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DARPA Awards Prime Contracts For VTOL X-Plane Phase 1

Defense Daily Staff

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said March 19 it awarded prime contracts to Boeing [BA], Aurora Flight Sciences, Karem Aircraft and United Technologies Corp. [UTX] unit Sikorsky for the agency’s vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) experimental plane (X-Plane) program. DARPA seeks to innovate cross pollination between the fixed-wing and rotary-wing worlds to enable radical improvements in vertical and cruise flight capabilities. DARPA said for generations new designs for VTOL aircraft have remained unable to increase top speed without sacrificing range, efficiency or the ability to…

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