This DARPA plane could spy on you from almost anywhere and even carry small bombs

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to create a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft so you can take flight from ship decks or small ground spaces, even in extreme weather conditions and without launch and recovery equipment. The project will be part of the Advanced Aircraft Infrastructure-Less Launch and Recovery X-Plane (Ancillary) program whose objective is to improve the technology used for VTOL.

Steve Komadina, program manager, explains that “the ability of the warfighter to deploy and recover such systems [VTOL] in challenging conditions, without relying on infrastructure, would minimize staff, costs and vulnerability during sensitive operations“. DARPA has not communicated if the Ancillary aircraft will be designed to carry crew on board or not, but in a video published by the agency they show pilots operating the ship with a tablet remotely.

Those in charge of the project are positive assuring that it will be a “jump forward” on vertical takeoff and landing. “Ancillary plans to use a multidisciplinary approach that will bring together developments in advanced control theory, aerodynamic modeling, and advanced propulsion to solve a combination of challenging design goals,” Komadina said.

In addition to innovation in VTOL, with Ancillary, DARPA wants its aircraft to be lightweight, capable of carry large payloads and that stay airborne for long periods of time. Among the functions that the vehicle will have, there will be the ability to spy from the air thanks to a camera in the front part and it will be able to transport small bombs.

Through the VTOL in which the aviation industry is investigating in recent years, it is expected that innovative designs and architectures for commercial space can be achieved. The advances invite us to think about aerial vehicles of different dimensions, weights, powers and costs than we are used to.

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