On April 30, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Aurora a $25 million contract modification to continue working on its version of the Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) entry, a notable boost from the previous $4.2 million award.

• READ MORE: Aurora Flight Sciences Revises Liberty Lifter Design

Also referred to as the X-Plane, the program is looking for a candidate that can fly at speeds of 400 to 450 knots (far exceeding the 270-knot maximum speed of the V-22 Osprey) and be able to hover “in a stable manner” and transition from hover to forward flight. The X-Plane will also “feature a distributed energy system that effectively powers all the propulsion technology during that transition,” according to Defense News.

Three other contenders are in the X-Plane hunt: Bell Textron, Northrop Grumman and Piasecki Aircraft. But Aurora, a Boeing subsidiary, is the only competitor to receive upgraded funding.

• READ MORE: DARPA Achieves Major Breakthrough with AI-Controlled Aircraft

The new conceptual art released Monday shows an uncrewed aircraft (in contrast with previous concepts that showed cockpit windows) with a composite exterior. Aurora said it could add more fan-in-wing lift fans to the design should Pentagon requirements change in the future. It could also reinstate the crewed aircraft configuration.

Aurora concluded that its SPRINT/X-Plane design team projects finishing the preliminary design review of its entry in about a year, with the goal of first flight within three years.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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Last week, Kendall got in the cockpit of a self-flying fighter plane during a historic flight at Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) in California. The aircraft—called the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft, or VISTA for short—is a modified F-16 testbed and represents the Air Force’s first foray into aircraft flown entirely by machine learning AI models.

As Kendall and a safety pilot observed, the X-62A completed “a variety of tactical maneuvers utilizing live agents” during a series of test runs. Incredibly, the aircraft was able to simulate aerial dogfighting in real time, without Kendall or the safety pilot ever touching the controls. According to the Associated Press, VISTA flew at more than 550 mph and within 1,000 feet of its opponent—a crewed F-16—during the hourlong simulated battle.

“Before the flight, there was no shortage of questions from teammates and family about flying in this aircraft,” Kendall said. “For me, there was no apprehension, even as the X-62 began to maneuver aggressively against the hostile fighter aircraft.”

It wasn’t VISTA’s first rodeo. In September, the Air Force for the first time flew the uncrewed aircraft in a simulated dogfight versus a piloted F-16 at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards. The department said autonomous demonstrations are continuing at the base through 2024. But Kendall’s decision to get into the cockpit himself represents a new vote of confidence from Air Force leadership.

“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now,” said Kendall. “In 2023, the X-62A broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation. This is a transformational moment, all made possible by breakthrough accomplishments of the ACE team.”

ACE stands for Air Combat Evolution, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program that seeks to team human pilots with AI and machine-learning systems. The Air Force, an ACE participant, believes the technology could complement or supplement pilots even in complex and potentially dangerous scenarios—such as close-quarters dogfighting.

“AI is really taking the most capable technology you have, putting it together, and using it on problems that previously had to be solved through human decision-making,” said Kendall. “It’s automation of those decisions and it’s very specific.”

ACE developed VISTA in 2020, imbuing it with the unique ability to simulate another aircraft’s flying characteristics. The aircraft received an upgrade in 2022, turning it into a test vehicle for the Air Force’s AI experiments. 

VISTA uses machine learning-based AI agents to test maneuvers and capabilities in real time. These contrast with the heuristic or rules-based AI systems seen on many commercial and military aircraft, which are designed to be predictable and repeatable. Machine learning AI systems, despite being less predictable, are more adept at analyzing complex scenarios on the fly.

“Think of a simulator laboratory that you would have at a research facility,” said Bill Gray, chief test pilot at the Test Pilot School, which leads program management for VISTA. “We have taken that entire simulator laboratory and crammed it into an F-16, and that is VISTA.”

Using machine learning, VISTA picks up on maneuvers in a simulator before applying them to the real world, repeating the process to train itself. DARPA called the aircraft’s first human-AI dogfight in September “a fundamental paradigm shift,” likening it to the inception of AI computers that can defeat human opponents in a game of chess.

Since that maiden voyage, VISTA has completed a few dozen similar demonstrations, advancing to the point that it can actually defeat human pilots in air combat. The technology is not quite ready for actual battle. But the Air Force-led Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and Next Generation Air Dominance programs are developing thousands of uncrewed aircraft for that purpose, the first of which may be operational by 2028.

