Boeing Hummingbird breaks heavy UAV endurance record
Boeing’s unmanned rotorcraft breaks endurance record: it flies for nearly 19 hours, carrying a 300-pound internal payload at altitudes up to 15,000 feet, and landing with more than 90 minutes worth of fuel in reserve
Most UAV’s are small and light. Some, though, are on the big and hefty side, and Boeing has one of them. Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird, an unmanned rotorcraft, flew for 18.7 hours on 14-15 May, claiming an unofficial world endurance record for UAVs weighing between 1,102 and 5,511 pounds. During the flight at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona, the turbine-powered aircraft carried a 300-pound internal payload at altitudes up to 15,000 feet, landing with better than 90 minutes of fuel in reserve. The flight began 14 May at 8:55 p.m. (Pacific time) and ended 15 May at 3:36 p.m. Boeing has submitted an application to the National Aeronautic Association, the U.S. sanctioning body for the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), officially to claim the world record. FAI establishes rules for the control and certification of world aeronautical and astronautical records.
The aircraft used in the 18-hour test was one of the A160Ts Boeing Advanced Systems is building for customers including the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, and U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. The same aircraft achieved another flight milestone 9 May by successfully completing hover-out-of-ground-effect (HOGE) demonstrations at altitudes of 15,000 and 20,000 feet. The HOGE demonstration flight lasted 2.9 hours, including hovering for more than seven minutes. The HOGE and 18-hour endurance flights completed all planned Phase I flight test demonstrations for DARPA. Since 2007 the A160T has reached a speed of 142 knots, recorded an eight-hour flight carrying more than 1,000 pounds of payload, and recorded a 12-hour flight carrying more than 500 pounds, all using a fraction of its maximum fuel capacity. The Hummingbird features a unique optimum-speed-rotor technology that significantly improves overall performance efficiency by adjusting the rotor’s speed at different altitudes, gross weights and cruise speeds. The autonomous unmanned aircraft, measuring 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diameter, eventually will fly more than 140 knots with a ceiling of 20,000 to 30,000 feet (high hover capability up to 15,000 feet) for more than 20 hours.
