Boeing chooses Qinetiq for Vulture program

Boeing has chosen Qinetiq to be its main technology partner for the $3.8 million Phase I part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Vulture air vehicle program. The one-year phase covers conceptual system definition, reliability, and mission success analysis, concluding with a system requirements review. Conceptual designs for sub- and full-scale demonstrators will also be carried out. The aim of the Vulture program is to make an airborne vehicle which can carry a 454 kg, 5 kW payload and have a 99 percent probability of maintaining its on-station position for an uninterrupted period of more than five years.

Qinetiq will be expected to use the expertise it garnered from developing technologies for its high-altitude long-endurance UAV, the Zephyr. Launched by hand, Zephyr is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber aircraft that flies on solar power generated by amorphous silicon rays on its wings during the day. At night it is powered by rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries that are recharged during the day by solar power. Currently the only systems capable of providing multiple years of coverage over a fixed area are geosynchronous satellites orbiting 35,780 km above Earth. Pat O’Neil, program manager at Boeing High Altitude Long Endurance Systems, said: “Such a ‘pseudo-satellite’ system, like Vulture, could provide compelling operational advantages in terms of persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications.”