The goal of these initiatives is to reduce costs and take humans out of situations where AI could perform equally as well. Some aircraft may even be commanded by crewed fighter jets. The self-flying systems could serve hundreds of different purposes, according to Kendall.

Even within ACE, dogfighting is viewed as only one use case. The idea is that if AI can successfully operate in one of the most dangerous settings in combat, human pilots could trust it to handle other, less dangerous maneuvers. Related U.S. military projects, such as the recently announced Replicator initiative, are exploring AI applications in other aircraft, like drones.

However, autonomous weapons, such as AI-controlled combat aircraft, have raised concerns from various nations, scientists, and humanitarian groups. Even the U.S. Army itself acknowledged the risks of the technology in a 2017 report published in the Army University Press.

“Autonomous weapons systems will find it very hard to determine who is a civilian and who is a combatant, which is difficult even for humans,” researchers wrote. “Allowing AI to make decisions about targeting will most likely result in civilian casualties and unacceptable collateral damage.”

The report further raised concerns about accountability for AI-determined strikes, pointing out that it would be difficult for observers to assign blame to a single human.

The Air Force has countered that AI-controlled aircraft will always have at least some level of human oversight. It also argues that developing the technology is necessary to keep pace with rival militaries designing similar systems, which could be devastating to U.S. airmen.

Notably, China too is developing AI-controlled fighter jets. In March 2023, Chinese military researchers reportedly conducted their own human-AI dogfight, but the human-controlled aircraft was piloted remotely from the ground.

Leading U.S. defense officials in recent years have sounded the alarm on China’s People’s Liberation Army’s growing capabilities, characterizing it as the U.S. military’s biggest “pacing challenge.” The country’s AI flight capabilities are thought to be behind those of the U.S. But fears persist that it may soon catch up.

“In the not too distant future, there will be two types of Air Forces—those who incorporate this technology into their aircraft and those who do not and fall victim to those who do,” said Kendall. “We are in a race—we must keep running, and I am confident we will do so.”

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For the past four years, DARPA has been developing its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, which seeks to team human pilots with AI and machine-learning systems in dogfighting scenarios. According to the agency, the initiative reached new heights in September with the first AI-versus-human dogfight conducted with actual aircraft.

During the test campaign, the agency says, the AI made no violations of training rules codifying airmen’s safety and ethical norms. In other words, it flew just as safely as a human pilot.

DARPA called the achievement “a fundamental paradigm shift,” similar to the inception of AI computers that can defeat human opponents in a game of chess. Chinese military researchers reportedly achieved a similar feat in March 2023, with one aircraft operated by AI and another controlled by a human on the ground.

Researchers also “pioneered new methods to train and test AI agent compliance with safety requirements, including flight envelope protection and aerial/ground collision avoidance, as well as with ethical requirements including combat training rules, weapons engagement zones, and clear avenues of fire,” the agency said.

This is significant because, according to DARPA, previous integrations of autonomy on crewed commercial and military aircraft have used heuristic or rules-based systems, which are designed for situations that are predictable or repeatable. More complex scenarios such as dogfighting are impractical for such a model because there are simply too many possibilities for which designers must account.

Machine-learning AI models are less predictable and explainable than rules-based models. But they are excellent for analyzing complex scenarios on the fly.

DARPA views AI dogfighting as “a means to an end,” in the sense that it intends for its findings to be applied to AI integration on military aircraft more broadly. Another goal is to foster trust in pilots toward machines. The idea is that if autonomy can operate in a scenario as dangerous as close-quarters combat, humans can trust it to work in less dangerous—but equally complex—situations.

“What is the most efficient and effective path to optimize the performance and safety of artificial intelligence in aerospace vehicles?” is the question the agency poses.

To evaluate AI for dogfighting, engineers developed the X-62A, a modified F-16 test aircraft also known as the Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA). Uniquely, VISTA is capable of simulating the conditions of other aircraft while flying.

“Think of a simulator laboratory that you would have at a research facility,” said Bill Gray, chief test pilot at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) in California. “We have taken that entire simulator laboratory and crammed it into an F-16, and that is VISTA.”

Personnel began in 2020 by testing AI systems in a simulated environment using computers, progressing over the course of 21 test flights to actual flight controlled by ACE algorithms. Two human pilots remained in the cockpit for safety purposes.

The AI was retrained on a daily basis—engineers updated flight control laws overnight and reprogrammed the aircraft to fly the following morning. More than 100,000 lines of software changes were made over the course of testing.

The first dogfight between a crewed F-16 and ACE-controlled VISTA took place in September. The self-flying aircraft performed both defensive and offensive maneuvers, getting as close as 2,000 feet to the crewed aircraft at 1,200 mph.

