Cutting Edge

The Advanced Tactical Laser in an undated flight over Albuquerque, N.M.

(Credit: Ed Turner, Boeing)

Boeing continues to carve notches in its directed-energy bandolier.

The defense contractor said Tuesday that its Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft in mid-September fired from the air and hit a vehicle moving on the ground. That bull's-eye marks the first time the modified C-130H has used its onboard chemical laser to strike a moving target. Boeing didn't offer specifics on the type of vehicle, other than to say it was remote-controlled, or how fast it was moving, nor did it give the airspeed or altitude for the aircraft.

The actual damage was minimal: the laser beam put a hole in the fender of the vehicle. But it does go another small step toward demonstrating the potential of directed-energy weapons. A few weeks earlier, the ATL had made a laser strike on a stationary ground target that Boeing describes as "tactically representative." On that occasion, Boeing said in a September 1 press release, "the laser beam's energy defeated the vehicle"--"defeated" in this case meaning that the vehicle was made temporarily or permanently unavailable for its intended use.

So don't expect Hollywood pyrotechnics. Check out the several videos from the summer in which Boeing shows the ATL carving a gash, blowtorch-style, in the hood of what looks like a pickup truck. (Boeing says those videos are separate from the ATL defeating a ground vehicle.)

The September test took place at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, with the aircraft flying out of Kirtland Air Force Base, located near Albuquerque. Boeing is working the kinks out of the ATL for the U.S. Air Force, as it is with the bigger Airborne Laser, a modified 747 that's intended to target ballistic missiles. Where the Airborne Laser fires its high-energy chemical laser through the aircraft's nose, the ATL shoots from a ball turret in the belly of its fuselage.

In a case of what goes down must also go up, Boeing is also working on a Humvee-mounted laser weapon that has shown it can shoot down an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The 787 Dreamliner was first unveiled to the public in July 2007.

Boeing announced on Thursday that the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner is now expected by the end of the year, with first delivery anticipated for the fourth quarter of 2010.

The Dreamliner has been grounded by a series of delays since its rollout in 2007. Boeing said the latest schedule change is due to its need to reinforce an area within the side-of-body section of the plane. The company also plans to add several weeks to its schedule to reduce risks in the flight test and the aircraft's certification.

"This new schedule provides us the time needed to complete the remaining work necessary to put the 787's game-changing capability in the hands of our customers," said Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. "The design details and implementation plan are nearly complete, and the team is preparing airplanes for modification and testing."

Boeing said the team reinforcing the side-of-body area has finished initial testing and is finalizing the design of new fittings to ensure structural integrity. The first 787 test airplane and the static test unit have been prepared for the new fittings, with installation expected to begin in the next few weeks. The test that discovered this issue will be repeated and the results analyzed before the first flight takes off.

Boeing revealed the Dreamliner in July 2007 to a huge, excited throng of thousands. At that time, the company said the aircraft would take its first flight in late 2007 and carry its first passengers in spring 2008.

But delays quickly set in. Boeing was soon forced to revise its initial estimates, saying first flight would occur in the fourth quarter of 2008 with first delivery in the third quarter of 2009. Then in December 2008, Boeing said a machinist's strike had caused yet another delay, with first flight reset to the second quarter of 2009 and delivery in the first quarter of 2010.

Once the Dreamliner gets off the ground, Boeing expects to manufacture 10 planes a month by the end of 2013.

Photos: Boeing Dreamliner moves closer to first flight

Beam control optics in the Airborne Laser system stabilize and shape the beam emitted by the chemical oxygen iodine laser en route to the nose turret of the aircraft.

(Credit: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)

The Airborne Laser may have lost favor in Washington, but it's still going strong at Edwards Air Force Base.

Boeing, the prime contractor for the directed-energy weapons system, said Thursday that the ABL's high-energy laser earlier this week was fired in flight for the first time--though not at an external target. Instead, in a flight over California, the laser beam traveled only as far as an on-board calorimeter, which measured the beam's power. Boeing didn't say what that measurement was, but the system is generally referred to as "megawatt-class."

The Airborne Laser in flight.

(Credit: Boeing)

The one-of-a-kind ABL was built to test out and ultimately show off what a laser beam can do to a ballistic missile fired in anger. The goal, if and when all systems are go, is for the laser-equipped aircraft to home in on an ICBM while it's still early in its trajectory, holding the laser beam on the missile long enough to rupture its skin and thus knock it out of commission.

