![]() ![]() Indeed, within an eight-month span in 1961, it became the first aircraft to exceed Mach 4, -5, and -6, and it later went on to become the first-and, so far, only-airplane to fly in near space as it soared to a peak altitude of more than 67 miles (354,200 feet). The X-15 explored hypersonic and exoatmospheric flight. These are typically flown by the Air Force in conjunction with NASA and conducted in a very methodical fashion to answer largely theoretical questions concerning innovative aircraft design principles. Each is instrumented to acquire data about the aircraft, its systems and even the surrounding environment during research flights. Research aircraft are the tools for exploration and discovery. With the supersonic X-1, flight testing assumed a distinctive process using highly experimental research programs - such as with the X-3, X-4, X-5, and through dozens of subsequent X-series aircraft. By early 1945 the world's first experimental airplanes were under development: the rocket-powered XS-1 (later designated X-1), built under Army sponsorship by Bell Aircraft, and the turbojet-powered D-558-1 constructed by Douglas Aircraft under Navy patronage. That became clear by the mid-1940s as engineers began to probe the technological challenges of piloted, supersonic flight. Wind tunnels, simulators and computers can only model what is known. “This is really the art of the possible.X-Planes Eperimental Aircraft - Military Aircraft FAS | “What we’re trying to do on this program is open up the toolbox that airplane designers have, so future systems have new tools and new approaches they can take and consider,” Walan continued. “I don’t have to have a system out there that needs this.” “Because we’re DARPA, we can kind of push the envelope a little bit,” Walan said. If the concept does work, Walan said, it could be a “disruptive” technology - and even upend how future aircraft are designed. Walan said in 2021 this is an experimental project intended to show whether this kind of innovative technology can work, not to improve something already in operation. It will be many years - if ever - before this kind of technology lands in an Air Force plane or other military aircraft. Aurora hopes to conduct flight tests in 2025. The company said it would build this X-plane, which would have a wingspan of 30 feet, at its facilities in Virginia, West Virginia and Mississippi, and it would fly at up to Mach 0.7. “The CRANE X-plane is designed specifically to explore the effectiveness of AFC technologies at mission relevant scale and Mach numbers.” “Given all that we have learned about AFC and its application to tactical aircraft in prior phases of CRANE, the next step is to prove out these learnings in flight,” Graham Drozeski, Aurora’s vice president of government programs, said in a company statement. This test aircraft would have modular wing configurations that would allow DARPA or other organizations to easily swap in advanced technologies in the future. This will end with a critical design review of an “X-plane” demonstrator, that will be able to fly without traditional moving flight controls on its wings or tail.ĭARPA’s award also has the option to move Aurora into Phase 3 of the program, in which it would build a full-scale, 7,000-pound uncrewed aircraft that relies on active flow control for DARPA to test fly. ![]() ![]() Walan said in 2021 that it could also lead to lower costs and increased aircraft agility.ĭARPA launched the CRANE program in 2019, and organizations such as Aurora, Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation took part in its earlier stages.Īurora has now completed the project’s Phase 1, a preliminary design phase that yielded what DARPA described as “an innovative testbed aircraft” that successfully used active flow control in a wind tunnel test.Īurora will now move into Phase 2 under the $42 million contract, where it will create a detailed engineering design for its plane and develop flight software and controls. In its Tuesday statement, DARPA said this technology could improve how aircraft fly in several ways, including by eliminating moving surfaces to control the plane, reducing drag, thicker wings for structural efficiency and increased fuel capacity, and simplified systems to improve an aircraft’s lift. ![]()
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