All autonomous demonstrations took place at the Air Force Test Pilot School, where DARPA says they are continuing in 2024. The hope is that the results can be repeated during future testing of other scenarios. And researchers believe they could.

“Every lesson we’re learning applies to every task we could give to an autonomous system,” said Gray.

Like DARPA, the Air Force is committed to exploring autonomous flight systems. In addition to participating in ACE, the department is developing such technologies through AFWERX, its innovation arm. Last week, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told U.S. lawmakers that he would get in the cockpit of a self-flying plane—which the Air Force on Wednesday confirmed to be VISTA—in the near future.

“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now,” said Kendall. “In 2023, the X-62A broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation. This is a transformational moment, all made possible by breakthrough accomplishments of the X-62A ACE team.”

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The story of the F-117 begins in 1964, when Soviet mathematician Pyotr Ufimtsev published the paper, Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction. It demonstrated that the radar return from an object depended more on its shape than size. Given the technology at the time, Ufimtsev’s insight was dismissed as impractical in Russia. But by the 1970s, given friendly aircraft losses to SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) in Vietnam and the Middle East, engineers at Lockheed’s “Skunk Works”—famous for designing cutting edge military planes like the P-38 Lighting, U-2 spy plane, and F-104 Starfighter—began taking the idea seriously.

• READ MORE: Reaching Uncharted Corners of the Globe in a Fokker F.VII

One key to minimizing radar return was to replace conventional streamlined, rounded surfaces with flat, angled surfaces designed to scatter radar waves in different directions. The wings would be swept back at a steep angle, like an arrowhead, and the vertical stabilizer (tail fin) replaced by an angled V-tail, all to reduce its radar profile.

The two turbofan jet engines were placed above the wings to shield their heat signature from the ground. The flat, reflective surfaces of the turbofan itself were shielded by an intake grill (to the right).

The engines have special exhaust ports in the rear to shield and minimize the heat released. The F-117 has no afterburners to give it extra thrust, as this would defeat the purpose of nondetection.

Instead of slinging weapons and bombs outside the fuselage, they are stored in an interior bay, safe from radar detection. Even opening the bay doors dramatically increases the F-117’s radar profile, so it must only be done for a few seconds over a target. Additionally, the exterior surfaces of the F-117 are all covered in a special coating, designed to absorb and deflect radar waves. The fork-like prongs jutting from the front of the F-117 are sensors to detect airspeed, angle of attack, and other instrument readings. The F-117 has no radar, which would immediately give away its presence. The glass panel in front of the cockpit is an infrared “eye” that enables the pilot to see in the dark and guide bombs to their target.

The windows of the F-117’s cockpit are ingrained with gold, which allows radar waves in but not out. Examples of the F-117’s cockpit are now on display in museums, and the layout is fairly similar to other single-pilot combat airplanes.

• READ MORE: Exploring the Checkered History of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

Initially a “black project” funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), starting in 1975, Lockheed cobbled together two prototypes under the code name “Hopeless Diamond,” which first flew in 1977. Although both prototypes crashed, the project was a sufficient enough success to proceed with a production model, which took its first flight from Area 51 in 1981. The first airplanes were delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 1982.

The radar-minimizing design features of the F-117 make it quite unstable to fly. In fact, it can really only be flown with computer assistance, using a fly-by-wire system derived from the F-16. Because of its difficult aerodynamics, the F-117 quickly gained the nickname “Frisbee” or “Wobblin’ Goblin.”

The shielding of its jet engines, and lack of afterburners, also means that the F-117 is subsonic (it cannot break the speed of sound), making it much slower than most conventional fighters. In fact, despite its designation, the F-117 is not a fighter meant to intercept and dogfight with enemy airplanes. It has no guns, and though in theory it could carry air-to-air missiles, its lack of radar would render them fairly useless.

• READ MORE: The Story of the Schneider Trophy and the Supermarine S.5

The “Stealth Fighter” is actually an attack aircraft or light bomber, intended to be used in covert missions or evade air defenses, mainly under the cover of night. Some say that the “fighter” designation was used to attract pilots to the program who would normally have preferred flying fighters over bombers.

After testing at Homey, the F-117 was assigned to a special secret unit at Tonopah Test Range, also in Nevada. A total of 64 combat-ready airplanes were eventually built. Throughout the 1980s, however, the F-117 was kept completely secret. While rumors and sightings of it abounded, the U.S. government refused to confirm that any such aircraft existed. The first acknowledged use of the F-117 in combat was during the U.S. invasion of Panama to topple dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989.

