The A160T Hummingbird comes in for a landing May 9 at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona after a high-altitude hovering demonstration.
(Credit: Boeing)A disparate pair of aviation R&D projects at Boeing have hit milestones recently.
The A160T Hummingbird, a helicopter-style unmanned aerial vehicle, last week flew for 18.7 hours without refueling, an accomplishment that Boeing described Wednesday as an "unofficial world endurance record" for UAVs between 500 and 2,500 kilograms (about 1,100 to 5,500 pounds)--a record that's pending certification by a key aeronautical sanctioning body.
But the record books aside, the flight also helps to show the Hummingbird's mettle as a potential aircraft for military use. During the flight, the turbine-powered unmanned rotorcraft carried a 300-pound internal payload--which in eventual real-life operations might be supplies for ground troops or gear for in-flight surveillance--and flew as high as 15,000 feet. When it finished, it still had about 90 minutes worth of fuel in reserve.
In a test flight last September, the Hummingbird carried a heavier load for a shorter period of time (1,000 pounds and eight hours). The A160T variant first flew about a year ago, taking up where an earlier piston-powered version left off.
Another May milestone for the A160T Hummingbird, which is designed to fly autonomously, involved so-called hover-out-of-ground-effect flights at 15,000 and 20,000 feet. The ability to hover at the relatively high altitudes would make the UAV more effective for missions in mountainous areas and help keep it out of range of some ground-based air defense weapons, Boeing said.
Measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, the Hummingbird in service is expected to fly at 140 knots for more than 20 hours. Boeing Advanced Systems is building the UAV for DARPA and for the Army and Navy.
The Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft in flight.
(Credit: Ed Turner, Boeing)Also this week, Boeing said that on May 13, it fired a high-energy chemical laser--in ground tests--aboard a C-130H aircraft, a step toward in-flight tests later this year in which the laser will fire at ground targets from on high. The directed-energy weapon is designed to fire through a rotating belly turret in the aircraft, known as the Advanced Tactical Laser.
And in a me-too missive straight out of the Cold War, the Russian news agency Novosti reported a patriotic response to the ATL test from an unnamed Russian defense industry "expert." Boeing, it would seem, is late to the game.
"We tested a similar system back in 1972. Even then our 'laser cannon' was capable of hitting targets with high precision," the expert is quoted as saying. "We have moved far ahead since then, and the U.S. has to keep pace with our research and development."
The Advanced Tactical Laser aircraft flies over Albuquerque, N.M.
(Credit: Ed Turner, Boeing)The first ray guns to be used in combat may well be aerial weapons, and not phaserlike side arms in the hands of foot soldiers.
Certainly Boeing is working in that direction. For several years it's been providing regular updates on the (notably slow) progress of its marquee directed-energy effort, the Airborne Laser, to be carried aloft by a heavily modified 747 that's intended to stop ballistic missiles during their launch phase. Now the defense contractor is touting the steps it's taking with a smaller counterpart designed to strike ground targets, the Advanced Tactical Laser.
As of this month, the high-energy chemical laser that is the actual weapons portion of the ATL is now installed in a C-130H airplane, a well-proven design taking on yet another new mission. The 12,000-plus-pound chemical laser system is taking up residence alongside a separate beam control system, installed at an earlier date, that functions as the tracking and targeting apparatus.
This would hardly be the first time that the C-130, primarily a cargo and troop transport aircraft, has functioned as a gunship. The well-armed AC-130 variant saw much action in Vietnam, and has also flown in subsequent conflicts.
An earlier incarnation of the ball turret, in restored B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft flying in 2002.
(Credit: SSGT William Greer, USAF )The business end of the ATL will be a rotating turret in the belly of the fuselage--reminiscent of the one-squished-man ball turret of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator planes used in World War II, hauntingly depicted by poet Randall Jarrell in his "Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner." By contrast, the 747-borne Airborne Laser will fire through the nose of the aircraft.
Sometime in 2008, the ATL is expected to demonstrate its prowess in flight, directing the high-energy laser at what Boeing calls "mission-representative ground targets." In tests at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., earlier this year, a surrogate low-power laser hit targets on more than a dozen occasions, and laboratory testing of the high-energy laser wrapped up after more than 50 firings, according to Boeing.
Aerial tests of the bigger, ballistic-missile-minded Airborne Laser are scheduled for 2009.
Boeing doesn't just have its head in the clouds when it comes to directed-energy weapons. It's also working on a more down-to-Earth Humvee-mounted laser shooter.
(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)
Boeing has rolled out the marketing for its laser-equipped Humvee by zapping five IED-like targets on a test range at Alabama's Redstone Arsenal (PDF) in what it called "the company's ability to rapidly respond to warfighters' needs."
