Boeing Australia recently achieved two more milestones on the Royal Australian Air Force’s Loyal Wingman – Advanced Development Program: weight on wheels and aircraft power on.

Boeing Australia recently achieved two more milestones on the Royal Australian Air Force’s Loyal Wingman – Advanced Development Program: weight on wheels and aircraft power on (Picture source: Boeing)

The development milestones for the unmanned aircraft come just weeks after completion of the first fuselage, allowing for rapid progress on systems installation and functional and integration testing from the aircraft’s own landing gear.

“We’re continuing at pace toward our goal of flying later this year, so that we can show our customer and the world what unmanned capability like this can do,” said Dr. Shane Arnott, program director of the  Boeing Airpower Teaming System [the other name of the aircraft]. “The strong contributions from our industry team are powering our progress.”

Rendering of Boeing Airpower Teaming System in flight (Picture source: Boeing)

The first Loyal Wingman prototype will provide key lessons towards production of the ATS, which Boeing Australia has developed for the global defence market. Customers will be able to tailor ATS sensors and systems based on their own defence and industrial objectives.

ATS features artificial intelligence to fly independently or in support of manned aircraft while maintaining a safe distance between other aircraft. It will have a range of more than 3,000 km, giving it a four to five-hour combat endurance, well beyond that of manned fighter-sized aircraft.