Pentagon Selects Companies To Build Flying Humvees

longacre sends in a quote from Popular Mechanics: "The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX — a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron Systems, are currently in negotiations with DARPA for the first stage of the Transformer project, several industry sources told Popular Mechanics at a robotics conference here in Denver." The picture included with the linked article says it all, really.

Re:Yeah, OK...

[crow_t_robot]

To add to my earlier comment: "The V-22's development process has been long and controversial, partly due to its large cost increases.[40] The V-22's development budget was first planned for $2.5 billion in 1986, then increased to a projected $30 billion in 1988.[24] As of 2008, $27 billion have been spent on the Osprey program and another $27.2 billion will be required to complete planned production numbers by the end of the program." ...from wikipedia. This humvee project will be more complicated in terms of engineering than the V-22. Dumb idea.

Wrong car

[gmuslera]

We have only 5 years till Doc comes to get the tech to upgrade Deloreans to make them able to fly. Doing the practice in Humvees won't translate too well for a car that different, and things will get worse if we are too busy doing this to be able to develop MrFusion. Believe me, you don't want to create time paradoxes.

When do we get walkers?

[xSauronx]

I'm waiting for the AT-AT...seriously people, these have been in the concept stage for a long time. If we can walk dozens of men in a huge machine all over the place, we wont have to get on the roads.

Re:One word:

[natehoy]

They can't, and therein lies the big problem. Things that work well on the ground don't tend to work well in the air, and vice versa.

The military already had a vehicle that worked fairly well in VTOL and could still fly at acceptable speeds, while not being a jet-based fuel gobbler. It was called the "Osprey". And that was eventually grounded because even a vehicle built to do those two jobs (slow flight and efficiency) turned out to be not particularly great at either and complex enough to be a tad on the crashy side.

Now take that same basic concept, add a few tons of armor, and put it in a direct combat situation.

I honestly wish the military luck in developing a practical solution to what is obviously a severe problem, but I don't think this will be it.

Re:Logic Fail....

[JSBiff]

Trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps you know an *area*/stretch of road, is likely to have IEDs, but you don't know exactly where they are? But, in that case, wouldn't a simpler solution to be a chopper that can pickup a humvee, fly over the dangerous area, deliver it to a known safe drop point, and drop the hummer? Then, when it's time to go, pick up the hummer again and carry it out?

if it can or will detect roadside bombs, then it's

[Locutus]

it's not needed. Think about it, it rolls along and somehow it'll fly to protect its occupants from roadside bombs? Doesn't it have to detect them before it jumps to the air? Otherwise, it's just and airplane or helo with some forward movement capabilities.

I don't get how this could be justified and if anything, they should be running around with corded tiny copters out infront of the convoys carrying sensors to ID the buried bombs. Cabled or corded so it can have lots of power and be pulled in quickly for evasive moves. Not something without enough protection from the bombs or other fire power just so it can fly over a threat. my $.02

LoB

man...

[zogger]

...is that stupid looking. Government sure does come up with some harebrained excuses to drop tons of cash on fatcats all the time...

Hey, here's a thought....don't invade other nations where the locals don't like you and resort to any weapon they can come up with to stop you. Of course I know this doesn't make the fatcats any *more* money, but really....

Look at those pics....geez....the "insurgents" will enjoy their skeet shooting. And the oil companies will enjoy their profits, after first having to transit five other fatcat DOD "contractors" pockets first. What is it in ashcanistan now, 400 bucks a gallon for fuel delivered, something like that? Can you imagine the fuel an even slightly armored flying dork mobile like that will need to burn to get off the ground and stay aloft?

Re:they already have this ... helicopters

[Monkeedude1212]

Is it cheaper to develop a flying humvee than it is to fly an extra 95 miles?

Is it cheaper to build flying humvees than it is to fly an extra 95 miles?

Wait - hold on a second - I thought the war was winding down and the plan was to slowly pull out... Over the next decade.... Supposedly... Why is the US military spending money on innovative war machines when they are already on top?

Sigh.. this is all about recruitment, isn't it?

[RevWaldo]

(recruiter's office)

- Yeah, I been thinking about what you told me last week, but I've been looking into some of the associate programs down at the community college, like automotive repair, or maybe nursing, and, like, I could be making like forty grand a year in about two years? Plus I've been talking to my brother's buddy Dan, who just got back from two tours in Afghanistan, and he's really having a tough time readjusting to civilian life. Like, his back is all screwed up from this one non-com accident so he can't work, so he's just been sitting on the couch playing X-BOX all day and he's gained like fifty pounds, and he smashed up this one guy's car with a tire iron just caused he honked at him after the light turned green, y'know? And I heard his fiance took the baby and moved back in with her parents after he punched her out in his sleep for God's sake. So I mean it sound like a great opportunity and all, but I talked it over with my folks, and after weighing the pros and cons I'm gonna hafta say....

- Has anyone talked to you yet about our new flying humvee program? (hands him a picture of the concept vehicle)

- (studies the picture for about ten seconds, then looks up) Go on...

.

Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep - in 1957, Bitches!

[uglyMood]

The US Army had an operational flying jeep 53 years ago, the Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep [wikipedia.org]. You can see a video of it in action here [youtube.com]. And it didn't need any dorky wings to fly, either.

I'm confused

[fishthegeek]

I RTFA, okay not closely but I did read it. If you are going to fly periodically over short distances to avoid roadside bombs wouldn't you already have to know where the bomb is in order to avoid it? If you already know where the bomb is wouldn't it just make sense to take a different road?

If the driver doesn't know there is a bomb (like in most every IED attack) the ability to fly doesn't do you a bit of good because you have already been turned into applesauce.

How I read this...

[ivogan]

"...take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs."

Did anyone else read this as "...take off and fly like an aircraft to quickly* deploy assets to quell the masses from the air while keeping the soldiers relatively out of reach of citizen retaliation."

*quickly meaning not having to wait for traditional air support after the call is made.

Yes I know the tinfoil is a little tight today.

Someone who has actually worked a DARPA contract:

[Takionbrst]

DARPA is the canonical "high risk, high reward" agency. Sure some of their funded proposals/contracts sound bat shit insane, but what if this actually succeeds? This is, after all, the organization that brought us the precursor to the internet and the predator drone. A pilot-less combat plane you say? Blasphemy. Lay people exchanging information and culture near instantaneously across the world using light traveling through a cable? Apostasy. IMHO, quit whining about what in all reality is a small, small fraction of the federal budget, and focus on what really matters. And by that I mean ensuring net neutrality. =)

Budget priorities

[superdude72]

So now the Army has money for flying robotic humvees just in case we have to occupy another country after we get out of the already grotesquely expensive occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan... and the Republicans are still trying to rob the Social Security trust fund.

Goodbye, USA. It was nice while it lasted.

Oh come on. All I want is a couple of extra express busses on the route I take to work in the morning so I don't get left standing on the curb as a full bus pulls away. Do you suppose my federal, state, and local governments could scrounge up some funds for that after they're done funding the military, some new sports stadiums, and tax cuts for billionaires? Pretty please?