Ambitious plans for the Airborne Laser, however, have been considerably scaled back. Earlier this year, in revamping the Pentagon's budget and operations priorities, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that a second prototype would not be built.

The core of the existing ABL is a chemical oxygen iodine laser, or COIL, and it's hardly man-packable machinery. The COIL system itself takes up the back half of a modified 747-400F, while the front half of the jumbo jet is given over to the beam control/fire control system.

Given that an aircraft in flight can be a fidgety beast, the ABL's ability to maintain precise alignments was a notable accomplishment, according to a Thursday press release from Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the high-energy laser:

ABL has to keep all of the powerful laser's optical components perfectly positioned as the aircraft vibrates and flexes during flight...Since we were unable to fly the kind of large concrete pads used to hold a ground-based laser's optics in place, we had to isolate the COIL's optics from the structure but also maintain alignment. So the team developed an optical bench isolation system that isolates disturbances caused by normal aircraft operations while maintaining alignment to the gain medium, or the source of a laser's optical power. It's like an automobile's 'smart suspension' that keeps the car riding smoothly at the same level over a bumpy road.

Last week, in a continuing series of piecemeal tests, the ABL engaged in an in-flight trial run against an instrumented target missile. The aircraft used its infrared sensors to locate the missile, then fired a pair of solid-state illuminator lasers that tracked the missile and gauged atmospheric conditions. "This test demonstrates that the Airborne Laser can fully engage an in-flight missile with its battle management and beam control/fire control systems," Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, said in a statement. "Pointing and focusing a laser beam on a target that is rocketing skyward at thousands of miles per hour is no easy task."

A number of increasingly complex tests still lie ahead for the ABL, including firing the high-energy laser through the Lockheed Martin-developed beam control/fire control system and out of the nose-mounted turret. Before the end of the year, Boeing expects to do a full-fledged intercept test against a ballistic missile.

The X-51A WaveRider hypersonic flight test vehicle was uploaded to an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 for fit testing at Edwards Air Force Base.

(Credit: USAF)

The X-51A WaveRider is one step closer to its inaugural test flight later this year, now that airmen at Edwards Air Force Base have successfully "mated" the scramjet-propelled vehicle to a B-52 Stratofortress.

In December, an Air Force Flight Test Center B-52 is scheduled to papoose the X-51A to 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean before cutting it loose. At that point, a solid rocket booster from an ATACMS missile will fire up, accelerating the X-51 to about Mach 4.5. That's when the supersonic combustion ramjet kicks in, pushing the WaveRider to more than Mach 6 for up to five minutes, longer than all of its predecessors combined. NASA tests have reached Mach 9.6, or nearly 7,000 mph, according to some reports, but not for very long. The previous record was less than 10 seconds. Flight data will be telemetered back to Edwards Force Base before the X-51A test vehicle crashes into the Pacific.

A scramjet is an air-breathing engine that burns regular jet fuel, and may be the key to allowing airplanes to travel at speeds normally reserved for rockets. The engine requires no onboard oxidizers, but rather uses its own forward motion to compress air for fuel combustion. The X-51's chiseled nose allows it to "ride" shock waves that would pulverize a lesser craft. The X-51 was developed by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and DARPA in order to "demonstrate a reliable system capable of operating continuously on jet fuel and accelerating through multiple Mach numbers."

"The heart of this aircraft is its engine," said Charlie Brink, X-51 program manager at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

"We're really breaking new ground in our understanding of hypersonic propulsion, but our four planned test flights will also enhance our knowledge of airframe-engine integration, high-temperature materials and other technologies. Together they will help us bridge air and space."

Future applications for the scramjet include access-to-space, reconnaissance and speedy, global strike capability.

The Marines are looking for a few good UAVs. Will Boeing's Hummingbird pass muster?

(Credit: Boeing)

Boeing this week is touting a pair of deals focused on unmanned aerial vehicles, both of them rotorcraft.

On Monday, the aerospace behemoth said that it's getting $500,000 from the U.S. Marines Corps that will go toward a project meant to demonstrate the cargo-hauling capabilities of Boeing's A160T Hummingbird. The Marines are looking into the possibility of dispatching unmanned aircraft as cargo carriers in place of trucks driven by flesh-and-blood troops.

By February, Boeing will have to demonstrate that, in six hours or less per day for three consecutive days, the 35-foot-long A160T can tote a 2,500-pound payload from one simulated forward operating base to another. The turbine-powered A160T, which can fly autonomously, debuted in 2007 and can cruise at 140 knots. Besides carrying supplies, it could also be equipped with surveillance gear.