Before I elaborate on its combat history, I need to land this airplane. The F-117 doesn’t have any flaps or air brakes to slow it down. I pull the throttle back to nearly idle just to descend. The approach speed of the F-117 is really fast—around 250 knots—and it touches down at 180 knots. So on landing I pull a handle next to the landing gear to deploy a parachute, to slow me down in time.

Now let’s talk about the known combat record of the F-117. It’s 3 a.m.  on January 17, 1991. Just over a day since the coalition deadline for Saddam Hussein to withdraw his Iranian forces from Kuwait has expired. An F-117 flies over the desert just south of Baghdad.

F-117s are leading the first strike of the coalition air campaign in the first Gulf War, aimed at taking out key command and control installations in the Iraqi capital. With a radar reflection the size of a golf ball, the F-117 glides silent and unseen over the bends of the Tigris River toward its target. Meanwhile, Iraqi anti-aircraft guns fire blindly into the night sky—a scene I remember watching unfold live on TV as I sat in my college dorm room. Combat losses for the F-117 that first night were projected at 5 percent. In fact, every single one of them came back from their missions safely.

By the end of the first Gulf War, the F-117 had flown 1,300 sorties, hitting an estimated 1,600 high-value targets, with the loss of a single aircraft. Though some of its performance may have been exaggerated—initial estimates of 80 percent target accuracy were scaled back to 40-60 percent—the F-117 became a leading symbol of the U.S. technological edge that helped establish it as the world’s sole superpower going into the 1990s.

• READ MORE: Recreating the Final Flight of the Red Baron

Fast-forward to the evening of March 27, 1999. At Aviano Air Base in northern Italy, an F-117 prepares for another night of bombing Yugoslavia, as part of NATO’s intervention to compel Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo. The aircraft, call sign “Vega 31,” is flown by Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Patrick “Dale” Zelko, a Desert Storm veteran. His target is a command-and-control center in downtown Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Along with several other F-117s on similar missions, he will fly east across Slovenia and Hungary before refueling midair and turning south to enter Yugoslav airspace.

I’ve heard the story two ways. The first has Zelko approaching Belgrade from the northwest and being picked up by Serbian radar as he opened his bomb bay doors—presumably before he could hit his assigned target. The second version, which the pilot himself tells, has him skirting Romanian airspace and coming toward Belgrade from the east. He dropped his bombs on target then continued west to head back home. (From what I can gather, Zelko was actually quite a bit higher than I’m portraying here, and there was a cloud layer about 2,000 feet above the ground.)

Just south of the two in Ruma in the countryside west of Belgrade, a mobile S-125 Neva SAM unit detected the F-117, despite its stealth profile, and locked on. Two SAMs were fired. The first missed the cockpit by inches, and the proximity fuse somehow failed to trigger. The second hit one wing and sent the F-117 tumbling out of control. After an initial struggle, the pilot ejected, was able to evade Serbian ground forces, and was rescued by U.S. helicopters. Years later, Zelko met the man who commanded the SAM unit that shot him down, and the two became friends.

Interestingly, the U.S. did not take any steps to destroy the wreckage of the downed F-117. The official reason was that the technology was already out of date, and there was no rationale to fear it falling into enemy hands. While the F-117 Nighthawk was used in 2001 in Afghanistan, and again in 2003 over Iraq, it became increasingly clear that it was nearing the end of its useful days, soon to be replaced by newer aircraft like the F-22 and F-35 that incorporate further advances in stealth technology. In 2006, the U.S. Air Force announced that it was retiring the F-117 and began putting the fleet into storage. A few went to museums, and others began being scrapped.

However, in recent years, there have been a number of sightings of F-117s flying near Edwards Air Base near California’s Death Valley. Some were reportedly painted grayish white, earning them the nickname “ghosts.” It is widely suspected that these F-117s are taking part in exercises designed to train pilots to detect and intercept enemy stealth aircraft. For fans of the iconic “Stealth Fighter,” it’s gratifying to know that some of them still appear to be flying.

In its entire operational life, there was only one known F-117 shot down. Its time may have passed, but that’s a remarkable record.

If you’d like to see a version of this story with more historical photos and screenshots, you can check out my original post here. This story was told utilizing Aerial Simulations’ F-117 Nighthawk add-on to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, along with liveries and scenery downloaded for free from the flightsim.to community.

