DARPA's VTOL X Plane to be made by Aurora?

24 ducted fans.

um.

Am I the only one nervous about reliability?

www.darpa.mil...

PS: Am I the only one looking for clone troopers there?

a reply to: anzha

It's a piece of junk, a demonstrator model.

Another fine example of how our tax dollars are squandered on defense spending.

a reply to: anzha
Looks like they have militarized the NASA GL-10 program.
www.airspacemag.com...

reliability would be interesting... more reliability due to propulsor redundancy, or less reliable because of complexity and single turboshaft??

Zaphod, would you call this a hybrid single engine platform?...

originally posted by: CovertAgenda
a reply to: anzha

Zaphod, would you call this a hybrid single engine platform?...

Distributed Hybrid Electric Propulsion. It looks like it has a single gas turbine engine that feeds electric power to all the ducted fans.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Was a running in-joke for Zaphod

Thanks, But Yes that's what I was alluding to by my second sentence. (and the link)

Hybrid,s are a half step onto fully electric systems in propulsion..Power storage and utilization is going to be key.And my my how has the news on all the newer fusion power sources gone real quiet all of a sudden..Maybe a not ready yet guys so keep playing with hybrid systems in the sandpit for a while..

a reply to: CovertAgenda

More info here:

defense-update.com...

Subscale testing of the concept.

a reply to: anzha

Was going to post this as a new thread. Something with Aurora and Tom Clancy in the title was sure to get peoples interest up

It'll be interesting to see where they get it to in the next couple of years