becoming clearer as time goes on that the success of Firebird may not
be gauged by how many operators purchase it, but more so about how many
entities consume the products it creates and the services it provides.
We will keep you up to date as Firebird continues
its rise on the international aerospace stage.
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