The post Reenacting Bombing Missions in an F-117 Nighthawk appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The decision was spurred by results from preliminary testing, according to the company.

Aurora Flight Sciences—a Boeing subsidiary— along with competitor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems were selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) last year to design a large transport seaplane to carry troops and heavy equipment for long distances over water using wing-in-ground effect aerodynamics to boost efficiency. The Liberty Lifter program is currently in Phase 1B, which is focused on aircraft design and risk reduction, according to the agency.

• READ MORE: General Atomics Receives DARPA Contract To Develop Liberty Lifter Seaplane

During this phase, Aurora altered its design from a T-tail design to a Pi-tail—a feature it called “more structurally efficient” in accommodating an aft cargo door. 

“Additionally, the floats were relocated from the side sponsons to the vehicle’s wingtips, which creates a better balance between vehicle affordability and performance in ground effect,” Aurora said in a statement released Monday.

The changes are a result of its teaming with Oregon-based shipyard ReconCraft for expertise in maritime manufacturing, as well as Gibbs & Cox, a naval architecture and marine engineering firm. ReconCraft is set to build full-scale structural test articles, including a section of the aircraft’s fuselage, Aurora said. 

“The build and testing of structures reduces risk and ensures quality, as the team works with novel materials and unique requirements,” the company said. 

• READ MORE: DARPA Narrows Down Liberty Lifter Design Competition

The company also studied the slamming of the aircraft during landing by testing a scale model of the hull in a tow tank at Virginia Tech University. It also is planning testing of flying sensors and software for wave detection and prediction.

“Innovations often occur at intersections. Here, it’s the intersection of our maritime and aerospace teams,” said Dan Campbell, Aurora program manager. “For example, the intersection of maritime manufacturing with aerospace structural design, or the intersection of maritime wave forecasting with aerospace controls.”

DARPA is tentatively set to conduct a preliminary design review in January 2025 before it selects a single design to be built and demonstrated. The first flight of the Liberty Lifter is planned for early 2028, the agency said.

The post Aurora Flight Sciences Revises Liberty Lifter Design appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), a U.S. Department of Defense unit tasked with developing cutting-edge defense technology, wants to do away with all of them.

DARPA this week selected Aurora Flight Sciences—a research subsidiary of Boeing specializing in the development of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other novel aircraft systems—to build a full-scale demonstrator aircraft that can fly with no surface-level control surfaces.

The project is part of a DARPA program called CRANE, or Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors. CRANE aims to design, build, and fly an airplane with active flow control (AFC)—in lieu of control surfaces—as a key design consideration. According to DARPA, AFC technology has been explored at the component level but not as a core piece of aircraft design.

Aurora has already begun building the outlandish demonstrator, called the X-65, DARPA said Wednesday. The agency expects it to roll out in early 2025, with the first flight planned for that summer.

No Control Surfaces, No Problem

The smooth-bodied X-65’s wings look almost like mirrored Dyson fans, with large gaps separating them from the body. In fact, the aircraft uses AFC to generate force in a similar way.

For primary flight control, flaps and rudders are replaced by AFC actuators. Much like a Dyson fan, AFC technology produces jets of pressured air, shaping flows over the airplane’s surface. Effectors spread across the surface use those flows to control pitch, roll, and yaw.

“[The X-65’s] distinctive, diamond-like wing shape is designed to help us maximize what we can learn about AFC in full-scale, real-world tests,” said Dr. Richard Wlezien, program manager for CRANE.

DARPA expects the elimination of external moving parts to reduce aircraft weight and complexity, thereby improving performance. In addition, the tech could enable drag reduction, high angle-of-attack flight, simplified high-lift systems, and thicker wings for better structural stability and fuel capacity, the agency said.

The X-65 will be built initially with two sets of control actuators—traditional flaps and rudders—as well as AFC effectors on all lifting surfaces. In addition to minimizing risk in early flight testing, the control surfaces will serve as a baseline for testing. As the campaign progresses, they will be selectively shut down and replaced by AFC for primary flight control.

“The X-65 conventional surfaces are like training wheels to help us understand how AFC can be used in place of traditional flaps and rudders,” explained Wlezien. “We’ll have sensors in place to monitor how the AFC effectors’ performance compares with traditional control mechanisms, and these data will help us better understand how AFC could revolutionize both military and commercial craft in the future.”

The uncrewed X-65 will have a 30-foot wingspan and is projected to weigh more than 7,000 pounds, capable of reaching Mach 0.7 speed (about 537 mph). Its size, speed, and weight will be similar to military trainer aircraft—which means DARPA could uncover immediate AFC applications for real-world designs.

