DARPA re-thinks aircraft acquisition and operations with Vulture

Setting a goal to prove that a heavier-than-air aircraft can fly for more than five years without landing seems difficult enough, but perhaps raw longevity is really the easy part.

The US Department of Defense's research and development arm, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has invited bids to build the Vulture programme's near-full-scale demonstrator, considers its promise of extreme long endurance as shaking the foundations of how the military and the aerospace industry operate and support an aircraft. Read more...