Jamie Bennet
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ XQ-67A off-board sensing station completed its inaugural flight three weeks after the company conducted high-speed taxi trials of the drone with the U.S. Air Force Laboratory.
GA-ASI announced that the test flight took place on Wednesday, validating the effectiveness of a common core chassis as the genus for constructing different aircraft variants.
The company designed XQ-67A using its Gambit family of aircraft to advance the U.S. Air Force’s OBSS and Collaborative Combat Aircraft programs. The concept of having one genus chassis to design a species of aircraft was prompted by efforts to lower the cost of manufacturing such vehicles.
“This provides an alternative acquisition approach for military aircraft that enables faster development, lower costs and more opportunities for frequent technology refresh,” said Trenton White, OBSS program manager and aerospace engineer in AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate. “Flight demonstration of this system is a major first step toward showing the ability to produce affordable combat mass.”