X-Planes, CRANEs, and Aurora Deals

Construction of the X-65 demonstrator represents Phase 3 of CRANE, the U.S. government’s latest X-plane project.

X-planes are a series of experimental U.S. aircraft and rockets, used mainly to test out new technologies and aerodynamic concepts. The first batch was built by Bell Aircraft Corp. (known today as Bell Textron) in the 1940s and ’50s. Since then, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Curtiss-Wright, and other manufacturers have produced X-plane designs. The most recent, designated X-66, is a transonic truss-braced wing design being developed by Boeing with support from NASA.

With CRANE, DARPA hopes to optimize AFC systems by using the X-65 to mature the technology and design processes. In addition, former CRANE program manager Dr. Alexander Walan in 2020 suggested the agency may create an AFC technology database, which could be used by future manufacturers to design safe, market-ready aircraft.

CRANE began in 2019, when DARPA requested industry participation in the initiative. For Phase 1, which focused on initial design and system requirements, contracts were handed out to Aurora, Lockheed, BAE Systems, and Georgia Tech Research Corp.

But by the time Phase 2 began in January 2023, only Aurora—which had successfully completed wind tunnel testing using a testbed aircraft equipped with AFC—was still under contract. DARPA has now picked up its option for Phase 3, which will explore how AFC can be incorporated on full-scale aircraft and be relied upon for controlled flight.

It’s unclear whether CRANE will continue beyond Phase 3, which is expected to last several years. However, the X-65 is being designed to outlast it.

“We’re building the X-65 as a modular platform—wing sections and the AFC effectors can easily be swapped out— to allow it to live on as a test asset for DARPA and other agencies, long after CRANE concludes,” said Wlezien.

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Piasecki announced it was awarded a multiyear, $37 million contract with AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force, through the division’s Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) program. The agreement will allow the Pennsylvania-based firm to test and demonstrate its Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES)—the same UAS project that was snubbed by DARPA.

In addition, the contract calls for Piasecki to demonstrate hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technology for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and other aviation applications, which it developed in collaboration with ZeroAvia. The company says its PA-890 eVTOL will be the first zero-emission, hydrogen-powered compound helicopter to market.

ARES was initially developed in partnership with Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, the manufacturer’s developmental aircraft unit, under DARPA. Piasecki took over after DARPA decided it was time to move on.

The system was designed with flexibility at the forefront. It can be flown crewed or uncrewed and is built to provide command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence (C4I), intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and combat and logistics support to “small distributed forces,” Piasecki says.

That’s a mouthful. But essentially, the company believes ARES can be a Swiss Army knife for the military. The UAS’ small landing footprint enables docking with ships or touchdowns in complex terrain, and its payload modules can be reconfigured for a variety of different missions. The latter feature can reduce the cost and logistics footprint of operations, Piasecki says.

With the Air Force’s backing, the company is now working with Honeywell to integrate a triplex fly-by-wire system on ARES, with the goal of beginning flight testing this year.

“This new funding will allow us to demonstrate ARES’ unique tilt-duct configuration, which enables seamless transition between hover and fixed-wing forward flight—a technological leap that would address critical aerial challenges faced by the U.S. military,” said John Piasecki, CEO of Piasecki Aircraft.

Simultaneously, Piasecki Aircraft will continue working with partner ZeroAvia to install the latter’s High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (HTPEM) hydrogen fuel cell technology on the PA-890 and other VTOL aircraft. The slowed-rotor winged eVTOL helicopter design is expected to be the first compound helicopter that runs on hydrogen and produces zero emissions.

“Higher temperature fuel cells are a critical technology to delivering improvements in specific power and unlocking truly clean propulsion for larger fixed-wing aircraft, but they will also enable rotorcraft and VTOL applications,” said Val Miftakhov, founder and CEO of ZeroAvia.

Piasecki Aircraft says the PA-890 is designed for emergency medical services, on-demand logistics, personnel air transport, and other commercial use cases. In addition to producing zero emissions, the eVTOL will fly farther than all-electric rotorcraft and quieter than fossil fuel turbine helicopters—all while cutting direct operating costs in half compared to the latter, the company says.

“Demonstration of the PA-890 would be a world first for electric aviation and would usher in a new era of clean vertical flight,” said John Piasecki. “While R&D work on these projects began several years ago, this new funding will rapidly expand our ability to deliver these radically new vehicles to customers and partners across the military and commercial sectors.”

