By Denise Chow, Staff Writer | March 20, 2014 03:15pm ET
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with developing new technologies for the military — is looking to make "radical improvements" to futuristic-looking, helicopter-type vehicles that are designed to take off, hover and land vertically.
The agency has awarded funds to four companies to develop unmanned vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, as part of the first phase of DARPA's VTOL Experimental Plane, or VTOL X-Plane, program. Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, The Boeing Company, Karem Aircraft, Inc., and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, received contracts to design vehicles that can achieve a higher top speed without sacrificing range or efficiency, according to DARPA officials.
"The proposals we've chosen aim to create new technologies and incorporate existing ones that VTOL designs so far have not succeeded in developing," program manager Ashish Bagai said in a statement. "We're eager to see if the performers can integrate their ideas into designs that could potentially achieve the performance goals we've set."
