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DARPA scraps XS-1 military space plane project after Boeing drops out
Live Science ^ | Mike Wall

Posted on 01/25/2020 7:17:32 AM PST by BenLurkin

The aerospace giant had named its hypersonic concept vehicle Phantom Express. That moniker is now oddly appropriate, since the spacecraft will never take physical form.

Experimental Spaceplane, previously known as XS-1, aimed to nurture the development of a reusable vehicle that could help loft satellites cheaply and rapidly. Indeed, DARPA wanted the craft to be capable of launching 3,000-lb. (1,360 kilograms) satellites into orbit 10 times in 10 days, at a cost envisioned to drop eventually to around $5 million per mission.

DARPA initiated Experimental Spaceplane in 2013. In 2017, the agency selected Boeing for the second and third phases of the program. Boeing won out over two other teams — one a partnership between Masten Space Systems and the now-defunct XCOR Aerospace, and the other a collaboration involving Northrop Grumman and Virgin Galactic.

During Phase 2, Boeing's Phantom Works division — which built the U.S. Air Force's two robotic X-37B space planes — was to design, build and test a technology-demonstration vehicle. Phase 3 would have involved test flights of Phantom Express, with 12 to 15 such demonstration missions originally targeted to take place in 2020.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: boeing; bribery; bribes; corruption; crookedprocurement; darpa; elonmusk; falcon9; falconheavy; hypersonic; phantomexpress; spacex; x37b; xs1
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1 posted on 01/25/2020 7:17:32 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Yeah. Boeing’s debacle with their meat and potatoes airline planes prevents them from doing a lot of things. They’re stymied with their 737 MAX folly


2 posted on 01/25/2020 7:21:37 AM PST by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: BenLurkin; Army Air Corps; CondoleezzaProtege; MeganC

Ping!


3 posted on 01/25/2020 7:22:56 AM PST by KC_Lion
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To: BenLurkin

Boeing needs far fewer MBAs and a good many more engineers.

Oh, and they can scrap ALL of this diversity crap. Either someone can design/build/repair or they cannot. Testing will reveal the truth. Failures can go to a place where talent is not an issue: politics/journalist/marshmallow studies profs.


4 posted on 01/25/2020 7:25:05 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: KC_Lion

It seems like every week this year Boeing planes are adding to their list of debacles. Whether it’s a plane needing time spill jet fuel on CA schoolchildren to save its engine for landing. Or a smoke filling a Ryan Air cabin.

Airbus? Not so much right now...

Something is amiss at deep state Boeing at every level. Drain the Swamp.


5 posted on 01/25/2020 7:26:10 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: BenLurkin

Boeing should be eliminated from further bids until they clean house.


6 posted on 01/25/2020 7:31:51 AM PST by caltaxed (ake)
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To: BenLurkin

I hope DARPA is smart enough to put this out for bid again. There are more players than in 2013 that could fill the role better than Boeing...


7 posted on 01/25/2020 7:32:13 AM PST by kosciusko51
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To: Da Coyote
...Boeing needs far fewer MBAs and a good many more engineers...

I think they are already screwed.

Once a technology and engineering driven company is infested with MBAs it is very rare for it to recover.

8 posted on 01/25/2020 7:36:57 AM PST by CurlyDave
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To: BenLurkin; phantomworker

Anyone heard from phantomworker lately?


9 posted on 01/25/2020 7:43:31 AM PST by null and void (The government wants to disarm us after 243 yrs 'cuz they plan to do things we would shoot them for!)
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To: BenLurkin

We built a plane that could go to the edge of space (the SR-71), surely technology has progressed enough where we can build a space plane. Government just needs to get out of the way...


10 posted on 01/25/2020 7:54:15 AM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
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To: BenLurkin

If it is Boeing, I ain’t going.


11 posted on 01/25/2020 7:55:39 AM PST by nwrep
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To: BenLurkin
Boeing needs to re-evaluate its relationship with the concept of gravity. Being an 'aero"-space industrial giant you figure that they wouldnt lose sight of this but........

Boeing is toast.

12 posted on 01/25/2020 8:07:12 AM PST by Delta 21 (Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true.... ~~ Donald J. Trump)
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To: Vaquero

Angle of attack indicators don’t work too well in space where every which way is neither up or down. Boeing suits are stymied. /snicker


13 posted on 01/25/2020 8:24:03 AM PST by Don Corleone (The truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“Whether it’s a plane needing time spill jet fuel on CA schoolchildren to save its engine for landing.”

Look, the emergency happened shortly after take-off, so the jet was too heavy to immediately land and had to dump fuel.

I was on an American flight out of Orlando and we had an emergency and dumped fuel to land safely.

When flying the F-15E I experienced an emergency after takeoff and had to dump fuel over St Louis.

Dumping fuel is no big deal, done all the time and no, it doesn’t come gushing down like rain. Nope.

Fuel dumped turns to mist and blown every which-way by winds aloft and the speed to the jet. Look, take a cup of water, stick your arm with the water outside the car and dump the water at, say, 60MPH. Watch it immediately turn to a mist, and that just at 60MPH. Now imagine you are at 350MPH and dump water/fuel. Poof. . .it turns to mist immediately.

I place no weight on any person that claims they had fuel dumped on them and they could smell it or see it or feel it. Nope, no way.

The ONLY time I ever smelled and felt something that was sprayed from the air was when I was in my car and a crop-duster flew over a field alongside the road I was on. The mist by that crop-duster making a pass, drifted over the road and it was like breathing a gawd-awful pesticide.

I despise Boeings “leadership,” for sure, no loyalty there. But dumping fuel is something most all commercial heavy jets have the capability to do, not just Boeing jets. And remember, the aircrew up-front fly the jet and do what they do based upon their best judgment. They don’t give a damn about anything else but getting down safely for ALL (which includes them). And aircrews don’t work for Boeing.

I like their commercial jets, especially when flying Business or First Class on an international flight.

Don’t like or trust their “leadership”


14 posted on 01/25/2020 9:09:07 AM PST by Hulka
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To: jeffc

Not government. . .LAWYERS.

IMHO.


15 posted on 01/25/2020 9:09:56 AM PST by Hulka
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To: kosciusko51

It was a technology demonstrator, designing something that was never built before. DARPA was looking at developing technology and perhaps the technology was found to be unworkable. This is what usually kills most technology demonstrators.

It is good we set the bar high so we push technology further and/or find new technologies or maybe finding the technology envisioned by DARPA was found to be unworkable.


16 posted on 01/25/2020 9:14:59 AM PST by Hulka
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To: Da Coyote

“Boeing needs far fewer MBAs and a good many more engineers.”

Indeed.

Most engineering is out-sourced. Every now and then a crop of recent university graduated Boeing engineer hires are paraded through during their orientation and usually the crop is around a dozen or so. I made a point of counting diversity points. Less than half of the recent hires were white males, most were a combination of females and minorities. (And the minorities/females usually had a higher entry salary than the white males. Seems women and minority engineers are in demand).


17 posted on 01/25/2020 9:21:41 AM PST by Hulka
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To: KC_Lion

That’s what THEY want you to believe... ;)


18 posted on 01/25/2020 9:44:33 AM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: BenLurkin

If Boeing is out is Lockheed in?


19 posted on 01/25/2020 10:13:43 AM PST by puppypusher ( The world is going to the dogs.)
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To: Hulka

perhaps the technology was found to be unworkable.


And maybe DARPA discovered it was already obsolete or had already been done by some other group or the other group was further along. There are all sorts of reasons to speculate about.


20 posted on 01/25/2020 10:17:47 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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