Boeing to Offer A160T Hummingbird in Response to NAVAIR Request for Proposal

ST. LOUIS — The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny [NYSE: BA] is prepar­ing to offer a solu­tion based on the world record-set­ting A160T Hum­ming­bird unmanned rotor­craft in response to the U.S. Naval Air Sys­tems Command’s Request for Pro­pos­al (RFP) for Car­go Unmanned Air Sys­tems (UAS) Ser­vices. The RFP calls for gov­ern­ment-owned, con­trac­tor-oper­at­ed UAS ser­vices for the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

In March, under con­tract from the Marine Corps Warfight­ing Lab­o­ra­to­ry (MCWL), Boe­ing demon­strat­ed the A160T’s abil­i­ty to deliv­er at least 2,500 pounds of car­go from one sim­u­lat­ed for­ward-oper­at­ing base to anoth­er base 75 nau­ti­cal miles away in less than the required six hours. The sim­u­lat­ed mis­sion deliv­ered 1,250-pound sling loads over two 150-nau­ti­cal-mile round trips, with the A160T oper­at­ing autonomous­ly on a pre­pro­grammed mission. 

“Based on Boeing’s suc­cess in the MCWL demon­stra­tion, we are con­vinced we have the right solu­tion to bring this impor­tant capa­bil­i­ty to the Marines in the field,” said Vic Swe­berg, Boe­ing direc­tor of Unmanned Air­borne Sys­tems. “We are pre­pared to offer the best response to the Marines to sup­port their ongo­ing efforts in Afghanistan.” 

The A160T has a 2,500-pound pay­load capac­i­ty. It fea­tures a unique opti­mum-speed-rotor tech­nol­o­gy that sig­nif­i­cant­ly improves over­all per­for­mance effi­cien­cy by adjust­ing the rotor’s speed at dif­fer­ent alti­tudes, gross weights and cruise speeds. The autonomous unmanned air­craft, mea­sur­ing 35 feet long with a 36-foot rotor diam­e­ter, has hov­ered at 20,000 feet and cruised at more than 140 knots. The A160T estab­lished a world endurance record in its class in 2008 with an 18.7‑hour unre­fu­eled flight. 

Boe­ing start­ed its A160T pro­duc­tion line at its plant in Mesa, Ariz., in March. 

A unit of The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is one of the world’s largest defense, space and secu­ri­ty busi­ness­es spe­cial­iz­ing in inno­v­a­tive and capa­bil­i­ties-dri­ven cus­tomer solu­tions, and the world’s largest and most ver­sa­tile man­u­fac­tur­er of mil­i­tary air­craft. Head­quar­tered in St. Louis, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is a $34 bil­lion busi­ness with 68,000 employ­ees world­wide. Fol­low us on Twit­ter: @BoeingDefense.

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Con­tact:
Marc Sklar
Boe­ing Mil­i­tary Air­craft
480–773-5266
marc.a.sklar@boeing.com

Source:
Boe­ing Company 

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