It ’s a bird ! It ’s aplane ! It ’s a 5,900 - pound ( 2,676 - kilogram)armored vehiclewith careen - crushing off - road capability , a 5,100 - pound ( 2,313 - kilo ) payload capacity and … wings ? A flee Humvee ? severely ?
While a flying Humvee may seem like something doodle on the back of a sixth gradation male child ’s notebook , it ’s actually something the U.S military is push for . The Pentagon ’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) is behind the development of some cutting - edge technology , especially where cars are concerned . The DARPA Urban Challenge , for example , is a programme to promote the growth of driverless cars . DARPA specify in project that are mellow risk and high-pitched reward . That means that DARPA concenter on encouraging the institution of engineering that could radically alter how the military engages in its mission . Driverless carsmay go great for commuters , but they could also potentially save soldier ' lives by allowing them to conduct patrols from the safety of a base .
Of course , DARPA focuses on high - reward engineering science , but the other side of the coin is that DARPA projects are gamy risk – that is , the technology may be so far out there that it never gets built , or can only be built at great toll . Flying Humvees may seem like they hang into both of those categories , but DARPA has a tendency to get the tech it want . For instance , theUrban Challengestarted in 2004 and now the world is tantalizingly unaired to driverless cars .
Want to roll in the hay how a flying Humvee will work out ? Keep reading .
Humvee Basics
Before you’re able to realize how a flying Humvee work , you need to sympathise what a Humvee is . Humveeis the common spelling for off - road , armored , hand truck - base military vehicle , but the technical spelling is HMMWV , which remain firm for High Mobility Multi - purpose Wheeled Vehicle . The first Humvees were build in 1983 by American General . The armed forces was looking for " a family of various , technologically advanced , thwartwise - country vehicles adequate to of performing both fight and combat - support role . The basic chassis was to be capable of being qualify into a number of variants . It was also to bediesel - powered , consistent with theArmy ’s desire to use diesel fuel throughout its tactical vehicle fleet , and it was to have anautomatic transmittance " [ source : American General ] .
Today ’s Humvees do n’t stray far from those requirements . compare to the first Humvees , today ’s Humvees have biggerengines , bettertowingandpayload capacitiesand better reliability . There also more heavily armored . As improved as today ’s Humvees are , however , they ca n’t live up to the requirement the Pentagon has for flying Humvees , namely that they be able-bodied to vaporize ( for a start ) , drive on roads , carry staff office and cover 250 nautical naut mi ( 287.7 miles or 463 kilometers ) in escape while carrying 1,000 Syrian pound ( 453.6 kilo ) of shipment with a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet ( 3,048 measure ) . DARPA also wants it to be " jolly greenish " [ source : Wired ] . That will be rugged for a vehicle that only capture about 14 miles per congius ( 5.6 kilometers per cubic decimeter ) . So , while we call these flying Humvees , the goal product will have little in common with the flat coat - only Hum-Vee the military apply today .
Why Flying Humvees?
Given that developing a flying Humvee will be expensive , time consuming and risky , you may wonder why DAPRA wants to create one at all . TheU.S. Militarydoes a good job of ground patrol with ceremonious Humvees , andhelicoptersdo a good job patrolling airspace , engage in aery combat and providing melodic phrase funding for earth troops .
Safety is the master reason the Pentagon is originate fly Humvees . The conflicts that today ’s military engages in do n’t follow traditional formula of battlefield and armed combat . Instead , the armed services has to debate with broadly - get up urban battler who blend in with the civilian population . That create ordering airstrikes from a eggbeater difficult . The risk of hurting civilians is high .
At the same clip , ground scout group in a schematic Humvee can easily become the victims of improvised explosive devices ( IEDs ) and roadside bomb . In some cases , hostile forces employ improvised explosive equipment and roadside bombs to not only injure American troops , but to also lure more scout troop to the area , since troops that are hit with IEDs will call for help . Since IEDs are on the ground and can be triggered by middleman , a patrol vehicle that can fly might keep soldiery safe from them , or take into account them to evacuate safely and cursorily if they ’re attack . Flying Humvees would also admit troops to get to an area where they ’re needed speedily and safely . Also , if priming troop needed intelligence operation on an foe ’s position , rather than call in for chopper support , which would take time and set aside enemies to regroup or hide , they could just get airborne and see for themselves where to concentrate their fire .
Of course , a vehicle that can keep troops safe , drive on the ground and fly is a knotty affair to organise . Keep reading to see just how a flying Humvee will work .
How Flying Humvees Will Work
The project name for the wing Humvee is Transformer , and some of the capabilities of the flying Humvee sound like they came out of the Transformer cosmos .
The most startling matter about the fly Humvee is thepilot : There wo n’t be one . DARPA specifies that the fell Humvee berobotic . The Transformer will have wings that fold up out of the roof and a folding substance rotor coil as well . A ductable fan on the back provide forward propulsion . Fuel for the Transformer will be stored in the wings .
Three main contractor are turn on the flying Humvee : Rocketdyne , Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp. Rocketdyne will make the engines and already makes jet and exaltation plane engines for the Airforce . Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractile organ in the body politic . The chief excogitation comes from AAI .
the right way now , intent are in the first phases . AAI has a $ 3 million contract from DARPA to cover feasibility study , extension studies , propulsion , materials and escape controls . The first epitome are n’t expected until 2013 – and those epitome are ask to be partial prototypes . The full development phase angle is expect to cost $ 9 million . That ’s a pretty steep total for just the first phase of the project , which is has a total budget of $ 40 million .
Retractable wings , robot original , ability to fly 250 maritime nautical mile ( 287.7 miles/463 klick ) and drive on the ground like any other military vehicle . It fathom like science fiction , but if DARPA has its way , flying Humvees will be hitting warfare zones soon .
