Message posted by Smythers (Member since 04/27/2023) on August 17, 2023 at 15:46:34 PST:
Great Horned Owl, crossed over into SHEPARD, and *piff pam poof!* vanished. Just like that. // The Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD) program is an existing option to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Great Horned Owl (GHO) contract. The SHEPARD program is based on a DARPA X-Prime construct that takes emerging technologies and burns down system-level integration risks to provide a minimum viable product to meet an urgent operational need. // The specific propulsion subsystems that GHO's Phase 1 will focus on are: (1) fuel-to-electricity devices using an advanced combustion engine directly coupled to alternator/generator concepts and (2) electricity-to-thrust devices utilizing innovative electric motor driven propulsor systems. // Now this is why it is critical to sit back, take notes, and make sure that you revisit articles of interest on a regular basis. Because it all vanished. Then General Atomics came out and said...
The anticipated innovation in Phase 1 of the program is a propulsion system that will quietly generate electrical power from liquid hydrocarbon fuel (specifically gasoline or diesel) and enable purely electrically driven quiet flight.
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