Dubbed the "Laser Avenger," the unit consists of a 1-kilowatt solid-state laser mounted on an air-defense Humvee. It works by "shooting an invisible beam just a few centimeters in diameter and 20 times hotter than an electric stovetop" into the offending munition until it combusts internally. It then just "pops" or "fizzles" in a low-level detonation.
"Boeing's investment strategy is to move some of its new directed energy weapon systems into field demonstrations, and Laser Avenger is the first one we're rolling out," Boeing's Gary Fitzmire said in a press release.
This application is hardly new. Ten years ago an ordnance disposal unit at Nellis Air Force Base was using an APC-mounted 2KW YAG laser to nix hundreds of unexploded cluster bombs on its bombing range.
In 2003, the U.S. Army deployed a ZEUS-HLONS (HMMWV Laser Ordnance Neutralization System) to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where it popped more than 200 pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in six months. It even set a record by "negating" more than 50 UXOs in less than two hours.
While this and other laser units allow EOD teams to stand off at a safe distance and dispose of an IED, they still need to find it. And when it comes to that, the Avenger is just another target on the road.
The company hedged its bets by cutting up some UAVs during the demonstration in a nod to the anti-aircraft market. But as you see by the video, it's not breaking any ground there either.
Boeing's HALE (high altitude long endurance) unmanned aircraft runs on hydrogen fuel.
(Credit: Boeing)Boeing is reporting progress in simulation tests of its HALE (high altitude long endurance) aircraft, an unmanned plane that runs on hydrogen.
While it has not yet gone aloft, the propeller-driven HALE aircraft was able to run for a total of three days in a chamber that simulated flight at 65,000 feet. The eventual goal is to get it to fly for more than a week at a time with a one-ton payload.
The turbocharged hydrogen combustion engine, which was developed by Ford Motor, managed to maintained proper torque control while getting better than expected fuel usage, according to Boeing. Boeing was particularly impressed with the aircraft's endurance, according to a company statement this week.
The gasoline version of the engine is used in the Ford Fusion and Ford Escape hybrid vehicles, according to the automaker.
The HALE aircraft is a drone that could be used as a tool for border patrol, communication, telecommunications, general surveillance, battlefield intelligence gathering, reconnaissance missions, and port security.
UAVs are a hot field for development and actual use these days as an economical alternative to manned aircraft. The Pentagon is especially drawn to them: Just last month, the Air Force began flying the Reaper UAV--a bigger, more heavily armed version of the Predator--on missions in Afghanistan. The aircraft have civilian uses, too: NASA has its own (unarmed) version of the Predator, called Ikhana, that is being used to monitor fires in California.
Successful testing of the Boeing HALE aircraft could help convince people that hydrogen power is a viable option for aircraft, Boeing said.
Before there was the A160T Hummingbird, there was the A160, a piston-driven UAV on which the turbine-powered A160T is based. This A160 flight was in early 2005.
(Credit: Boeing)Like its diminutive avian namesake, Boeing's A160T Hummingbird is a whiz at hovering. And it turns out the prototype aircraft can also hoist a hefty load.
The unmanned helicopter this week flew for eight hours--its longest flight to date--and as high as 5,000 feet while burdened with a 1,000-pound payload. The test flight goes a long way toward proving the Hummingbird fit for use in military operations, where it could ferry supplies, sensors or weapons to the battlefield, perform surveillance and target acquisition, or even rescue pilots who've been shot down.
Over time, Boeing wants to see the 35-foot Hummingbird fly longer, but with a lower weight: 18 consecutive hours with a 300-pound payload.
The A160T Hummingbird flew for the first time in June, and has flown several times since then. It's a turbine-powered version of the earlier piston-powered A160, which dates back to 2002, and the second of a planned 11 A160Ts that Boeing is building for DARPA.
Eventually, Boeing sees the Hummingbird flying for up to 20 hours at speeds above 140 knots and at altitudes reaching 25,000 to 30,000 feet (but hovering below 15,000 feet). A notable element in the design of this unmanned aerial vehicle is the variable speed of its 36-foot rotor; the UAV operator can adjust the rotors' RPMs at different altitudes and cruise speeds to improve flight efficiency.
EVERETT, Wash.--If you've never partied underneath a jumbo jet, you should.
And that's what thousands of Boeing employees are doing right now, as the launch of the 787 Dreamliner concludes at the company's mammoth facility here--the world's largest building, by volume.
Thousands of Boeing employees were partying undernearth and around the brand-new 787 Dreamliner, which the company unveiled in Everett, Wash., on July 8, 2007
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)It's a pretty cool thing, I must say. After 45 minutes of obligatory celeb-speak--Tom Brokaw MC'd the launch event--the doors to the facility rolled open and there was the new plane, sparkling in the glorious sunlight.
And it took some time for the thousands of people here to make their way up the narrow aisles between all the folding chairs to the tarmac, but they did. And I did.
