The Northrop Grumman Firebird is an intelligence gathering aircraft

Reconnaissance aircraft

A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance.-History:The majority of World War I aircraft were reconnaissance designs...

 designed by Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...

's Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States...

 design shop which can be flown remotely or by a pilot. It was unveiled on May 9, 2011. It was first flown in February 2011 and is considered to be an optionally piloted vehicle

Optionally Piloted Vehicle

An Optionally Piloted Vehicle is a hybrid between a conventional aircraft and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle .Able to fly with or without a human crew on board the aircraft, OPVs are a low-cost alternative to UAVs in research, experimentation, and concept exploration, but may also become used in...

 (OPV).

Design

One of the last aircraft designs overseen by Burt Rutan

Burt Rutan

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...

, who retired in April 2011, Firebird is a medium-altitude long-endurance

Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance

Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance refers to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that flies at an altitude window of 10,000 to 30,000 feet for extended durations of time, typically 24 to 48 hours....

 aircraft designed to fly up to 40 hours at a top speed of 230 mile per hour at an altitude of 30000 feet (9,144 m). The twin tailed aircraft has a pusher configuration

Pusher configuration

In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...

 and a long slender wing. It has a wingspan of 65 feet (19.8 m), a length of 34 feet (10.4 m), a height of 9.7 feet (3 m) and a payload capacity of 1240 lbs. It is powered by a Lycoming

Lycoming Engines

Lycoming Engines is a U.S. aircraft engine company, known primarily for its general aviation engines. For most of its history Lycoming has been part of the AVCO group as AVCO Lycoming. In 1987 AVCO was purchased by Textron to become Textron Lycoming...

 TEO-540 engine and has a maximum take off weight of 5000 lbs. The aircraft has hardpoints to carry weapons, though it is currently unarmed.

Reconnaissance capabilities

The Firebird is designed so that the aircraft is able to carry up to four modules of spy equipment simultaneously, on a separate system from that needed to control the plane, so that equipment can be easily swapped in and out. According to Rick Crooks, a Northrop executive involved in the project, this design means that "[i]t takes days or weeks to get a new payload [of equipment] integrated, instead of years." The aircraft has the ability to simultaneously view infrared imagery, gather real time high definition video, use radar and eavesdrop on communications.

Operational history

The idea of building an aircraft capable of being flown with or without a pilot was first floated 9 February 2009 by Rick Brooks, when he contacted Scaled Composites about the possibility of building such an aircraft. Scaled agreed, and on 9 February 2010 the aircraft made its first flight. In October 2010, the aircraft demonstrated its capabilities of collecting information from multiple sources simultaneously for the first time when it made a demonstration flight in Sacramento, California, for defense officials. On 9 May 2011 the aircraft was publicly unveiled for the first time, and between 23 May and and 3 June is scheduled to participate in the Empire Challenge, where it is planned to display its ability to carry multiple payloads and swith them out rapidly.

According to Northrop, the single aircraft built is considered to be operationally ready, beyond the prototype stage. At the time of the aircraft's public unveiling, there were early plans for a second aircraft to be built. If it enters production, construction of the Firebird is planned to move to factories in Palmdale, California

Palmdale, California

Palmdale is a city located in the center of northern Los Angeles County, California, United States.Palmdale was the first community within the Antelope Valley to incorporate as a city on August 24, 1962; 47 years later, voters approved creating a charter city in November, 2009. Palmdale is...

 or Moss Point, Mississippi

Moss Point, Mississippi

Moss Point is a city, north of Pascagoula, in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 17,653 at the 2000 census.On August 29, 2005, Moss Point was hit by the strong east side of Hurricane Katrina, and much of Moss Point was flooded or destroyed .-Geography:Moss Point is...

, rather than the Scaled Composites facility.

See also

• Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel
• Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk
• General Atomics MQ-1C Grey Eagle