In May, Piasecki Aircraft acquired a manufacturing facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, formerly home to the Lockheed Martin Sikorsky Heliplex. It intends to convert the 219,000-square-foot site—which houses engineering, flight test and delivery, and assembly, paint, and finishing centers—into an advanced research, development and testing hub for VTOL and UAS aircraft. The company expects the facility to attract about 400 workers by 2028.

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In Maui, firefighting pilots came to the rescue when wildfires decimated the Hawaiian island last month. But they could soon face stiff competition from autonomous helicopters.

Rain, an autonomous aviation startup looking to fight fires with uncrewed aircraft, on Wednesday announced a collaboration with helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky to add the Lockheed Martin subsidiary’s optionally piloted Black Hawk to its fleet. The partnership promises to enable autonomous, rapid response capabilities for aerial wildland firefighting—and reduce the cost of suppressing the blazes.

Rain will use Sikorsky’s Matrix autonomy suite and its own Wildfire Mission Autonomy System to beam mission commands to an uncrewed Black Hawk. These systems integrate with early wildfire detection networks to dispatch the autonomous aircraft, allowing flames to be doused with water within minutes of detection. That’s crucial considering the blazes can spread extremely fast.

“Matrix executes a full mission plan by taking into account mission goals and constraints, aircraft performance, obstacles, weather, and topography,” said Igor Cherepinsky, director of Sikorsky Innovations. “The system is fully integrated with the flight controls, allowing the aircraft to fly with high levels of autonomy in all environmental conditions.”

Rain’s Wildfire Mission Autonomy System gives fire agencies rapid response capabilities to fight ignitions in hard-to-reach areas or varied terrain, increasing coverage. The onboard system identifies and locates fires in real time, develops a suppression strategy, and plans a flight path and drop timing to ensure the suppressant hits its target—all on its own.

Throughout the mission, the system also shares intelligence and plans, giving firefighters situational awareness and oversight.

The Matrix system, meanwhile, is at the core of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) project. The initiative seeks to “exponentially improve” flight safety and efficiency of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. 

Already, Matrix has been tested on 10 different aircraft, including a demonstration flight on an uncrewed UH-60 Black Hawk last year. The autonomy suite fits into both rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft, as well as existing and new build applications.

Rain and Sikorsky will attempt to use the system to solve a problem that appears to have no answer in sight.

“What we are seeing is a dramatic increase in extreme fire behavior,” said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection chief Jon Heggie.

Indeed, wildfires are on the rise in recent years, according to the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). But could autonomous aircraft help reverse the course? According to Rain, Black Hawks are a favored helicopter for firefighting fleets because they can weather difficult conditions while carrying heavy payloads—as much as 9,000 pounds using an external sling.

The Black Hawk fleet is also numerous and well-staffed As of January, Sikorsky had produced 5,000 of them, with a wide pool of highly trained pilots and technicians chomping at the bit to fly them.

In a simulation, Rain found that a network of some 200 Rain Stations—which serve as the company’s hangars and ground control facilities—housing uncrewed aircraft like the optionally piloted Black Hawk could one day end catastrophic wildfires in California. The company admitted it’s an ambitious goal, but it hopes to reach the milestone by the end of the decade.

The NIFC also reported that wildfire suppression costs have been on the rise since the 1990s. But the inflated costs have not resulted in fewer blazes—in fact, the opposite is true.

However, Rain estimated that a nationwide network of stations in high and extreme wildfire regions would eliminate between $149 billion and $348 billion in annual costs attributed to fighting wildfires.

At the same time, though, the company’s autonomous model could have the effect of shutting out firefighting pilots from the industry. That day will not arrive soon, since autonomous aircraft are still in development and likely years away from being widespread. It may never arrive at all. But the potential for savings and efficiency could certainly lure some firefighting organizations to uncrewed aircraft.

For Sikorsky—which will reportedly lay off nearly 180 workers in its business segment this fall—the collaboration follows a massive, $2.7 billion contract to deliver 35 CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopters to the U.S. Navy in 2026. The manufacturer also nabbed a $650 million Air Force contract to upgrade the capabilities of the department’s HH-60W combat rescue helicopters.

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The report was published in the Chinese journal Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica by a team from the Chinese army’s Aerodynamics Research and Development Center in Sichuan, China.

The paper stated that the dogfight involved two small, unmanned, fixed-wing aircraft—one operated by AI, and the other controlled by a human from the ground. During combat, the AI-backed pilot easily outmaneuvered its opponent—defeating it in a swift 90 seconds.