And next thing you know, it was a sea of people under, around and all sides of this spanking new plane, the very first of its kind.
The mood, of course, is jubilant. Many, many of these people worked on the creation of this plane, and it was easy to overhear a Boeing employee telling his or her partner, "I worked on that bit there..."
It was all smiles and cameras underneath Boeing's brand-new 787 Dreamliner at the plane's launch party.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)What fun. Compared with other product launches I've been to, this one has much more of a family feel to it, and no wonder: literally thousands of people worked on this plane, and many of them are here.
EVERETT, Wash.--How else to say it?
The 787 Dreamliner is here.
The world's first 787 Dreamliner is here. It was rolled out in Everett, Wash., on July 8, 2007, or 07/08/07
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)At just a couple minutes before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Boeing cracked the doors open to its mammoth facility here, and up rolled the world's first 787.
Looking resplendent in the afternoon sunshine on a beautiful day, the 787 is a lovely plane.
It is both modern looking and reminiscent of the traditional Boeing style.
How well does it fly? Well, Boeing says it is energy efficient, profitable, and all kinds of other other great things. That will take some time to know for sure, since the first passengers won't get on a Dreamliner until next year.
The 787 Dreamliner has more pre-orders than any other jetliner in history
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)But for now, we can say, well, the 787 is here.
EVERETT, Wash.--"This will make some rock concerts pale by comparison," Boeing spokesman Tim Bader told me with a smile as we rode a company-hired bus to the long-awaited 787 Dreamliner launch event.
I knew this was a big event since, after all, the 787 is Boeing's biggest plane launch in years. But how big? I had no idea.
Well, let's just say that the event looks primed to do justice to the building it's being held in--the company's factory here, which is the world's largest building by volume.
Indeed, thousands and thousands of seats were set up for the event in order to welcome hundreds of media, thousands of 787 team members and other VIPs.
There's still a little while to go before the event begins--a countdown timer on the huge screen in front of us says 30 minutes to go. But the anticipation is rising, and there's a plane geek buzz going on that I've never felt.
Perhaps it's got something to do with the 787 that's under construction that everyone wandered by on their way in. A Boeing media escort told me that it will be 787 number two.
And if that's not product placement, I don't know what is.
SEATTLE--I was driving into Seattle from the airport today, on my way up to Boeing's Everett, Wash., factory--the world's largest building by volume--for the official launch of its brand-new 787 Dreamliner, when I saw something interesting off to the side of the highway.
For anyone who's driven in from Sea-Tac airport, the sight of Boeing Field on the west side of Interstate 5 is very familiar. But today, I noticed that the "Dreamlifter" was parked on the tarmac there. The Dreamlifter is the mammoth plane--it's a modified 747-400 with a huge hump--that flies in the 787's fuselage.
So this was a pretty cool sighting, I thought, given my destination. The only problem was that I was on the freeway and, well, that's not the safest place to take pictures from.
But I had a little time, so I jammed over to the nearest exit and backtracked, turned up a hill and drove around until I found a spot that looked like a promising place for a vista onto Boeing Field.
Sure enough, at the end of a dead end dirt road, I found it, on the other side of a fence, and through a wide swath of blackberry bushes and other weeds: a perfect view of the airfield and the plane.
Boeing's Dreamlifter is the plane that flies in the 787's fuselage.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)After yelling out some rather loud exhortations of my glee, I snapped off a few dozen pictures.
Then I noticed some small planes taking off and landing from the airfield, and as one of them taxied in, I was able to get it in the same frame as the Dreamlifter.
Boeing's Dreamlifter, which is based on the 747, dwarfs nearby small planes.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)And, wow. Seeing the two planes in the same frame gave a pretty good sense of just how big the Dreamlifter really is.
Anyway, stay tuned for more coverage later today of the 787 launch event itself. It should be even bigger.
If you're like me and you're a fan of airplane porn--and who isn't?--then this weekend is a "dream" come true.
On Sunday, which is July 8, or 07/08/07, Boeing will formally unveil its newest uber-plane, the aptly named 787 Dreamliner.
This new plane, which seems to be selling like hotcakes, and which is stealing a lot of thunder from Airbus and its A380, will be able to ferry 210 to 250 passengers as far as 8,200 nautical miles.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner will roll out officially on July 8, 2007, otherwise known as 07/08/07.
(Credit: Boeing)The Dreamliner rollout will be a big, fancy shindig at Boeing's Everett, Wash., facility, where the company also makes 747s, as well as other planes.
The event begins Friday and goes through the weekend, and includes lectures, receptions and other gatherings. But the big moment will be at 3:30 p,m. Sunday, when all the world gets its first view of the completed 787. And I'll be there reporting back to you, dear readers, as well as preparing a photo gallery. So please, stay tuned.
