Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA
Northrop Grumman's Ryan Aeronautical Center has purchased the only Proteus manned high-altitude long- endurance (HALE) aircraft so far produced by Scaled Composites. The move appears to be linked to the development of the company's RQ-4 Global Hawk HALE unmanned air vehicle (UAV).
The deal was sealed last year, but revealed to Flight International by Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems' president Ralph Crosby. Northrop plans to use the Proteus as a test platform for further HALE research in parallel with Global Hawk development, and to help market equipment created forthe UAV.
It is unclear if the deal includes full rights to the Proteus design, though Scaled Composites is to retain a supporting role.
Crosby says the Proteus, with its "very flexible payload capacity", could be used to demonstrate Global Hawk systems with the customer on board. "If you are going to persuade a customer of the capability, putting him in the airplane sometimes helps," he adds.
Ryan vice president Bob Mitchell says the Proteus will be a useful low-risk testbed: "Why fly Global Hawk to test something when you can fly a cheaper platform to do the same thing?" he says.
The Proteus was developed as a prototype manned platform to support commercial airborne telecoms relay services offered by Angel Technologies in conjunction with Raytheon Systems.
Angel chief executive Marc Arnold says the sale will have "no adverse impact" on its plans - trials above Los Angeles last year having shown that the airborne relay concept is commercially sound.
The terms of the Northrop Grumman purchase provides Angel with access to the prototype for further trials, plus the manufacturing rights to support commercial telecom services, he adds.
Source: Flight International