In a test of its aerial prowess last summer, the A160T flew for 18.7 hours without refueling while carrying a 300-pound internal payload, and still had 90 minutes of fuel left in its tank. Boeing says that the flight, in May 2008, set a world endurance record for UAVs in its class.

Austria's Schiebel Industries wants to land some deals for its S-100 Camcopter with buyers in the U.S.

(Credit: Schiebel Industries)

On Tuesday, Boeing announced a deal with Austria's Schiebel Industries to help market and support Schiebel's S-100 Camcopter, which the companies are touting as a "stabilized video system for surveillance and reconnaissance." Schiebel is keen to find customers in the U.S. government and military sectors, and Boeing of course is a defense contractor of long standing. (Schiebel says civilian customers are also welcome.)

The S-100, which has a rotary engine and can fly autonomously, has a data link range as great as 200 kilometers. The primary payload bay can handle up to about 100 pounds, though Schiebel says the standard payload is about half that, at which weight the S-100 flies for about 6 hours. The UAV is about 10 feet long and 3.5 feet high.

In June, Boeing established an Unmanned Airborne Systems division, in a sign of the growing importance of UAVs (or UASes, in Boeing's parlance) to its overall business. The division also oversees the smaller, fixed-wing ScanEagle UAV, which has been deployed with the Marines in Iraq, from Boeing's wholly owned InSitu subsidiary.

"This teaming agreement (with Schiebel) allows us to offer another quality unmanned airborne platform to customers who depend on the intelligence these aircraft can provide," Vic Sweberg, director of Boeing Unmanned Airborne Systems, said in a statement. "It will further enable our new division to deliver innovative solutions tailored to our customers' needs and budgets."

The famous Paris International Air Show opened Monday amidst troubled times for the airline industry with plummeting sales, employee layoffs, canceled orders, rising oil prices, and the recent as-yet unexplained crash of Air France Flight 447.

Against the cloudy backdrop, key airline manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus expressed optimism at the show. Scott Carson, president and chief executive of Boeing's commercial aircraft division, told reporters on Monday that he believes the recessionary downturn in the commercial aircraft market has hit bottom.

"Are we down in the dumps about the status of this industry? Have we allowed the current economic situation to overwhelm us and discourage us from the path ahead? The answer is absolutely no," said Carson. "At this point it appears to us that the economic conditions have bottomed. If they have bottomed and a recovery comes next year, I think we have a shot at getting through."

Photos: Boeing Dreamliner moves closer to first flight

Boeing has been hard at work prepping its new 787 Dreamliner airline. The new plane had been hit by severe delays over the past year but seems to be on the launch pad for an upcoming test flight. Hopes were high at the air show that visitors might be the first to witness the 787 in action. But Boeing didn't want to rush things.

"If you were expecting the 787 to fly during the air show you will be disappointed," said Carson. "If it had happened during the air show, it would have been great, but it was never our intention. The airplane will fly when it is completely ready."

Meanwhile, France's Airbus has reason to pop the champagne. In one of the show's few orders for commercial aircraft, Qatar Airways said on Monday it would buy 24 of Airbus' top-selling A320 planes for $1.9 billion. This is an increase in Qatar's order of four A321 airlines announced last year.

The Airbus A321

(Credit: Airbus)

Airbus had already expressed a positive tone at a press conference ahead of the show on Saturday. Hit by 21 canceled orders so far this year, Airbus chief executive officer Tom Enders said the cancellations are helping to trim the company's order backlog of 3,500 airliners that it must still deliver.

"The weak sisters have left the backlog," noted Enders. "I'm quite happy that some of the order backlog is melting down."

Enders believes Airbus will still deliver the same number of aircraft this year as it did last year, a record 483, and now an amount helped by Qatar's A320 order.

The Paris International Air Show is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The show runs every two years, and organizers expect close to 300,000 visitors this year, around the same as in 2007. More than 2,000 companies are exhibiting.

A full-scale model of Boeing's X-45C at the Farnborough International Air Show in 2004. The new Phantom Ray is to be based on this design.

(Credit: Boeing)

Boeing's experimental X-45 unmanned aircraft could soon be reincarnated as a prototype with a name straight out of the comic books.

The aerospace giant said Friday that it intends to get its "Phantom Ray" technology demonstrator up in the air for its first flight in December 2010. The aircraft, intended as a test bed for advanced air systems, would make a total of 10 flights over a six-month stretch to show off its skills in missions ranging from surveillance to attack to autonomous aerial refueling.

