Taranis drone flies in stealth mode
In a move which brings the prospect of an unmanned war plane that much closer to reality, BAE Systems has announced that its Taranis Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle demonstrator has successfully completed a second phase of flight testing.
Taranis, claimed to be the most advanced aircraft ever built by British engineers, flew in a full stealth configuration during this latest set of trials, making it almost invisible to radar.
In order to achieve this, the BAE team changed all antennas on the aircraft to signature control variants and the air data boom on the nose of Taranis was removed.
Following these modifications, Taranis used a specially designed system which allowed the aircraft to generate a full set of flight data, without the use of an external probe or boom.
The plane, named after the Celtic god of thunder, also made use of a cutting edge communications system to ensure it was able to stay in touch with its mission commander without giving away its position to the enemy.
Nigel Whitehead, BAE's group managing director, said: "The first flight of Taranis last year was a significant milestone for UK aviation and this latest development underlines the UK' s lead in unmanned air systems.
"The engineering data gathered from the latest phase of trials will help us develop the stealth technologies on Taranis further."
