Darpa: two teams for Liberty Lifter programme
Two teams - General Atomics working with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation and Aurora Flight Sciences working with Gibbs & Cox and Recon Craft - will develop designs for Darpa’s Liberty Lifter seaplane wing-in-ground effect full-scale demonstrator.
The Liberty Lifter programme aims to demonstrate a leap-ahead in operational capability by designing, building, floating, and flying a long-range, low-cost X-Plane capable of seaborne strategic and tactical heavy lift.
The planned Liberty Lifter demonstrator will be a large flying boat similar in size and capacity to the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.
Goals include take-off and land in sea state 4, sustained on-water operation up to sea state 5, and extended flight close to the water in ground effect with the capability to fly out of ground effect at altitudes up to around 3,050 above sea level. (cj)