Late in 2009, lab testing will begin for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and ground testing will follow in 2010. In putting the design through its paces, Boeing also aims to demonstrate its skills at rapid prototyping.

Boeing's Phantom Works unit won't be starting from scratch--it will be picking up where the company left off with its work on the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program, which ended in 2006. (In this case, "joint" means a collaboration between the Air Force and the Navy--not always a recipe for success--along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.) This time around, though, Boeing will be funding the project internally.

The Phantom Ray will be based on the flying wing-shaped X-45C aircraft. Boeing showed off a full-scale model of the X-45C at the Farnborough International Air Show in July 2004.

The C model's smaller predecessor, the X-45A, flew 64 times between 2002 and 2005, including a demonstration flight in which two of the aircraft were handled simultaneously by a single pilot, Boeing said.

The X-45C was designed with a 49-foot wingspan--making it 10 feet wider than it was long. It had been scheduled for first flight in mid-2006. The goal was for it cruise at 0.85 Mach, with a 4,500-pound payload, and to fly at 40,000 feet with a mission radius of 1,300 nautical miles, according to a Boeing statement from 2004. By July 2005, Boeing had been awarded $942 million from DARPA for its work on X-45C systems.

The smaller X-45A (at right) sits beside the F-15E1 advanced technology demonstrator (center) and the J-UCAS T-33 flying test bed (left) at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, probably in 2004.

(Credit: NASA, via Boeing)

Is the Airborne Laser program headed off into the sunset? There's just the one YAL-1A aircraft seen here, and plans for a second are being scrapped.

(Credit: USAF photo by Jim Shryne)

Don't count out the Airborne Laser just yet. Just don't count on it as part of the U.S. missile defense system anytime soon, or in any significant role.

Boeing on Friday said that along with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, it has begun flight tests with the entire chemical laser weapon system--the high-energy laser itself, along with the beam control/fire control apparatus--integrated aboard the ABL aircraft, a modified 747-400F.

The plane completed a functional check flight Tuesday and is on track for further aerial tests, including a missile-intercept demonstration later in 2009, according to the defense contractor.

The Airborne Laser program is intended to create a high-flying weapons platform that could hit ballistic missiles in their launch phase, when they're moving relatively slowly and predictably, and have yet to deploy any countermeasures. The laser would burn a hole into the side of the missile, likely causing it to rupture.

But the long-running effort hasn't been nearly productive enough for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Earlier this month, when Gates laid out his Pentagon budget proposal, he cast doubt on when, or even whether, the ABL program could deliver:

We will cancel the second Airborne Laser Prototype Aircraft. We'll keep the existing aircraft and shift the program to an R&D effort. The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems, and the program's proposed operational role is highly questionable.

At one point, the Pentagon had been hoping to build as many as seven ABL aircraft, in a program that has cost on the order of about $5 billion so far.

That's not to say that the Pentagon is opposed to laser weapons, per se. It has a number of related programs in the works, though the emphasis nowadays is going toward solid-state lasers, which should be cheaper to produce and easier to handle than their chemical-based counterparts.

At the April 6 press conference, Gates was followed by Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who elaborated on the issues:

The key attribute of ABL is that it's directed energy. And so if it's in the right place at the right time, it has the capability of catching an...ICBM in the boost phase. OK. But it is kind of at the rudimentary level of our understanding of directed energy....

It is what we have today. It needs to go further. We need to...work on weight and power and cost, and work off the risks of that technology. It was our judgment that this technology needs to continue in the R&D phase, but it is not ready for production.

There's still a lot of blue sky in Boeing's plans for directed-energy weapons like the Laser Avenger.

(Credit: Boeing)

Updated 2:40 p.m. with details on how the laser damaged the UAV and on the Laser Avenger's targeting system.

Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."

While decades of Hollywood imagery may conjure up a vision of a target disintegrating in a sparkle of light, the actual workings of the laser beam are probably more prosaic. For instance, the beam from Boeing's much, much larger Airborne Laser, which is intended to disable long-range missiles in flight, uses heat to create a weak spot on the skin of the missile, causing it to rupture in flight. Boeing hopes to conduct the first aerial shoot-down test with the much-delayed 747-based Airborne Laser later this year.

In tests in 2007, the Laser Avenger "neutralized" improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like those that have been a deadly threat in Iraq, along with other unexploded munitions.