Lockheed Unveils Secret Polecat UAV Design

Lockheed Unveils Secret Polecat UAV Design
By Amy Butler
07/19/2006 07:00:31 AM

FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin today unveiled a secret unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototype designed to demonstrate technologies that will later be applied to the U.S. Air Force’s Long Range Strike program.

The announcement came during a briefing delivered by Frank Cappuccio, Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President and General Manager Advanced Development Programs and Strategic Planning, at the Farnborough Air Show near London.

Lockheed Martin’s twin-engine, 90-ft. wingspan UAV has performed two flights below 15,000 ft. However, the tail-less “Horton” flying wing design — similar to that of the B-2. Flight testing of the so-called Polecat is expected to reach increasingly higher altitudes this summer.

The company designed the single prototype for about $27 million and officials say it has not led to a production vehicle.

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the rapid prototyping arm of the military aircraft making giant, began designing the UAV in March 2003 and had it ready for first flight 18 months later. Program officials say an unusually rainy season at the Nellis Test Range forced them to slow their flight plans.

The UAV can carry 1,000 lbs. of weapons or sensors in a bay on the underbelly of the aircraft. Gross takeoff weight is 9,000 lbs.

Skunks Works officials are in talks with payload providers to explore various sensors that could be demonstrated on the vehicle in the coming years.

The UAV’s endurance is about four hours with fuel in one tank in the center of the vehicle. Fuel carrying wings could later be added to boost its endurance, although company officials say it is not needed for planned tests.

A new, low-temperature manufacturing process contributes to Polecat’s design, and the Skunk Works wants to explore the behavior of those composites at altitudes higher than 60,000 ft. That altitude is greater than those previously attempted with a flying wing design, program officials say.

Engineers cured composites for Polecat at 150 degrees F. and later post-cured them. Normally, composites require an autoclave and 350 degrees F. for curing. The vehicle is also made from less than 200 parts, and adhesives are used rather than rivets, decreasing the amount of labor needed to construct it — that approach also contributed to a lower radar cross section inherent in the design.

Skunk Works also is pursuing advanced flight autonomy capabilities for the UAV in an effort to reduce mission supervision and the associated costly manpower needed to handle such vehicles. Officials say they expect to wring cost out of the airframe, although the price of engines, sensors and avionics are expected to remain constant.

The Long Range Strike program for the Air Force continues with contracts for Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing to examine separate manned and unmanned designs, optimized for both supersonic and subsonic flight. However, firm requirements have yet to be set as the Air Force examines the findings of an analysis of alternatives this summer. The Air Force is expected to extend the design work into Fiscal 2007 lead to the start of a formal system design and development phase in 2010. The new system should have initial operational capability no later than 2018.