TYLER ROGOWAY
So called "bleeding edge" boutique aircraft design house Scaled Composites, which is now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, unveiled a previously unknown manned test aircraft today conservatively named Model 401.From Scaled Composites' press release:
"Scaled Composites is proud to announce the rollout and first flight of its most recent project, experimental aircraft Model 401. Scaled worked with a proprietary customer to build two vehicles to demonstrate advanced, low-cost manufacturing techniques and to provide aircraft for research flight services to industry partners and the United States government.The two vehicles were designed to be identical in outer mold line and performance, with each aircraft powered by a single Pratt & Whitney JTD-15D-5D engine with 3,045 pounds of thrust.
The vehicles are capable of flying Mach 0.6 with a service ceiling of 30,000 feet and have a wingspan of 38 feet and are 38 feet long. They have an empty weight of 4,000 pounds and a maximum take-off weight of 8,000 pounds with an endurance of up to three hours.Aaron Cassebeer, Project Engineer said, “This is such an exciting time for us. Scaled is at the forefront of experimental aircraft development and I am fortunate enough to have a front row seat.” He went on to say this about the mission, “Today was a great day for our test team. We had a great flight and we are looking forward to the future test program.”This successful first flight is the beginning of the flight test phase for vehicle number 1. The Scaled team plans to continue envelope expansion on the first aircraft as they move toward first flight of the second Model 401 vehicle."
The aircraft has an extremely similar design as General Atomics' Avenger/Predator C unmanned combat air vehicle, albeit about half the scale. So it is likely that the customer Cassebeer mentions is General Atomics, but we can't say that with absolute certainty.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15058/check-out-scaled-composites-new-exotic-and-stealthy-test-aircraft
