Alliant Techsystems Outrider tactical unmanned air vehicles being test flown by the US Army have been grounded after the failure of a UAV Engines 801R gasoline powerplant during a flight on 9 September at the company's test centre in Glasscock, Texas.
The fleet will remain grounded until the Joint Tactical UAV Programme (JTUAV) Management Office completes its accident investigation.
Alliant says a 12min flight had been completed and the automatic landing sequence had been initiated when the engine failure occurred. Ground personnel took control of the air vehicle, but failed an attempted manual landing.
US Army Col Mike Howell, the JTUAV programme manager, says the Outrider's UK-built powerplant did not run out of fuel.
Another Outrider crashed on 10 August at the same location when the powerplant cut out at the same moment that an independent flight termination system was switched on in a flight test chase aircraft. Flight testing resumed after an enquiry showed the crash was not caused by a problem with the UAV.
The latest crash comes as the Department of Defense Joint Requirements Oversight Council is scheduled to meet on 24 September, to determine whether the Outrider programme should enter low-rate initial production.
Source: Flight International
