Naomi Cooper
Aurora Flight Sciences, Bell Textron, Northrop Grumman and Piasecki Aircraft Corp. have begun designing prototypes of an experimental military aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiative, Defense News reported Thursday.
DARPA expects one of the contractors to finish designing, prototyping, building and demonstrating the VTOL aircraft by spring of 2027 as part of the Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program.
The companies have secured contracts covering the program’s initial six-month conceptual design phase. In May, DARPA will downselect vendors to move to the next 12- to 15-month phase for preliminary design.
Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing subsidiary, is designing a high-lift, low-drag, fan-in-wing demonstrator aircraft with embedded lift fans linked to the engines for vertical flight and blended wing body and embedded engines for forward flight.
Bell’s offering will combine a helicopter’s hover capability with a jet aircraft’s speed, range and survivability.
The SPRINT aircraft must be capable of flying at speeds between 400 and 450 knots, or about 460 to 520 mph, which is faster than the V-22 Osprey multirole combat aircraft.
The resulting VTOL plane will support mobility and logistics operations, medical transport, personnel recovery and evacuation missions.
