Phantom unmanned combat air vehicle first flight

[Lankan Ranger]

Phantom unmanned combat air vehicle first flight

First flight of the Boeing Phantom Ray on 27 April cleared a critical step in the company's search for external funding, but no obvious fiscal streams have appeared on the horizon for the stealthy unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV).

The 17min flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., was long enough for the X-45C-based Phantom Ray to open the flight envelope to an altitude of 7,500ft and a speed of 178kt.

The company still plans to complete 10 self-funded test flights of the Phantom Ray by the end of June, but internal cost pressures could end programme sooner.

"There's a limitation" on the company's financial support for the project, said Craig Brown, Phantom Ray programme manager at Boeing.

Since mid-2007, Boeing has used company funds to launch the Phantom Ray, reviving the X-45C concept set adrift when the joint unmanned combat air systems (JUCAS) programme was cancelled in 2006.

A year later, the Northrop Grumman X-47B defeated Boeing's bid for the US Navy's programme to demonstrate a carrier-based, stealthy UCAV.

Suddenly, Boeing had no access to a non-classified programme of record in the slowly-emerging stealthy UCAV market. Its position became even more precarious with the revelation in late 2009 of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, another stealthy UCAV that has already been deployed operationally by the US Air Force.

Boeing formally unveiled the Phantom Ray demonstrator last year. On 13 December, the aircraft was flown on top of the Boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft to Edwards. Taxi tests were completed on 30 March, but steady high winds delayed first flight for another three weeks, Brown said.

Although no official observers outside Boeing and its suppliers witnessed, the first flight event was monitored closely by a host of potential customers. But proving the Phantom Ray could fly was a key test in Boeing's marketing campaign, Brown said.

The initial flight test is now "percolating among those customer communities," he said, adding that Boeing expects that expressions of interest will become more serious.

But the programme will likely have to survive as a testbed for other programmes, with no new requirements for a new, land-based, stealthy UCAV on the horizon.

PHOTOs: Phantom Ray first flight raises funding hopes

 

[SpArK]

Stealth Drone’s First Flight​

Stealthy spy drones may or may not have been in on the final manhunt for Osama bin Laden. But there's no question that the next-generation of unmanned aerial vehicles will figure heavily in the military's future. And unlike today's models, these new, heavily-armed drones will be hard to spot -- and largely fly themselves, with little human intervention.

On Tuesday, Boeing announced that its stealthy killer drone -- the "Phantom Ray" -- had flown for the first time. The flight, from Edwards Air Force Base in California, lasted just 17 minutes. The drone only reached 7,500 feet in altitude. But if these tests proceed as planned, the 36,500-pound, 36 foot-long drone will soar up to 40,000 and dash at nearly the speed of sound. Humans: you've been warned.

Phantom Ray and NASA 747 Test Flight from Lambert Airport.
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Boeing

 

[500]

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6th generation is already here.

 

[Thomas]

To bad Boeing was late in fielding the prototype. It allowed the RQ-170 to take the lead for Government funding. It's a beautiful drone, with even better stealth capabilities.