Boeing shows off hydrogen powered unmanned aircraft
Phantom Eye can fly for four days at 65,000ft.
By Layer 8 on Mon, 07/12/10 - 12:59pm.
Boeing today rolled out a liquid hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft it says can fly at high altitudes for up to four days.
The Phantom Eye demonstrator is powered by two 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each. It has a 150-foot wingspan, will cruise at approximately 150 knots and can carry up to a 450-pound payload at 65,000 feet.
Inside the Top 10 hot aerospace technologies
The driving idea behind Phantom Eye is that it could park itself high over a specific location for intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, surveillance and communication.
According to the AVWeb site: "The twin-engine Phantom Eye demonstrator aircraft will have a 150-foot wingspan. Successful testing could make it the precursor of a larger HALE that would carry 2,000 pounds for more than 10 days. A third design, the Phantom Ray, is also expected to evolve from the program and may be the first to fly. The Ray will be a fighter-sized UAV designed as a flying test bed for advanced technologies. Phantom Eye is the evolution of Boeing's earlier piston-powered Condor, an aircraft that set records for altitude and endurance in the late 1980s. Boeing expects first flight of the Phantom Eye UAV to take place early next year."
Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: nwwlayer8
Layer 8 Extra
Check out these other hot stories:
Researchers tout new weapon in Internet censorship arms race
US R&D: 27 Million Workers; $11 trillion in sales
Military wants Holy Grail of secure encryption technology
NASA's future Mars rover will be better equipped to find Martian life
NASA goes Lunar with online video game
"Help, I am stranded!" scam haunting social networks
Cloud computing exacerbates government security issues
NASA sets date for space shuttle finale
What are the biggest barriers to developing wind energy?
NASA makes it official: It wants a big new rocket
NASA finds 14 new, seriously chilled stars
Beyond the petaflop - DARPA wants quintillion-speed computers
- About Layer 8
- Layer 8 is written by Michael Cooney, an online news editor with Network World
Most Discussed Posts
-
Network World, Inc
The Connected Enterprise