The Northrop Grumman Switchblade was a proposed variable sweep

oblique wing An oblique wing (also called a slewed wing) is a variable geometry wing concept. On an aircraft so equipped, the wing is designed to rotate on center pivot, so that one tip is swept forward while the opposite tip is swept aft. By changing its swee ...

unmanned aerial vehicle 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 controll ...

studied by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military tech ...

for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The programme was cancelled in 2008, without any aircraft having flown.Wired.com-DARPA kills Switchblade
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History

During WWII,

Messerschmitt Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in parti ...

and

Blohm + Voss Blohm is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hans Blohm C.M. (born 1927), photographer and author * Hermann Blohm (1848–1930), German businessman and co-founder of German company Blohm+Voss * Linn Blohm (born 1992), Swedish hand ...

studied the variable-geometry

as a solution for high-speed jet aircraft, respectively as the Messerschmitt P.1109 and

Blohm & Voss P 202 The Blohm & Voss P.202 was an unusual design study for a variable-geometry jet fighter during World War II. It was the first design to incorporate a slewed wing (also known as an oblique or scissor wing) in which one side swept forward and the ot ...

. From 1979 to 1982,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

successfully flew the piloted AD-1 demonstrator aircraft which validated the concept. The United States

Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency 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 ...

(DARPA) subsequently awarded

a US$10.3 million contract for risk reduction and preliminary planning for an

oblique Oblique may refer to: * an alternative name for the character usually called a slash (punctuation) ( / ) *Oblique angle, in geometry *Oblique triangle, in geometry * Oblique lattice, in geometry * Oblique leaf base, a characteristic shape of the b ...

flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...

demonstrator. The program aimed at producing a technology demonstrator aircraft to explore the various challenges which the radical design entails. The proposed aircraft would be a purely flying wing (an aircraft with no other auxiliary surfaces such as tails, canards or a

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

) where the wing is swept with one side of the aircraft forward, and one backwards in an asymmetric fashion. This aircraft configuration is believed to give it a combination of high speed, long range and long endurance.Oblique Flying Wing, Supersonic Aerodynamics
The program entailed two phases. Phase I explored the theory and result in a conceptual design, while Phase II would have resulted in the design, manufacture and flight test of an aircraft. The outcome of the program would have resulted in data which could then be used when considering future military aircraft designs. Flight of the Switchblade was scheduled for 2020 with its 61-meter long

perpendicular to its engines like a typical aircraft. As the aircraft increased speed, the wing begins to pivot, so that when it breaks the sound barrier, its wing has swiveled 60 degrees, with one wingtip pointing forward and the other backward. The change in

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dy ...

and the general structure would have made the aircraft very difficult to control for a human being. The plane was to be fully controlled by an on-board computer controlling flight parameters. Following Phase I the aircraft concept was cancelled in 2008.

Specifications

References

* Rose, Bill, 2010. Secret Projects: Flying Wings and Tailless Aircraft. Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing

External links

Switchblade A switchblade (aka switch knife, automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, flick knife, Stiletto, flick blade, or spring knife (Sprenger,Benson, Ragnar (1989). ''Switchblade: The Ace of Blades''. Paladin Press. pp. 1–14. . The sw ...

Abandoned military aircraft engine projects of the United States Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Twinjets Variable-sweep-wing aircraft Oblique-wing aircraft Tailless aircraft DARPA

History

Specifications

See also

References

External links