Boeing, NASA developing unmanned, extended-flight plane

By Cory Nealon Craig Nickol’s job, helping to build a plane that will fly nonstop for five years, is often met with skepticism. “The standard reaction people have when they see this is, Are you joking?” said Nickol, an engineer at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. While it may sound like a science fiction movie, Boeing Co. and NASA are developing a prototype of the plane under an $89 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Dubbed SolarEagle, the unmanned plane is similar to Predator drones used by the U.S. military. But unlike drones, the SolarEagle would operate on solar power, enabling it to fly continuously above Earth at 60,000 feet or higher. Preliminary designs look like a gigantic toothpick sculpture. Its 400-foot wingspan would be more than twice that of a standard 747 plane. The size is necessary, Nickol said, to attach the multitude of solar panels that will power the plane’s electric system. Boeing beat out two competing aerospace companies — Lockheed Martin and Aurora Flight Sciences — to win the contract, which is administered under DARPA’s Vulture program. The company is tweaking its design with the help of NASA, which manages the technical aspects of the contract. The prototype is scheduled […]
Boeing, NASA developing unmanned, extended-flight plane