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back to article Giant 5-year-mission aerial wing-ship to fly in 2011

US military plans to build a mighty unmanned wing-ship able to cruise the stratosphere on flights lasting five years have moved forward with the announcement that flight tests of the "Vulture II" prototype are expected to commence next year. Vulture II is being produced by US aerospace mammoth Boeing, building on its …

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  1. Code Monkey

    Vulture 2?

    Vulture 2? As in the successor to Vulture 1? So where does the Playmonaut sit?

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  3. Stumpy
    Pint

    My hat goes off to you sir...

    "DARPA, the paradigm-punishing technological topsy-turvination boffinry bureau"

    ... I HAVE to find an excuse to use that phrase in conversation. Well done Lewi, have a beer on me.

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  4. xperroni
    Boffin

    Those pesky numerals!

    You see, theirs is Vulture I ("Vulture First", as per the conventions for reading numbers in roman notation), while ours is Vulture 1 ("Vulture One", again by convention). Though I'd love to hear what trademark lawyers would have to say about this...

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    1. Code Monkey
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      Vulture I vs Vulture 1

      If that's their game, it's the spaceplane equivalent of Basil Fawlty's "it's a semi-tone higher!"

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  5. Dave 62

    trademarked

    Shirley El Reg has the trademark on the Vulture Moniker, especially in relation to space planes?

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    1. Chad H.
      Reply Icon
      Dead Vulture

      Actually

      I think its product placement. They're desperate for cash you see.

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    2. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
      Reply Icon
      Grenade

      Agree!

      Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

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  6. Matthew Smith

    But whats the payload?

    I appreciate that staying aloft on solar power alone is no small feat, but how much energy is left over for the devices onboard? I can see a situation where my pseudo-satellite phone becomes less effective the murkier the weather. Or, if I'm downloading an extra large file and using excess bandwidth, I don't want to suck the power out of the engines. It will bring a whole new meaning to 'The file i downloaded crashed the internet'.

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  7. Andy E
    Alert

    400 ft wingspan?

    I think commercial runways are only about 160ft wide. Given that these things have a slow leisurely flight speed the runway could be wider than it is long. Assuming that is, you need a runway for the landing. The Zephyr was hand launched by three blokes.

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  8. John Robson Silver badge
    Boffin

    Why "plane shaped"

    The concept of a (possibly lift generating body) airship has got to reduce the required power for flight.

    Or a lifting delta...

    I can't imagine than "long thin straight rigid wing" is absolutely ideal - it just doesn't look it...

    Might be limitations to do with required speed to overcome any wind...

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    1. The Indomitable Gall
      Reply Icon

      Airships...?

      The main problem with airships is that lighter-than-air is difficult to achieve in the stratosphere. Air pressure is around 1000 mb at sea level (IIRC). The stratosphere is between 1 and 10mb.

      So while it can be done, it's not easy. At least an aerodynamic wing relies on the pressure differential of what little air there is.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Actually, "long thin straight rigid"

      _is_ pretty much ideal as far as conventional heavier-than-air contraptions are concerned. Minimal wing tip vortex induced loss of energy. Delta wing is the opposite (being just two big wing tips glued together).

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  9. Tom 7

    If that flies over my house

    making that racket I'm shooting it down.

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    1. The First Dave
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      @Tom 7

      How?

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  10. Graham Bartlett

    @Andy E

    Runways? Where we're going we don't need runways!

    Or more informatively - how many runways do you think there were in the world in about 1930 or so? Mostly it was just grass airstrips. If you've got a fairly light aircraft (and this beastie is likely to be the epitome of lightness) then you don't actually need concrete underfoot. Make yourself a 400ft-wide trolley to support it during launch, and tow the trolley along until this thing reaches takeoff speed and leaves the trolley.

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    1. Code Monkey
      Reply Icon

      400ft-wide trolley

      Hopefully one with better wheels than the trolleys I'm used to down Sainsbury's.

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  11. 4ecks
    Terminator

    should be read as a voice-over

    These are the voyages of the strato-plane Enterprise, it's 5 year mission -

    To covertly soar where no other UAV has gone before.

    To seek out new forms of surveillance, and to spy on those below.

    All hail the Rise of the Machines.

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  12. Natalie Gritpants
    Thumb Up

    Runways

    Plenty of runways are over 400' long. This thing should be able to take off going across rather than along.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    i, for one

    Welcome my sun-sucking, sky-soaring, vulturesome overlord.

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  14. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Why stop at one.

    Surely they should form a *squadron*.

    You can guess what old cartoons are on that DVD.

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  15. JanMeijer
    Unhappy

    What is it with the music?

    Is there any particular law, regulation, standard, grant-condition that specifies that movies or animations depicting predicted or actual results of projects MUST be accompanied by music? And if yes, is there an additional paragraph stating that the music MUST be despair-inducing?

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microwave

    If it runs out of juice, maybe they could beam microwave energy at it. Provided it can bear the weight of a suitable receiver.

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  17. mhenriday
    Pint

    Thanks, Lewis, for posting that video clip

    - surely one of the most informative ever produced by the human mind. Three cheers for DARPA !...

    Henri

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