Concept art of the new XRQ-73 (Credit: DARPA) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has revealed the official designation of a next-generation X-plane it currently has under development. The aircraft, now officially dubbed the XRQ-73, is part of DARPA’s Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD) program, which the agency defines as an X-prime program. SHEPARD program manager Steve Komadina said DARPA X-prime programs aim “to take emerging technologies and burn down system-level integration risks to quickly mature a new missionized long endurance aircraft design that can be fielded quickly.” By utilizing existing hybrid electric architecture and other related...
