Flying Humvee is moving ahead

by wordlesstech team

Darpa says AAI and Lockheed Martin have “feasible designs” for its Transformer (TX) “flying Humvee” and both have moved into Phase 2 of the program to demonstrate a prototype fly-drive tactical vehicle.

This will lead to preliminary design reviews at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2012, after which Darpa will decide whether to select one team to proceed into Phase 3, which would culminate in ground and flight demonstrations of a prototype TX in mid-fiscal 2015.

The U.S. Army hopes that the ‘flying Humvee’ will carry four personnel plus equipment, take off and land vertically, be flown more than 250 miles on a tank of gas, and be operated without pilot training.

‘Meeting these requirements is pushing the state of the art in lightweight materials and structure, high power-to-weight engines, and autonomous flight controls,’ Aviation Week reported.