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The GHO (Great Horned Owl) was an IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) program to develop an extremely quiet surveillance drone. Development, prototyping and testing were performed by the Scaled Composites division of Northrop Grumman.
Although GHO has been discussed in places on this forum, I was surprised not to find a specific topic for it... I think it would be nice to gather here everything that's available on this elusive bird.
According to Andreas Parsch's authoritative website:
Here is a photo which I believe depicts the XRQ-72A. It appeared on Scaled Composites' Facebook page a while ago without any caption to it. When I asked if it depicted the Model 406 "Ardent Dragon", there never was an answer to my question (whereas the page's admins are usually reactive).
And of course, if you look closely, that is NOT the Model 406... First of all, the Ardent Dragon has it engines atop the wings, and also it only has the rudders painted orange, while this one has all four engines atop the rear fuselage, and had the entire winglets painted orange. Plus this one seems to be slightly bigger. I'm attaching a photo of the Model 406 for comparison.
Although GHO has been discussed in places on this forum, I was surprised not to find a specific topic for it... I think it would be nice to gather here everything that's available on this elusive bird.
According to Andreas Parsch's authoritative website:
The program began in 2011, and was supported by the USAF's Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).A core part of the concept was a hybrid electric propulsion, to combine the advantages of quiet electric motorswith the endurance of modern combustion engines. In the GHO vehicle, the combustion engine would produce the powerto drive an electric motor for the actual propulsion system.
Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, reportedly received a contract to design and build the GHO airframe. Documents released by AFRL show a small flying wing design with four shrouded propellers on top of the wing. Separate contracts went to small companies to provide the power source and the propulsive system.
Here is a photo which I believe depicts the XRQ-72A. It appeared on Scaled Composites' Facebook page a while ago without any caption to it. When I asked if it depicted the Model 406 "Ardent Dragon", there never was an answer to my question (whereas the page's admins are usually reactive).
And of course, if you look closely, that is NOT the Model 406... First of all, the Ardent Dragon has it engines atop the wings, and also it only has the rudders painted orange, while this one has all four engines atop the rear fuselage, and had the entire winglets painted orange. Plus this one seems to be slightly bigger. I'm attaching a photo of the Model 406 for comparison.
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