EAGL – The Plastic Galaxy

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/air/jdw/jdw080331_1_n.shtml

Concerns about the growing costs of jet fuel and the dependence of the United States on foreign oil have prompted the US Air Force (USAF) to dramatically accelerate research into aircraft made from composite and other advanced materials that can fly farther on less fuel.

The USAF’s latest advanced materials project, known as the Efficient Affordable Global Lift (EAGL) flight demonstrator, will aim to construct and fly the biggest advanced materials aircraft ever built by the US military – in just 36 months.

The EAGL, which could be made from elements such as plastic, aluminium and glass composites, is expected to offer a fuel-efficient and cheap alternative to the heavy-duty Lockheed Martin C-5B Galaxy transport: a massive, fuel-hungry aircraft with an operating weight of 374,000 lb (169,643 kg) unloaded.

The goal of the EAGL programme is to achieve dramatic cost and energy efficiencies while still surpassing the C-5B in terms of payload, range and speed.

USAF officials believe the key to building high-performance but efficient aircraft such as the EAGL may be composites, which, when properly integrated into an aircraft manufacturing process, can dramatically reduce aircraft weight.

here’s the actual notice:
http://www.airforcetechmatch.com/DOD/Opportunities/FedBizView.aspx?id=PKV-08-03

the AF has been HoA (Hooked-on-Antonov) and is looking for some way to eliminate their dependency

C-5 – too old and unreliable and expensive to maintain
C-17 – too small and too short-ranged

I really hope they can pull off something just a tad bigger than the An-124 for a reasonable (haha) price

Hey, now that EADS has won the tanker bid, maybe Antonov could win this one!