The Cormorant was a
tailsitter
A tail-sitter, or tailsitter, is a type of VTOL aircraft that takes off and lands on its tail, then tilts horizontally for forward flight.
Originating in the 1920s with the inventor Nikola Tesla, the first aircraft to adopt a tail-sitter configur ...
project under development at
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...
's
Skunk Works
Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...
research facility until 2008 when its contract for development was cancelled. It is named after a
species of diving bird in reference to its intended role as a submarine-launched
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
.
Development
The
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
's s, feature large, , , tubes to launch
Trident missile
The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV). Originally developed by Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation, the missile is armed with thermonucl ...
s. Researchers at Skunk Works had the idea of creating a
drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
aircraft that can be stored in those missile tubes.
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) provided funding for tests of models and some of the systems on board the Cormorant. The tests were completed by September 2006. After the tests were complete, DARPA was to determine whether it will fund a flying
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
. While achieving goals and capabilities during tests, DARPA cancelled the contract due to budget cuts in
FY08.
Design
While in the tube, the aircraft's wings are folded around itself. The Cormorant, while floating to the surface, unfolds its wings and prepares itself for launch. Rockets then assist the aircraft with lifting off from the water's surface.
A normal aircraft would never survive the pressures that are encountered at a launch depth of 150 ft (46 m). To prevent corrosion, the Cormorant was made from
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
, and to resist crushing, empty spaces were taken up with plastic foam. The interior of the craft was filled with a pressurized inert gas. To keep the Cormorant watertight, the doors, inlets, and any covers required inflatable seals.
One principal means of defense for a submarine is the ability to remain hidden underwater. Thus having an aircraft lift off near the submarine or come directly back to the submarine after its objective is complete would give away the submarine's position. To combat this, the submarine was to slip away while the Cormorant is floating to the surface. After its objective has been completed, the submarine was to transmit rendezvous coordinates to the Cormorant. A robotic retrieval vehicle was then to fetch the drone after it has landed on the surface of the water.
External links
DARPA page on project''Popular Science'' article: Navy's swimming spy plane
{{Lockheed Martin aircraft
2000s United States experimental aircraft
Cormorant
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...
Unmanned military aircraft of the United States
Tailsitter aircraft