Polecat in action.

Video

The video shows the UAV taking off from a salt runway at an undisclosed location thought to be in the southwestern USA. Lockheed Martin's Skunks Works announced the Polecat programme at the Farnborough air show, stating that it was designed and built in just 18 months and flown in secret in the first quarter of this year.

The Polecat has a wingspan of 27.4m (90ft), 4,080kg (9,000lb) gross weight, 450kg payload, and is powered by two Williams FJ44-3E turbofans producing a combined 6,000lb thrust (26.7kN). The laminar-flow Polecat is designed to cruise at altitudes of around 65,000ft (20,000m) to get above contrails.

Pretty impressive show. It looks similar to the UCAV that was abandoned or shelved few years ago as well as based on the B-2 bomber. But it seems to have more capabilities where it can fly higher I believe. Can't wait to see more UAVs and UCAVs in the future.


Are they creating aircraft based on the B-2 design for stealth? I'm certain they can create a different kind of aircraft that provides stealth without having to copy that B-2 design.

O yeah love the music.

[edit on 18-9-2006 by deltaboy]

The tier 3 Quartz, or "Q" was thought to of been the most advanced stealth aircraft ever to have flown.

It was said to be like a B-2 but with only one saw tooth (much like the pole cat) was in manned and unmanned versions, and had active optical camouflage on it.

The fly away cost of $230 million was deemed too expensive and it was canned just months before it was due to be rolled out. Worst mistake the USAF ever made - as all this research now for a UCAV must of cost what it would of needed to fund maybe 20 -30 airframes..

weird how it seems to be one step forward, two steps back ala XB-70 situation...

The single most interesting thing about the Lockheed Martin Polecat video is that the vehicle is taking off and landing on Yucca Lake at the Nevada Test Site rather than Groom Lake ("Area 51") or Tonopah Test Range.

Good Ol' Lunchmeat, true to form til the end:

Polecat Key Characteristics:

Overengineered (look at those damn inlets).
Totally Underpowered.
Just Shy Of Weaponless.
And at least ten years conceptually outdated.

Just like the U-2. The SR-71. And the F-104.

But heh! In only 18 months they cold cured some composite with CA and Accelerator, cut it to shape and jammed a test boom on the nose so it /has to/ be a triumph of Der Skunkiness and rapid prototyping.

_Doesn't It_?!?

Never mind Northrop and Boingy have been REALLY working the netcentric integration issues and both have platforms that are fully flight tested and can actually LAND ON A CARRIER in half the size (look at how hot, low and shallow that sucker comes in! I guess the Baloneyans don't like the idea of 'free floating' flying wings after the Dark Star, eh, whot?!).

Never mind that the difference in drag, sensor graze or signature values between 40K (X-45/47 height) and 65K (P-175) _as penetrating assets_ is just shy of operationally worthless for the amount of systems penalty you pay pretending to be a spaceship.

Lockheed Must Play Or No One Else Shall Be Paid.

The only thing this signifies is the lengths to which the bleeping Air Farce and their Fellow Traveller compatriot air services will go to find a dozen different PHAE roles for unmanneds so as not to have to admit that their best mission is as a weapons carrier.

That and LM finally admitting what a complete economics farce the JSF is and rapidly trying to sidetrack if not backpedal their way into something actually useful.

Mah Oh Mah. The more things stay the same, the more contemptibly obvious the game of running in place becomes.

Anybody read Robert F. Dorr's latest 'Combat Aircraft' piece on the USMC and their 'can't wait to delay' obsession with the F-35B as a function of what it could end up costing them in the equally worthless (production pork purely to 'sustain the industrial base') AH-1Z/UH-1Y and other critical aviation programs? Oh yeah.

We all see it standing there, we just don't have the balls to call the elephants trumpeting in our budget for the pachyderms they are.

Time we went on a 'Mammoth Hunt' I say...


KPl.

[edit on 24-9-2006 by ch1466]

Originally posted by D4rk Kn1ght
The tier 3 Quartz, or "Q" was thought to of been the most advanced stealth aircraft ever to have flown.

It was said to be like a B-2 but with only one saw tooth (much like the pole cat) was in manned and unmanned versions, and had active optical camouflage on it.

The fly away cost of $230 million was deemed too expensive and it was canned just months before it was due to be rolled out.

Can you substantiate any of this?