By Boeing revealed its next generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) dubbed the “Phantom Ray”.
Unmanned aircraft took a leap forward Monday when Boeing unveiled the Phantom Ray — an advanced robotic craft that the company calls a test bed for advanced technologies.
Describing it as a great day for Boeing, the company took the wraps off its new plane at an event in St. Louis. The fighter-sized aircraft has been in development for about two years by Boeing’s Phantom Works division and is described as cutting edge in the world of unmanned aircraft. The developers say it can carry 4,500 pounds of payload.
“Phantom Ray offers a host of options for our customers as a test bed for advanced technologies, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack and autonomous aerial refueling — the possibilities are nearly endless,” said Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
With a top speed of 614 mph, the Phantom Ray has a 50-foot wingspan and measures 36 feet long and resembles a giant boomerang — and lacks an obvious cockpit for a pilot, of course. Program manager Craig Brown said, “if you think about it in unmanned systems, it’s not the idea to replace a pilot per say, its to be able to augment the war fighters mission.” [FOX News]
You can read more about this aircraft via google search here.
It will be interesting to see if this fighter jet sized UAV is capable of being controlled in the same fashion as smaller UAV’s.
8:57 pm on May 14th, 2010 1
That's nice, and all… but will it find Sarah Connors?
9:42 pm on May 14th, 2010 2
Nice looking toy. Too bad you guys are bankrupt and can't really afford it.
10:27 pm on May 14th, 2010 3
Tom, schadenfreude tends to have a friend in karma. You might not want to glory so much in the pain of others.
10:37 pm on May 14th, 2010 4
Oh, we'll just use the credit card this one time…:)
1:44 am on May 15th, 2010 5
Unveils, not unvails
2:21 am on May 15th, 2010 6
Unvails ~ Third-person singular simple present indicative form of unvail.
Unvail may not exhist as a word in your world, but it and many others are here and thriving.
4:21 am on May 15th, 2010 7
Yeah, but when it comes down to it, Koreans like you Tom fully expect "bankrupt" Americans to die for and save your ungrateful asses in times of armed conflict or economic woes. History proves that.
"Bankrupt" America should stop wasting money on a country like Korea and pull it's forces out, thereby saving a shit load of money that's just being wasted on Korea. Let the Chinese have Korea back.
Funny how in spite of it's "bankruptcy" America is still number 1 and you Koreans would still sell your souls for a green card because your number 15.
Once again this just shows you that in Korea's long, long history, you Koreans couldn't do what America did in it's very, very, very short history.
Sure, the last 50 years Korea did well, but it had to do it with foreign money, foreign technology and AMERICAN protection! No doubt Koreans will want this new system, probably for free too, as usual.
7:07 am on May 15th, 2010 8
"Phantom Ray offers a host of options for our customers…"
As if that will ever be permitted to sell this to anyone but the US military.
7:41 am on May 15th, 2010 9
ROFLMAO—–
7:45 am on May 15th, 2010 10
I don't mean any offense, Lemmy, but it seems you're defending a misspelling because you think you're defending a neologism.
Unveils is a word, while unvails is merely a typo.
9:30 am on May 15th, 2010 11
Thanks for pointing out the error, it has been fixed.
10:12 am on May 15th, 2010 12
10:31 am on May 15th, 2010 13
How about "per say"? Neologism, typo, or lack of Latino studies? Uh, I mean Latin studies.
11:01 am on May 15th, 2010 14
"…and lacks an obvious cocckpit…"
So it has a not-so-obvious cocckpit?
"…if you think about it in unmanned systems, it’s not the idea to replace a pilot per say…"
It's called an UNMANNED system. It's exactly the idea to replace the pilot.
Does this guy have a degree in Doublespeak or something? These quotes, they made my head hurt.
12:13 pm on May 15th, 2010 15
I thought they were saying "pussy" with a hip-hop affectation.
10:13 pm on May 15th, 2010 16
It's still hard to believe that people thousands of kilometers away, pilot those thing. And go back home for lunch.