By Rebecca Boyle Posted 06.05.2012 at 10:58 am 4 Comments

PhantomEye in Flight Boeing

Eventually it will fly for four days straight, making only water as its waste product. But a journey of four days starts with a few minutes, so the chubby PhantomEye’s first autonomous flight was under half an hour.

The aircraft took off June 1 from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, climbed to 4,080 feet and cruised at 62 knots in a flight that lasted 28 minutes, Boeing said Tuesday. When it landed, the gear dug into the lakebed and broke.

Boeing PhantomEye:  Boeing

But Boeing officials were glad to see their persistent intelligence demonstrator take off and fly on its own. It uses a liquid hydrogen propulsion system, which will allow it to fly at 65,000 feet for four days. It can carry a 450-pound payload, too, but its goal is continuous surveillance.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but its wingspan is enormous, spanning 150 feet. Here it is in a hangar before its props were attached.

PhantomEye’s next task is a higher-altitude flight, Boeing said.

PhantomEye in the Hangar: The Phantom Eye sits without its propellers in a hangar at Boeing Phantom Works. Its wingspan is too long to capture the whole thing from any vantage point inside the building.  Rebecca Boyle

4 Comments

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Space
06/05/12 at 12:50 pm

Hmmm, 65000 feet is a typical spy cruising height. Now what can one do with this, while carrying a 450 pound load?

Speaking of old mid east news and 450 pounds:
August 22, 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed off his country's latest piece of military hardware on Sunday, a new unmanned bomber aircraft.

The jet, dubbed "Karrar" ("striker" in Farsi), which measures about 13 feet, can travel a distance of 620 miles and carry up to four cruise missiles. The craft traveled at speeds of 560 mph and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound bombs or a 450-pound guided bomb.

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

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websterphreaky
06/05/12 at 11:36 pm

Looks more like Sperm with wings and tail-feathers.

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ejfineran
06/06/12 at 9:17 am

I like the irony, concern to not pollute the air by burning hydrogen; not so concerned when the drone fires rockets at civilians..

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Robot
06/07/12 at 8:45 am

websterphreaky,
Where or how do you see feathers?



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