DARPA picks 'LightningStrike' as experimental VTOL plane

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

DARPA picks 'LightningStrike' as experimental VTOL plane

By Thom Patterson, CNN
Updated 1836 GMT (0236 HKT) March 5, 2016 | Video Source: DOD

(CNN) - No one has ever seen any airplane like this, except on computer animation. Now, some of the world's top aeronautical engineers are going to build it for real.

The plan calls for constructing a six-ton unmanned, remote controlled plane the size of a business jet with 24 spinning propellers embedded in its huge moveable wings that allow it to magically hover in midair.

It's an experimental airplane they call LightningStrike.

The design — by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation — may look pretty strange, but on Thursday, it beat big-name companies Sikorsky and Boeing to win a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm.

DARPA is trying to develop vertical takeoff and landing planes, called VTOLs, that fly faster and burn less fuel than current VTOLs, like the V-22 and MV-22 Osprey. You may have seen the Osprey, which is noticeable by its two big tilt-rotors on each side. These aircraft escort President Obama's Marine One helicopters.

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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/05/politics/darpa-xplane-aurora-flight-sciences-lightningstrike/

[StandingInLeftField]

1. I would think that would be very noisy

with all the propellers. It reminds me of some of the WWI bombers!