美 보잉 무인스텔스기 개발소식, Boeing Phantom Ray & Phantom Eye UAS...

 

미 보잉사가 2종류의 스텔스 기능을 가진 무인기 (UAS, Unmanned Air System) 를 금년 말과 내년 초에 각각 시험비행을 목표로

개발하고 있다는 AW&ST 의 최근 기사입니다.

 

Phantom Ray 로 알려진 스텔스 UAS 는 미 해군 무인전투기 (UCAS) 도입사업에 제안되었다 실패한 X-45C 를 기반으로 하는 것

으로, 앞으로 추진될 미 공군의 MQ-X 및 미 해군의 F/A-XX 사업에 제안할 계획이라 합니다.

 

또한 Phantom Eye 는 액체수소 연료를 사용하는 HALE (High-altitute Long-endurance) 급 ISR (Intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance) UAS 로 알려지고 있으며, 지난 3월 1일 Propulsion system 에 대한 약 80 시간에 이르는 지상테스트를 성공적

으로 마쳤다고 합니다. 내년 초 시험비행이 예정된 시제기는 탑재중량 450 파운드, 최대고도 65,000 피트, 최대체공시간 96 시간에

이른다고 합니다. Phantom Eye 에 대한 보잉의 최종 개발 목표는, 탑재중량 2,000 파운드, 체공시간 10일 이상으로 늘리는 것이라

합니다.

 

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  Phantom Ray (ⓒ Boeing Co.) 

 

Boeing aims two new demonstrators at the unmanned air systems market

Aviation Week & Space Technology    03/08/2010

Author: Amy Butler

 

Within the next 10 months, Boeing plans to conduct first flights of two company-developed unmanned air system demonstrators — a sleek, stealthy flying wing and a lumbering, high-altitude, hydrogen-powered vehicle intended to fly at least four days nonstop.

 

They are intended to get the company’s UAS efforts back on track after the Pentagon dropped the X-45C program. Darryl Davis, president of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced projects division, hopes these vehicles will be a stepping-stone to capturing future Pentagon unmanned system work, which will be plentiful.

 

But the company is not taking on Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the X-47 U.S. Navy combat UAS demonstrators and the high-altitude Global Hawk family, or General Atomics, developer of the Predator and Reaper hunter/killer product line, in their own mission areas. “We are in different market segments because sometimes you don’t want to take people head on,” Davis says.

 

First up is Boeing’s stealthy, flying wing Phantom Ray demonstrator. Company officials plan to begin taxi tests in July, a slight delay from earlier plans, but first flight is still targeted for December of this year, says Davis.

 

Phantom Ray is a revived version of the defunct X-45C program. It is fully funded by Boeing to get designers and engineers working on unmanned combat system technology and aeronautical design elements that could be applicable to a number of future Pentagon acquisitions, including the U.S. Air Force’s unmanned MQ-X and Long-Range Strike program and the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) and F/A-XX future strike aircraft.

 

The goal is first to conduct flight-worthiness tests for Phantom Ray and then enter a second phase to expand the flight envelope and, potentially, conduct automated aerial refueling trials, electronic warfare or other tests, Davis says.

 

The stealthy, flying wing design will be powered by a single modified General Electric F404-GE-102D engine and is designed to carry about 4,500 lb. of payload roughly 1,000 nm. round trip without refueling.

 

Availability of the stealthy exhaust system is what prompted a delay to the taxi tests, which were to occur in the spring. The exhaust system was needed elsewhere for a classified Defense Dept. demonstration effort, Davis says.

 

“The slippage really was related to the exhaust system — which was built for Phantom Ray — being used in another contracted test, a technology test that we had with the government. That test overran its period of performance slightly and so we rewickered some things,” Davis says. “The test we were doing was not related to anything related to Long-Range Strike. It was a technology test. This particular exhaust system was designed to work behind what is a fairly hot engine — the F404 — and so it was a technology test for reliability, maintainability, durability kinds of things.”

 

Proprietary data on the design of the exhaust system are jointly owned by Boeing and General Electric.

 

Davis says the exhaust system has been delivered back to St. Louis for integration onto Phantom Ray and the engine is expected in the next two months.

