Aviation Week reports, “An air-launched missile-carrying uncrewed aircraft developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for DARPA’s LongShot project has been designated the X-68A ahead of flight tests expected by year-end. The LongShot is designed to be carried by fighters and bombers, or as a palletized munition on airlifters, and launched to fly ahead and engage targets with its own internally carried air-to-air missiles. The goal is to increase launch platform survivability and extend combat reach.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Tag: X-Plane
DARPA Announces 2026 X-plane Competition for New Uncrewed Cargo Drone
Flight Global reports, “The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to launch the Lift Challenge in 2026, seeking novel designs for uncrewed aircraft that can carry payloads more than four times their own weight.”
Aurora Unveils High-Speed VTOL X-Plane Concept Design
Aviation Week reports, “Aurora Flight Sciences on Oct. 8 unveiled new details of a notional operational variant of the fan-in-wing concept it is proposing for a high-speed, vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) X-Plane. The operational version of the Boeing-owned company’s candidate for a DARPA demonstrator program would boast nearly the same wingspan and payload weight of a Lockheed Martin C-130J, yet fly up to 90 kt. faster and be able to take off and land vertically like a helicopter.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
NASA Begins Search for Sustainable X-Plane Demo
Aviation Week reports that NASA “has launched its hunt for a large-scale experimental aircraft to demonstrate the airframe configuration and technologies for a sustainable single-aisle-class airliner that could enter service by the mid-2030s.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)