Boeing’s Phantom Ray UCAV Makes Its First Flight

Boeing’s Phantom Ray UCAV technology demonstrator has now made its first flight, potentially paving the way for the next generation of unmanned aircraft designs to be developed.

The Phantom Ray’s maiden flight occurred on 27 April and saw it launch from Edwards Air Force Base in California: the USAF’s main technology testing site.

The stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle spent a total of 17 minutes in the air and reached an altitude of 7,500 feet and a top speed of 178 knots, while the flight followed a recent collection of taxi trials carried out earlier in the year. These ground runs served to test a number of Phantom Ray capabilities, including its mission planning and navigational features.

The Phantom Ray first flight has now proved the design’s fundamental airworthiness and its ability to be controlled autonomously. A programme of subsequent flight tests is scheduled for coming weeks and this will explore a host of different modern-day operational tactics and procedures, including air defence suppression, air-to-air refuelling, strike and surveillance.

The Boeing Phantom Ray project was initialised in 2007 and took its lead from the same firm’s X-45C technology demonstrator. Boeing intends for it to be the first member of a future UCAV prototype family and, so far, only the one example has been built.

For many months, the Phantom Ray development programme was kept under wraps and, even at Boeing’s facilities, only a very small number of engineers and officials were made aware of it. All that changed in May 2010, when the prototype was unveiled to the world during an official roll-out ceremony.

The first flight of the Boeing Phantom Ray UCAV represents the culmination of many months work, as a company representative explained in a press release.

“This day has been two-and-a-half years in the making”, Boeing Phantom Works President, Darryl Davis, stated. “It's the beginning of providing our customers with a test bed to develop future unmanned systems technology, and a testament to the capabilities resident within Boeing. Just as follow-on tests will expand Phantom Ray's flight envelope, they also will help Boeing expand its presence in the unmanned systems market.”

Comments

Pakistani JF-17 A Thunder OR A Blunder

Pakistan has witnessed new defense acquisitions in this decade than any other, and in the center of it all is the new fighter which was designed by China with partial funding from Pakistan. It is formally known as JF-17 Thunder. When the fighter was in development, Pakistani online communities were jumping with excitement comparing it with its arch rival India’s modern combatants Su-30MKI, Mig-29S & Mirage-2000H. There were claims of it featuring western Radars and long range missiles, & Chinese ordering some due to its superior capabilities. But the reality is far from it. China having spent significant amount of money into a fighter which it is never going to use, most probably forced Pakistan to accept its avionics to offset some its development costs. Chinese who are known for their self reliance first and quality next, are further downgrading JF-17s capabilities with their poorly copy-pirated avionics. Along with their dubious weapons, any chance of JF

Pakistani F-16s Shoot Down RAF Eurofighter Typhoons During Air Combat Exercises In Turkey

Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon fighter have beaten the RAF's brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises in Turkey, according to a Pakistani officer. Analysis: The RAF Typhoon, formerly known as the Eurofighter, should nonetheless have been vastly superior in air-to-air combat whether BVR or close in within visual range (WVR). The cripplingly expensive, long-delayed Eurofighter was specifically designed to address the defects of its predecessor the Tornado F3 – famously almost useless in close-in, dogfighting-style air combat. The Typhoon was meant to see off such deadly in-close threats as Soviet "Fulcrums" and "Flankers" using short-range missiles fired using helmet-mounted sight systems: such planes were thought well able to beat not just Tornados but F-16s in close fighting, and this expectation was borne out after the Cold War when the Luftwaffe inherite

India Planned Attack On Pak Navy Mehran Base To Kill Chinese Engineers

The terrorist attack on Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on May 22 was conceived and launched by India with the primary objective of killing the Chinese engineers present there, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed, citing 'informed sources'. Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base. "India is the only country in the region that feels troubled by the Pakistan Navy, which had awfully beaten the Indian Navy in Operation Dwarka of 1965. Since then, it has been an earnest desire of India to harm the Pakistan Navy but it was perhaps not possible on the battle front, hence it struck the PNS Mehran," The News quoted sources as saying.

ASIAN DEFENCE

Search This Blog