Ready for Vertical Lift Off

Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA has spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to perfect an aircraft that would be able to achieve a vertical lift off. An unmanned vertical take-off and landing  or VTOL aircraft is sure to have a number of advantages for the military. That is exactly what they hope as they give the contract to construct the X-Plane to Aurora Flight Sciences.

As per the given description, “DARPA’s Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane) program seeks to provide innovative cross-pollination between fixed-wing and rotary-wing technologies and by developing and integrating novel subsystems to enable radical improvements in vertical and cruising flight capabilities.”

The plane is to have a four thousand horse power engine which will generate three megawatts of electricity to power the twenty four ductless fans of the aircraft. It will have the capacity to carry about four thousand five hundred kilograms of weight and travel at a top speed of four hundred and sixty miles per hour.

What’s more fascinating is that the X-plane will have the ability to shift from hover to flight mode on demand. Needless to say that the working prototype is going to be a really amazing step in the ongoing science project to get the perfect VTOL aircraft.