Free Republic

<p>The U.S. Navy plans to begin testing a prototype for an unmanned underwater glider with a flying-wing design in March, according to the Office of Naval Research, which funds the project.</p> <p>If successful, tests of the Flying Wing Underwater Glider could lead to a new generation of gliders that researchers expect to be the largest and fastest to date. They would be capable of traveling thousands of miles under ocean waves, quietly conducting surveillance and gathering data for military and civilian purposes, researchers said. "Gliders have the potential of providing long-endurance mobile platforms for employing sensors," said Thomas Franklin Swean Jr., team leader for Ocean Engineering and Marine Systems Science and Technology at the Office of Naval Research, which has spent $500,000 on the project so far. "The endurance is measured in months rather than hours or days."</p>