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DARPA, Aurora Finish Flight Tests Of Subscale VTOL X-Plane

By Marc Selinger

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Aurora Flight Sciences, which are developing an unmanned, tilt-wing, vertical-takeoff-and-landing experimental airplane (VTOL X-Plane) called LightningStrike, have a achieved a significant milestone by completing flight tests of a subscale vehicle demonstrator (SVD).The tests, which ended in early March at Webster Outlying Field in Southern Maryland, demonstrated the ability of the 325-pound SVD to fly vertically, tilt its wings and canards to fly horizontally, and then return to vertical flight, DARPA and Aurora…

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