to stay in the air for up to five years "Odysseus"

Does George Lucas know about this?

Manassas, Va.-based Aurora Flight Sciences took the wraps off of its concept for a solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle today that is designed to stay aloft for up to five years, and can even split into three separate planes.

The unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, is part of project Vulture for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Aurora is one of three contractors selected to work on the project for the agency, which wants a UAV in the air that can perform intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communication missions.

The UAV needs to be able to carry a 1,000 pound payload.

The other contractors working on the project are Chicago-based Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Bethesda, Md.'s Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).

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reply to post by DaddyBare


That picture doesn't even look like it would fly,whats up with the odd angled shape?

It is segmented into three autonomous pieces. You launch them independently and they join at altitude. So if you needed to replace a module while in flight for whatever reason, you could do that without taking the a/c off station.

Originally posted by jkrog08
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

That picture doesn't even look like it would fly,whats up with the odd angled shape?

From what I gathered in reading about the project the Z wing design is so the aircraft (Solar powered) will lay out flat or fold up... the wing is made to change shape depending on winds and best angles to collect sunlight.

Also correct.

Here it is flat.