Initially, the dogfight began with the human pilot making the first move—attempting to gain tactical advantage through various maneuvers, but the AI predicted its move and stuck close behind. The human pilot then nosedived the aircraft hoping the AI would follow and crash. Instead, the AI set the airplane in an ambush position—waiting for the human-piloted airplane to pull up. The AI kept the human aircraft in a constant underdog position and eventually, the simulation was called off.

“The era of air combat in which artificial intelligence will be the king is already on the horizon,” noted the project team involved in the study.

The research highlighted the superior performance possible from AI—as it is not limited by human factors such as excessive gravitational pull, oxygen levels, or fear of being harmed. As stated in the study, “With superior calculation ability it can more accurately predict the development of the battle to gain the initiative in the confrontation.” Scientists also claimed, “Aircraft with autonomous decision-making capabilities can completely outperform humans in terms of reaction speed.”

While China is the first to conduct its aerial dogfight with AI, the U.S. has been pioneering the way for AI technology for years through DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A month before the Chinese paper was released, the U.S. was conducting its own AI test missions—including several combat drills on a real F-16 fighter.

Additionally, in August 2020, DARPA held its AlphaDogfight trials—a three-day competition to seek out the most capable AI fighter pilot. Of the eight teams, Heron Systems’ F-16 AI dominated the other companies before competing in the main event—taking on an experienced human F-16 pilot. In combat, the AI won five times in a row without the human pilot scoring a single hit.

“The AlphaDogfight Trials were a phenomenal success, accomplishing exactly what we’d set out to do,” said Col. Dan “Animal” Javorsek, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office. “The goal was to earn the respect of a fighter pilot—and ultimately the broader fighter pilot community—by demonstrating that an AI agent can quickly and effectively learn basic fighter maneuvers and successfully employ them in a simulated dogfight.”

And while AI technology is seemingly the future of aerial combat with its higher precision, quick decision-making, and greater risk-taking, it is not intended to replace human pilots. As DARPA envisions it, AI intelligence will fly the aircraft in partnership with the pilot who will monitor the AI and intervene if necessary.

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The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) named two teams that will work on different designs for a large transport seaplane to carry troops and heavy equipment for long distances over water using wing-in-ground effect aerodynamics to boost efficiency.

The agency late last year said General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. would begin development of a twin-hull prototype of the lifter. In the latest announcement, General Atomics is teamed with Maritime Applied Physics Corp., a Baltimore, Maryland boat building company for the project.

• READ MORE: General Atomics Receives DARPA Contract To Develop Liberty Lifter Seaplane

The second team includes Boeing unit Aurora Flight Sciences, naval engineering firm Gibbs & Cox, and ReconCraft, a boat builder based in Clackamas, Oregon. Gibbs & Cox’s includes the exploits of founder William Francis Gibbs, who designed the record-setting ocean liner S.S. United States, which entered service in 1952. This group is working on a single-hull seaplane airlifter. 

The composition of the teams and notable differences in their designs for the aircraft give the program the feel of a classic military contract competition.

The General Atomics team’s twin-hull, mid-wing design is aimed at optimizing stability on the water. It also uses the distributed propulsion of 12 turboshaft engines. Aurora Flight Sciences’ design resembles a more traditional flying boat with a single hull, high wing and eight turboprop engines.

The Liberty Lifter program, named for the Liberty supply ships of World War II, would fulfill a similar mission by carrying troops, equipment and supplies to distant shores. The aircraft are meant to function like ships, by using docks for loading and unloading, but ideally will be able to get close enough to beaches to unload more like a landing craft. 

The planned demonstrator aircraft will have a size and cargo capacity similar to those of a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft. DARPA said. It would fly mainly in ground effect near the water but could also climb to 10,000 feet above sea level.

• READ MORE: DARPA Wants Cargo Seaplane Airborne in Five Years

“We are excited to kick off this program and looking forward to working closely with both performer teams as they mature their point-of-departure design concepts through Phase 1,” said DARPA Liberty Lifter program manager Christopher Kent. “The two teams have taken distinctly different design approaches that will enable us to explore a relatively large design space during Phase 1.”

The Phase 1 contract awards are for an 18-month period including six months of conceptual design work and nine months of design development expected to culminate in a preliminary design review. An additional three months are included to plan for testing and manufacturing, DARPA said. 

Phase 2 is expected to begin in mid-2024 and the agency has said it plans to have the aircraft flying within about five years.

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