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May 26, 2008 - 5:19PM
Updated: May 26, 2008 - 7:05PM
Boeing rotorcraft claims endurance record
Ed Taylor, Tribune
An unmanned rotorcraft partially developed at Boeing's Mesa helicopter complex set an unofficial world endurance record earlier this month by flying for 18.7 hours straight at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona.
The vehicle, called the A160T Hummingbird, could join the hunt for terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan in a few years, said Pat Donnelly, Boeing's director of advanced rotorcraft systems.
"It has a unique capability to operate at high altitudes such as Afghanistan," he said,
During the record flight, the turbine-powered aircraft carried a 300-pound payload to an altitude of 15,000 feet and landed with more than 90 minutes of fuel to spare, the company said.
The flight began at 8:55 p.m. May 14 and ended at 3:36 p.m. May 15.
"The aircraft performed flawlessly, flying un-refueled longer than any other current unmanned rotorcraft," said Jim Martin, the A160T program manager.
Boeing has submitted an application to the National Aeronautic Association to officially claim the world record. The organization is the U.S. sanctioning body for the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which certifies world aeronautical records.
The same aircraft achieved another milestone on May 9 by hovering at 20,000 feet, the company said.
In addition to its high-altitude capability, the machine has computers and sensors on board that allow it to fly autonomously without the need for input from a ground controller, Donnelly said.
"We can command it to go to a position, and the onboard computer will figure out how to fly there," he said. "In the old days we had remotely piloted vehicles. Now we have autonomous air systems."
Boeing plans to add capabilities to carry weapons, allowing the Hummingbird to attack targets immediately after spotting them, he said.
The prototype, built for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, may be deployed next year to an undisclosed location - not Afghanistan - for experimental operations in combat conditions, Donnelly said.
"We hope we can continue to refine this product with a goal to have it fielded in a couple of years," he said.
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