A bevy of new vertical take off and landing (VTOL) aircraft conceived to take the military beyond the speed, range and altitude limits of helicopters are scheduled to fly over the next two years. None looks more like science fiction becoming science fact than a sort of flying candy crane formerly known as “Transformer.” What is now…
By Richard WhittleB-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation
Technological advancements are key to keeping pace with customer demands and evolving threat landscapes.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.: Army experts are “extremely excited” by the idea of hybrid electric aircraft, one of the service’s top Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) experts revealed Tuesday. “My team has believed that was the case for some time,” Lars Ericsson, chief of the technical management division in the Army UAS office, said on a panel…
By Richard Whittle
DARPA, whose mission is to develop cutting edge and even crazy edge technologies to make sure the U.S. military stays ahead of its competitors, did just that in choosing the winner of its Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experiment Aircraft project, aka VTOL X-Plane. Aurora Flight Sciences was awarded an $89.4 million contract Thursday to build its exotic LightningStrike entry…
By Richard Whittle
In the 1934 film “It Happened One Night,” fictional slime ball “King” Westley shows off by floating to a landing on the lawn of his fiancée’s daddy’s estate in a newfangled autogiro – an airplane with a rotor to enable short take offs and landings. Today, two Defense Department programs are striving to meet the…
By Richard Whittle
