Comment by Andreas on June 18, 2013 at 9:45pm

How does that beast land?

Comment by Mark Kellogg on June 18, 2013 at 9:59pm

It's got skids that deploy for landing.  The skids were damaged on that first flight.  Apparently that flight was in June of 2012 and it's flown 3 or 4 times again over the last 12 months.  Boeing received more funding, $6 mil or so, which is a really "mini" project for Boeing, but it seems to be moving successfully forward.  Latest news is it will now fly with test payloads from a paying customer, the US Missile  Defense Agency.  See the link below:

http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2013...

3D Robotics Comment by Chris Anderson on June 18, 2013 at 10:04pm

My apologies for the old link. I saw the month and missed the year!

Comment by Mark Kellogg on June 18, 2013 at 10:05pm

Actually here's another link to a Boeing site with more information...it's pretty much a public relations site, but still has good info on the Phantom Eye.

http://www.boeing.com/stories/videos/vid_08_phantom_eye.html

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on June 18, 2013 at 10:15pm

Its the great endurance hope over there after they canned the Zephyr derivative.

Comment by Mark Kellogg on June 18, 2013 at 10:35pm

Well Chris and Gary, you got my attention and I started searching around for info new designs for commercial large scale drones, and there is some interesting stuff going on, see the other new Boeing project link below on the Solar Eagle.  That said, it's still much more fun to actually build, hack, and fly our own APM based stuff...

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morning_call/2013/06/drone-sales...

Comment by Jack Crossfire on June 20, 2013 at 2:37am

http://www.boeing.com/Features/2013/02/bds_phantom_eye_02_26_13.html

They actually showed it landing.  Can't wait for the next flight, in 2125.

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