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Boeing developing Phantom Ray fighter-sized combat UAV

Posted May 11, 2009 1:05 PM

From Engadget:

Boeing's Airborne Laser project might be on shaky ground as the Pentagon reassess its budget, but that isn't stopping the company from pushing the flying-death market forward -- its latest project is the fighter jet-sized Phantom Ray UAV. The unmanned combat plane is being built using tech from the X-45 experimental UAV (pictured above) developed for the DARPA-funded Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System, and it should be taking the first of 10 scheduled test flights relatively soon -- the first is penciled in for December 2010, just a few months before Skynet becomes self-aware and destroys humanity as we know it.

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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Huntington Beach, Cal.
Posts: 8
#1

Re: Boeing developing Phantom Ray fighter-sized combat UAV

05/13/2009 2:53 AM

I know this aircraft VERY well (J-UCAS)! As a M & P Engineer, I worked on a bid package to manufacture the composite skins of this aircraft, which was submitted by the company I work for. The structure of the aircraft is an internal framework of components machined from aluminum and titanium billets, then riveted/bonded into sub-assemblies that are covered by carbon fiber composite skins. The skins are solid laminates with co-cured HAT stiffeners. VERY cool aircraft design! NO...this aircraft and the J-UCAS isn't even remotely close to a "Sky-net" fantasy.

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