Pentagon is looking for a VULTURE - keeping it up for 5 years at a time

Steve Davis, (Phone (01) 571-218-4949, Fax (01)703-807-4952, Email Stephen.C.Davis@darpa.mil) at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to hear from you if you have any good notions to , "deliver and maintain an airborne payload on station for an uninterrupted period exceeding 5 years using a heavier-than-air platform system" ... but just check first because he is not interested in any such system that , " uses either radioactive energy sources or employs any form of buoyant flight for this application."

Steve's Air Vehicle Program has been given the stunning and unforgettable title of VULTURE and the goal of providing the Military (DARPA is part of the Pentagon) with a 1000 lb, 5 kW airborne payload for an uninterrupted period exceeding 5 years with a 99+% on station probability. We look forward to the Project's logo. "VULTURE guys keep it up for 5 Years" ?

This platform will / may be involved in environmental energy collection, high specific energy storage, extremely efficient propulsion systems, precision robotic refueling, autonomous materiel transfer, extremely efficient vehicle structural design, and mitigation of environmentally-induced loads.

Steve considers there will be three phases to VULTURE

1) conceptual system definition with a supporting formal reliability and mission success analysis, exiting with a System Readiness Review and an option for continuation task;
2) risk reduction development and testing phase to include a Preliminary and Critical Design of a prototype ending with the flight test of a scaled version of the system;
3) fabrication, assembly and flight test evaluation encompassing an operational demonstration using the design payload.

If this has got you all excited then get on down to the VULTURE Program Industry Day on June 7, 2007 to be held at The Westin Arlington Gateway, Fitzgerald Ballroom (2nd Floor), 801 N. Glebe Road Arlington, VA US 22203

If you fancy sharing the DARPA VULTURE Program vision and philosophy, objectives and goals send an e-mail, with the Subject line "VULTURE Industry Day Request for Information", to Jake Decoto at Decotoj@centratechnology.com. (You won't send many e-mails with that title this year)

Pre-registration is required NO LATER THAN 3:00 PM EDST on May 31, 2007 for attendance - but remeber registration is limited to US citizens and Permanent Residents representing US companies only.

Admin enquiries :Jake at Decotoj@centratechnology.com. ( 01 703-276-7702x146)

Technical enquiries : Dr. Wade Pulliam, DARPA Program Manager, email: Wade.pulliam@darpa.mil
http://www.avinc.com/
Top contenders will include The electric powered option makes AeroEnvironment Inc., based in Monrovia, Calif., a likely candidate for the job. The company developed its “Helios” fuel and solar-cell powered flying wing for NASA, which in 2001 set an unofficial altitude record for a non-rocket powered aircraft of 96,863 feet. The Helios (see pic)developed structural problems on a test flight off the Hawaiian island of Kauai and crashed on a test flight in 2003.

Scaled Composites who made Steve Fossetts Global Flyer (Sponsors :Richard Bransons Virgin Atlantic) are another strong contender. Steve endured 76 hours and 45 minutes in a cramped cabin while circumnavigating the globe and establishing a new aviation long-distance record at

Burt Rutan, President of SC and Richard Branson formed a new aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft. The new company will own the designs of the new SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems that are now in development at Scaled Composites. The SS2/WK2 system will use the 'Care-free reentry' and the 'cantilevered-hybrid' rocket motor technology developed for the Ansari X prize-winning SpaceShipOne (SS1), and will license that technology from Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace company. The Spaceship Company will manufacture the new launch aircraft, spaceships and support equipment and market them to spaceline operators, including the launch customer, Virgin Galactic.

It is not unlikely that UAV designers in Israel will be following this development very closely - and probably already have something in the works.