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neptune
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 Posted: May 11, 2011 - 06:02 PM
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Elite 1K
Joined: Oct 24, 2008 - 01:03 AM
Posts: 1136
Location: Houston
Status: Offline
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http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/
The appearance of the Northrop Grumman Firebird, which was spotted on The DEW Line last Tuesday and identified as Firebird by Aviation Week on Thursday, raises many thoughts.
Among them: too bad the Scaled Composites Model 355 didn't exist six years ago, or the army's extended-range multi-purpose [ERMP] competition could have been a lot more interesting.
The Firebird seems built not so much to beat the air force's MQ-1B Predator but the army's MQ-1C Gray Eagle. It also fills what has become a curiously yawning gap between two sub-categories within the class of medium-altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The chart below shows the Firebird is the first UAS to populate the gap between roughly 1,500kg and 4,500kg for maximum take-off weight. With a 2,200 maximum take-off weight, the Firebird is still at the low-end of that range. |
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 Posted: May 20, 2013 - 8:29 AM
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