DARPA's Liberty Lifter Project

DARPA is looking to build a seaplane to do heavy lift[1,2,3]. This would allow movement of a lot of equipment faster than a ship can do or possibly more than what the current (or recently destroyed) airlifters can or could do. This may seem like a limited capability for fighting in far off, land locked locales, but in Asia and the Pacific this would be a great capability.

This aircraft would take advantage of the wing-in-ground effect[4] . This could give even better lift capabilities over a traditional aircraft and it is also what the Soviets took advantage of for their Ekranoplans[5]. Boeing proposed a really big version called the Pelican[6] to lift much larger payloads than the C-5 or Mriya could do. However, that project didn't get picked up (and these days would be wildly suspect, imo) given Boeing's recent and frequent screw ups.

The idea of using a seaplane for lift isn't new at all. Anyone with some aviation background can recall the Spruce Goose[7] of the WW2 era. The appeal of using a seaplane is it's really hard to blow up its runway then. The caveat is either you have to go to appropriate docks for offloading or make the seaplane beachable.

While something like the Pelican may eventually be the plan, the current project only intends to move as much cargo as the C-17. Considering the C-17 was designed 30 years ago(!) and the C-5 is older than that, a definite refresh is needed. Badly.

Time will tell if this works out. When we want to, we can move faster than a slug for our design and development: the B-21 is moving to IOC really damned quick and the USAF NGAD has moved to EMD already. However, airlift isn't as sexy and I worry this will end up like the .50 cal EXACTO project[8,9,10].

1. www.darpa.mil...
2. breakingdefense.com...
3. newatlas.com...
4. en.wikipedia.org...(aerodynamics)
5. en.wikipedia.org...
6. en.wikipedia.org...
7. www.evergreenmuseum.org...
8. www.darpa.mil...
9. www.youtube.com...
10. www.youtube.com...

a reply to: anzha

Why go that route why not just go the covenant route and make superconductivity platforms that lift things to an awaiting aircraft in hover mode and lock it in and once green lighted off it goes?

Say platform A is positively charged and cargo carrier is negatively charged but gyroscope eachothers fields into a safe balance until attached like an electromagnetically produced wave by sea water waves as a desalination plant to salinate other parts due to melt and generate electricity at the same time?

Wave energy put to use can produce more electricity than nuclear power plants and is far safer of course using meta materials that do not foul or fall apart from contact with the ocean is important for longevity. Lobby would probably want to use failable materials and be renewed a build contract for the same failable mess every so often as per typical of them.

When sustainability is the demand and requirement of the future it means less tax sent or spent on the old pork barrel or have to be set aside knowing it is an inferior choice. We have the technology to create such a system but doing it? Being first t do such a thing would put the government and those contracted to supply them wherever there is demand... unfortunately in the service of weaponry is what most so called first world nations focused on as contracted to make sell and deliver went.

Why a government can't be on a positive generation for the world instead f a destructive generation? I don't know. BUt just think of the old adage of catching flies as in allies for a better planet or world whether one will be alive to see it or not as those sorts monuments left are the only real children left behind... people don't remember the people who they were personally they remember those children... the people demonized or haunted by a name attached to that monument can tell you about the person and whether they were really good or bad or just a pawn in a larger game they couldn't escape.

But hey in the meantime nothing wrong with tried and true but reversing and controlling the poles of artificial magnets and using ballast as a balance to them is also tried and true it's the application that requires the engineering.

a reply to: anzha

I saw you state the C-17 was 30 years old, and I got angry! I looked it up, saw 1991, did some math, and immediately felt old. It really was 30 years ago, and I remember it being brand new. 30 years ago.

a reply to: network dude

Time. It sneaks up on you after you're 30.

There's not been a lot of new, regular development of a lot of things since the 90s.

a reply to: anzha

War is expensive. Probably had to cut back on R&D to pay for the Global War on Terror.

a reply to: jarsue97

Nope. They cut back R&D during the 90s as part of the "peace dividend."

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: anzha

I saw you state the C-17 was 30 years old, and I got angry! I looked it up, saw 1991, did some math, and immediately felt old. It really was 30 years ago, and I remember it being brand new. 30 years ago.

The C-17's first flight was in 1991, by which the initial procurement for 210 C-17s had to be reduced to 120. Due to issues found in mission software, landing gear, and other areas during C-17 airworthiness evaluation tests, however, the C-17 did not enter service until January 1995.

General Atomics won the LL contract:

www.flightglobal.com...

Russia had one sitting on a beach last year..

originally posted by: Blackfinger
Russia had one sitting on a beach last year..

I think you're referring to the sole Lun ekranoplan to be built, because that machine was towed to a spot in Dagestan in late December 2021, and one example of the A-90 Orlyonok mixed-power ekranoplan is on display at a naval museum in Moscow. The Liberty Lifter concept championed by DARPA can be thought off as being a 21st century reincarnation of the American troopships built in World War II, like the unbuilt Boeing Pelican ULTRA because they could provide the US Army with ground effect vehicles for flights to the battlefield above the water on a cushion of air. Since General Atomics has built UAVs despite the fact that was founded as a nuclear energy firm, it could become an unlikely manufacturer of a transport ground effect vehicle, and it could also partner with Boeing as a well as a shipbuilding company to manufacture a tech demonstrator for the Liberty Lifter design.

news.usni.org...

a reply to: anzha

Spruce Goose FTW! I'm sorry Ghost of Howard Hughes, The Hercules.

Make it the largest plane ever.

With today's composites they can make a giant strong airframe. No shortages as of now. 6 engines attached to a massive overhead wing. Put the capacity of the Antonov AN-225 to shame.

Honestly this is a small budget contract. General Atomics was only awarded 8 million. It will probably be more sensible than I would like.

One looks like a seaworthy version of Roc.

Aurora also got a contract:

www.janes.com...

more info:

theaviationist.com...

DARPA has given out $40M more to each company:

www.flightglobal.com...