DARPA Takes Fresh Look at Vertical Take-Off Plane

摘要

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is planning to invest $150 million to develop a new vertical take-off and landing aircraft called the VTOL X-Plane. The project is the latest attempt to solve a long-standing engineering challenge: How to design an aircraft that can take off, land and hover like a helicopter, but that can fly at top speed once in the air. With X-Plane, DARPA hopes to spur the industry to develop all-new designs that would result in a vehicle that could travel at more than 300 knots, with better hover and cruise efficiency than current helicopters.