The Pentagon’s far-out research agency has revealed more information of their plan to create a shape-shifting, multipurpose car.
Flying cars have been endeavored before, dozens of times. And a small number of the labors have even be successful. But the Pentagon concept is numerous steps in front of existing vehicles, like the Terrafugia Transition, which is more like an insubstantial plane that can, by folding up its wings, function on land. The Transition also desires runways for takeoff and landing, and can’t fly in cruel weather.
And, in what could moreover mean revolutionary progress or huge failure, this initiative has out-there military agency Darpa behind it. In January, the organization, who has been trying with the flying car idea ever since at least 2008, hosted a proposer’s day workshop for their new Transformer (TX) project. At the same time, details were sketchy: Darpa required a “morphing vehicle body” that could activate largely separately, dropping the chance of human piloting error in high-risk war zones. Plus, the agency’s initial documents noted, a suspended car would be able to cruise over obstacles and keep away from areas widespread with IEDs.
Now, Darpa’s unconfined a solicitation calling for prototypes, which they would like to be testing in the air by 2015. The vehicles, which will have the all-terrain capabilities of SUVs, should moreover boast a 1,000-pound capacity, and hold four fully suited crowds or a stretcher and a medic, telling the agency hopes for a fleet of flying ambulances, too.
Darpa also needs a vehicle that can execute vertical takeoffs and landings, and achieve an altitude of 10,000 feet — and do it all whereas traveling 250 miles on a single tank of gas. That means less Humvee, more Prius: The agency recommend that proposals would be wise to take in ideas like “hybrid electric drive, superior batteries, adaptive wing structures, ducted-fan impulsion systems and advanced lightweight heavy fuel engines.”
All that, and no pilot: Any troop able to drive a military road vehicle could operate a Transformer, because the vehicles will include “automated takeoff and landing,” and be “fully autonomous” in the air and on the ground.
It’s a lofty plan, albeit one with a relatively small budget: Darpa’s allotting around $55 million to the development and testing of prototypes.
Flying cars have been endeavored before, dozens of times. And a small number of the labors have even be successful. But the Pentagon concept is numerous steps in front of existing vehicles, like the Terrafugia Transition, which is more like an insubstantial plane that can, by folding up its wings, function on land. The Transition also desires runways for takeoff and landing, and can’t fly in cruel weather.
And, in what could moreover mean revolutionary progress or huge failure, this initiative has out-there military agency Darpa behind it. In January, the organization, who has been trying with the flying car idea ever since at least 2008, hosted a proposer’s day workshop for their new Transformer (TX) project. At the same time, details were sketchy: Darpa required a “morphing vehicle body” that could activate largely separately, dropping the chance of human piloting error in high-risk war zones. Plus, the agency’s initial documents noted, a suspended car would be able to cruise over obstacles and keep away from areas widespread with IEDs.
Now, Darpa’s unconfined a solicitation calling for prototypes, which they would like to be testing in the air by 2015. The vehicles, which will have the all-terrain capabilities of SUVs, should moreover boast a 1,000-pound capacity, and hold four fully suited crowds or a stretcher and a medic, telling the agency hopes for a fleet of flying ambulances, too.
Darpa also needs a vehicle that can execute vertical takeoffs and landings, and achieve an altitude of 10,000 feet — and do it all whereas traveling 250 miles on a single tank of gas. That means less Humvee, more Prius: The agency recommend that proposals would be wise to take in ideas like “hybrid electric drive, superior batteries, adaptive wing structures, ducted-fan impulsion systems and advanced lightweight heavy fuel engines.”
All that, and no pilot: Any troop able to drive a military road vehicle could operate a Transformer, because the vehicles will include “automated takeoff and landing,” and be “fully autonomous” in the air and on the ground.
It’s a lofty plan, albeit one with a relatively small budget: Darpa’s allotting around $55 million to the development and testing of prototypes.
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