DARPA / Northrop Grumman XRQ-73 Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD)

HyFonic

HyFonic

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Always a good day when there's a new X-plane.

shepard%20619X316%20copy.jpg

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-06-24
 
Sounds like a newer RQ-170. How they go from 170 back to 73 though. . .
 
Hydroman said:
Since it's XRQ-73, could also be related to CCA as well.
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The article lays out the lineage -- it's related to Great Horned Owl and XRQ-72, an experimental demonstrator that might have led to a covert surveillance asset. Very much not in the same class as the CCAs.
 
Notice how it is probably deployable with what seems to be a folding/removeable wing mechanism hidden below the wing´s skin band that is removeable like an access hatch.
The belly sensor looks like a planar aesa* antenna positioned where best protected by the landing gear. But how curious this is to have such a biffy one for that vehicle size (they really wanted a conventional landing).
I wonder also what are those nostrils and why they are so pronounced (edit: stupid me, those are the carburettor or/and fuel cell air inlets*).

For the aerodynamics nerd here, it look like a thick NACA 66 something series wing that have great alpha range to cruise optimally, with less trim, at various speed and altitude. The round LE is a give away (for the pitch travel).

*just noticed the drain pipe there that looks too odd, at the lowest point, to be for condensed air. I would bet it´s for condensation water, hence for a vehicle powered by a fuel cell ;)
 
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TomS said:
The article lays out the lineage -- it's related to Great Horned Owl and XRQ-72, an experimental demonstrator that might have led to a covert surveillance asset. Very much not in the same class as the CCAs.
Click to expand...

Great Horned Owl - an IARPA program - was XRQ-72.They were not separate things.
XRQ-72 was contracted to Northrop, who subcontracted to Scaled Composites. Scaled earned over $90m on this program, making it one of the largest (in $) programs they have ever done. For that amount of money it seems likely that more than one was built.

IARPA - GHO

The Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) role for UAVs is dependent upon the ability of the UAV to do its mission without the adversary being able to counter it. For many such ISR applications, the acoustic signature of the UAV alerts the adversary to the UAVs presence and can...
www.iarpa.gov www.iarpa.gov

XRQ-72 and XRQ-73 are slow , quiet aircraft with very limited payloads. Not exactly CCA material.
 
quellish said:
Great Horned Owl - an IARPA program - was XRQ-72.They were not separate things.
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Yeah, I was thinking of GHO as the program and XRQ-72 as the product of it, but that's probably not a meaningful distinction.
 
Is this tacit acknowledgment that a peer has achieved the ability to detect and track targets in the relatively austere and cold high altitude realm with IR?
 
It's going to have a tiny if not no IR signature too, you can muffle and cool a generator exhaust so much easier than a jet turbine expelling heat.
 
snark:
A few dabs of paint and the nose-job's a Kilroy...
Literally, 'Kilroy Was Here, But You didn't Notice' ??
/
 
Is "Shepard" supposed to be an acronym? A tribute to an eponymous pilot?
Or is the dog in the program badge a shepherd dog? (in which case of course they would have the spelling totally wrong....
 
Just for the hell of it, could be Shepard Pie, someone was hungry during the naming meeting or it's the actual program code name, Project Shepard Pie. Since this is a hybrid wing, could it be plant-based? Like my Wife always says, plant-based, its made at the plant.
 
Hydroman said:
Just for the hell of it, could be Shepard Pie, someone was hungry during the naming meeting or it's the actual program code name, Project Shepard Pie. Since this is a hybrid wing, could it be plant-based? Like my Wife always says, plant-based, its made at the plant.
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It would still be SHEPHERD pie, not Shepard, which is a surname.
 
I would think it comes from an Acronym. For example, Hybrid Electrical Propulsion could be the central initials of the S.H.E.P.A.R.D program.

For example, Small Hybrid Electrical Propulsion Autonomous Recon Drone for something that would put the focus on HEP but also AI.
 
TomcatViP said:
I would think it comes from an Acronym. For example, Hybrid Electrical Propulsion could be the central initials of the S.H.E.P.A.R.D program.

For example, Small Hybrid Electrical Propulsion Autonomous Recon Drone for something that would put the focus on HEP but also AI.
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Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD)

It is in every single article about the announcement. RTFA, folks!
 
sublight_ said:
I wonder if XRQ-73 is using something like this:
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That's a strange thing to wonder about. The various DARPA press releases, contracts, etc. mention the propulsion system vendors (Brayton Energy, EaglePicher) and the program is an extension of the existing GHO program which used the same vendors. Much has been published about the propulsion system, which is nothing like the Astro Mechanica system.
 
Not sure if the Scaled Composites connection was mentioned here before. If so, I don't recall it:
NGC uncrewed X–Plane for DARPA
Northrop Grumman has announced the design and construction of the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD) vehicle. The uncrewed air system developed for DARPA recently received its official X–plane designation of XRQ–73. Built in collaboration with Scaled Composites, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, the XRQ–73 SHEPARD is a DARPA “X–prime” programme leveraging hybrid electric
architecture and component technologies to quickly mature a new mission–focused aircraft design with propulsion architecture and power class for the Department of Defence.
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Source: Vayu Aerospace & Defence Review V/2024
 
Stargazer said:
Not sure if the Scaled Composites connection was mentioned here before. If so, I don't recall it:

Source: Vayu Aerospace & Defence Review V/2024
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XRQ-73 is being doing as an extension of the XRQ-72 Great Horned Owl program, which was mostly Scaled (working under NG). XRQ-73 is largely a "missionized" or operational version of the GHO.

The Scaled Model 406 "Ardent Dragon" :
Was a scaled-down version of the XRQ-72 Great Horned Owl, but the Northrop Little Horned Owl, also done with Scaled, was a completely different design.
 
quellish said:
XRQ-73 is being doing as an extension of the XRQ-72 Great Horned Owl program, which was mostly Scaled (working under NG). XRQ-73 is largely a "missionized" or operational version of the GHO.
Click to expand...
Indeed, so I guess it's pretty logical.
quellish said:
The Scaled Model 406 "Ardent Dragon" :
Was a scaled-down version of the XRQ-72 Great Horned Owl,
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm the one who uncovered that obscure type!
quellish said:
but the Northrop Little Horned Owl, also done with Scaled, was a completely different design.
Click to expand...
I didn't know the LHO was also related to Scaled, but again, I guess it's logical. Thanks!
 

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