Only for you. Others understand itFair enough, but their usage of the word seems misleading to me.
Only for you. Others understand itFair enough, but their usage of the word seems misleading to me.
I'm aware of the definition. The article to my reading used the word "prime" as a classification of a company rather absolutely rather than the condition of a company in a particular contract or program. I consider it a poor choice of words. Your mileage may differ.Only for you. Others understand it
thank you for posting x-39, wondering what happened there.Article is from 2020. but it went under everyone's radar, must have been COVID.
Exclusive: Unmasking Northrop Grumman's XRQ-72A Great Horned Owl Spy Drone
The U.S. Intelligence Community led the development of this very quiet and high-efficiency unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.www.thedrive.com
Thanks for that; I definitely DID somehow miss that. Seems like a bit of a niche aircraft but still very interesting.
It's a much larger program than you might think. It's the largest program (in terms of $) that Scaled has ever done, as far as I can tell.
And there might be a photo of it (or its little brother) here on the forum and has been here for years.
Even than Model 324 / Scarab sale to Egypt where Scaled built the airframes? I would have thought that would be significantly above everything else due to the c. 50 numbers vs c. 1 for every other Scaled programme.It's a much larger program than you might think. It's the largest program (in terms of $) that Scaled has ever done, as far as I can tell.
Even than Model 324 / Scarab sale to Egypt where Scaled built the airframes? I would have thought that would be significantly above everything else due to the c. 50 numbers vs c. 1 for every other Scaled programme.
US Army developing LASSO tank-killing drone for infantry
The U.S. Army is still finalizing details related to contracts with defense industry, a PEO Soldier spokesperson said.www.militarytimes.com
The Defense Department’s advanced research agency is exploring the X Prime concept with two different projects. One is the Shepard program (for Series Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Aircraft Demonstrator) to develop an efficient hybrid-electric system and integrate it into an innovative aircraft design that includes essential operational considerations and mission system components.
“Shepard is taking a pure X-plane, the Great Horned Owl, which was a great demonstration of a capability for hybrid-electric propulsion but wasn’t something you can use in the battlespace,” Leahy said. “We’re going to wrap a new skin around it to give it the survivability that it needs. And we’re going to try to demonstrate we can do that quickly.”
Great Horned Owl was an early-2000s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) program to develop an ultraquiet, high-efficiency unmanned aircraft with ducted-fan hybrid-electric propulsion. According to information first obtained by The War Zone, the project resulted in the XRQ-72A flying-wing UAV design developed by Northrop Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites.
General Atomics isnt wasting time...Ok, so according to this article, at some point plans were laid to further develop "Great Horned Owl" into an stealthy UCAV, I wonder if these panned out.
DARPA Aims To Build Bridge Across Technology’s 'Valley Of Death' | Aviation Week Network
X Prime programs would fill the gap between experimental X-planes and Y-plane prototypes.aviationweek.com
The Air Force awarded contracts to five companies to design and build Collaborative Combat Aircraft that can fly autonomously alongside manned platforms, a spokesperson confirmed. They are:
- Boeing
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman
- Anduril
- General Atomics
There is something weird with this news: wasn't it something already aknowledged to the public? I posted it here as it surfaced in my news feed but then had to scratch my head. What's going on?