Boeing Phantom Works has begun construction of a liquid-hydrogen powered high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle designed to fly for more than four days at altitudes up to 65,000 feet, while carrying a 450 pound payload. Key to Phantom Eye is its propulsion system, which after five years of development saw completion of an 80-hour test in an altitude chamber on March 1 (and about which Boeing offered few details). The twin-engine Phantom Eye demonstrator aircraft will have a 150-foot wingspan. Successful testing could make it the precursor of a larger HALE that would carry 2,000 pounds for more than 10 days. A third design, the Phantom Ray, is also expected to evolve from the program and may be the first to fly. The Ray will be a fighter-sized UAV designed as a flying test bed for advanced technologies. Phantom Eye is the evolution of Boeing's earlier piston-powered Condor, an aircraft that set records for altitude and endurance in the late 1980s. Boeing expects first flight of the Phantom Eye UAV to take place early next year.
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: Boeing Readies Liquid-Hydrogen Long Endurance UAV?