 

As the company moves forward with Phantom Ray, it appears joint work with Lockheed Martin under a 2008 teaming agreement has stalled. The two opted to work together as a foil to Northrop Grumman, with its stealthy B-2 and X-47.

 

At the time, it was widely thought that Lockheed Martin and Boeing were lagging far behind Northrop Grumman and General Atomics in unmanned aircraft and in technologies that could be applied to a new bomber. Now, however, Lockheed Martin’s work on the formerly classified RQ-170 has been exposed, revealing its expertise in this area.

 

“Until we understand where the government is headed with the [bomber], all the work that we had previously been doing to collaborate on [internal research and development] and technology, those things have gone into a pause mode . . . and I’m not sure that the agreement will endure,” says Davis. “A t this point, I’d say the jury is still out on what we will do. The government in the day and age we are in probably wants more competition than less in the reemergence of the program.”

 

Davis also says Boeing is well-positioned to be a prime contractor in the next-generation bomber program. “Absolutely, we think we can prime and win. I can assure you the amount of investment we are making here will easily qualify us, and at one point we were the leaders in this business. So, to stay a relevant competitor in this area — that is why we chose to make this investment.”

 

Davis says he is “fascinated by” the declassification of the RQ-170, adding that the Phantom Ray is a “much cleaner airplane” than what he’s seen in photos of the Lockheed Martin aircraft.

 

Boeing is also eyeing a place in the persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAS arena with its newly dubbed Phantom Eye demonstrator, a twin-engine, hydrogen-fueled prototype designed to stay aloft at 60,000 ft. for days. The Phantom Eye will have a wingspan of 150 ft. and a 53-ft. length. It will take off using a cart and land using nose gear and skids, a design choice made to conserve weight, Davis says.

 

The goal of the prototype, according to Davis, is to conduct a 96-hr. flight demonstration. The prototype is a 60-70% scale prototype of an objective operational system that Boeing is considering for later development. This system could notionally stay aloft for seven days (including transit time) carrying 2,000 lb. of payload about 4,000 nm. Davis says the aim is to have only three aircraft detailed to surveil a particular area for 30 days straight. Though the objective demonstrator would not fly as fast as the Global Hawk, it notionally would be designed to transit to and from its collection area at about 200 kt., which Davis notes is faster than the Predator.

 

This objective system could be suitable for a future Air Force requirement for a long-enduring intelligence collector or for the Missile Defense Agency’s persistent ballistic missile launch detector and tracker. Another application would be for the system to carry a communications relay payload, which is in high demand. “With the demise of some other programs like the [Transformational Satellite program], a persistent near-stratospheric vehicle with a persistent communications capability has some great potential now,” Davis says.

 

The Phantom Eye’s toughest competition will likely come from AeroVironment with its Global Observer and other designs being explored by Lockheed Martin and Aurora Flight Sciences for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Vulture competition.

 

The challenge for the subscale prototype project is the propulsion system, two modified Ford Ranger pickup engines fueled by liquid hydrogen. once this is proven for four days in flight, Davis says increasing endurance is achievable.

 

“One of the challenges you have with hydrogen propulsion — particularly in an internal combustion engine — if you haven’t solved all of the problems of arcing [at high altitude] as well as scavenging the oil in an internal combustion engine, you get things like predetonation of the hydrogen and backfiring. We have solved all of those problems in this propulsion train,” Davis says. “The airframe itself is not a particularly sophisticated concept, but it is the integration of all these technologies to put this together.”

 

The airframe will be nearly all composite, aside from some aluminum structures designed for hydrogen cryotanks. It is being built at Boeing’s St. Louis facility. The propulsion system and nacelles are coming out of the company’s Irvine, Calif., plant, where the A160 Hummingbird is manufactured.

 

The propulsion system is now in testing at Aurora’s facility in Manassas, Va. Officials have run the engine continuously for 80 hr. , stopping short due to a malfunction in the altitude chamber.

 

First flight is slated for next January, with the four-day endurance mission set for the following spring.

 

 

  Phantom Eye assembly line (ⓒ Boeing Co.)