Air Warfare
DARPA wants a heavy cargo plane that can land at sea
By Stephen Losey
Thursday, Feb 2
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has chosen General Atomics and Aurora Flight Sciences to design an experimental heavy transport aircraft that could land and take off at sea. General Atomics' design has an unusual dual-hull design. (General Atomics)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has tapped two companies to design, and possibly build, an experimental seaplane that can transport large amounts of cargo on the water.
General Atomics and Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing, will develop their own competing designs for DARPA’s mobility seaplane program, DARPA said Wednesday. DARPA has dubbed this program the Liberty Lifter Seaplane Wing-in-Ground Effect, or Liberty Lifter for short.
DARPA wants this aircraft to be a long-range, low-cost aircraft around the same size and capacity as the C-17 Globemaster, which can carry more than 170,000 pounds of cargo, including a 69-ton M1 Abrams main battle tank, armored vehicles, trucks or trailers. The C-17 can also carry and airdrop 102 paratroopers and their gear, 34 patients on litters, or 54 ambulatory patients and their attendants.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/02/02/darpa-wants-a-heavy-cargo-plane-that-can-land-at-sea/
