Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Pentagon Wants To Develop A Hovering Plane (The Phantom Swift X-Plane)



Pentagon Developing Mysterious Hovering Plane -- Washington Times

The Pentagon wants a plane that can attain incredibly fast speeds while also possessing the ability to hover. The experimental Phantom Swift X-Plane will fulfill that role, and now Boeing has secured a $9 million to continue work it started roughly one year ago.

The idea for the aircraft, which resulted from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) VTOL X-Plane competition in 2013, will eventually be powered by an all-electric drive and measure 13 meters nose to tail and 15 meters from wingtip to wingtip, the military blog Defense Tech reported Aug. 28. The finished product is also expected to weight between 10,000 to 12,000 pounds.

Read more ....

Update #1: Boeing's 'Phantom Swift' Advances in Darpa Program -- AIN
Update #2: DARPA awards Boeing contract for Phantom Swift as new VTOL X-Plane -- IHS Janes 360

My Comment: I guess they want a "souped-up" version of the V-22 Osprey.

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