Phantom Ray Flies

Boeing’s Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft completed its first flight April 27 at NASA’s Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Boeing announced Tuesday.

“Autonomous, fighter-sized unmanned aircraft are real, and the (unmanned aerial systems) bar has been raised,” Craig Brown, Boeing’s Phantom Ray program manager said in a news release. “Now I’m eager to see how high that bar will go.”

Phantom Ray flew for 17 minutes, reaching 7,500 feet and 178 knots, demonstrating its airworthiness, Boeing said. The company said additional flights in the next few weeks “will prepare Phantom Ray to support potential missions that may include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack; strike; and autonomous air refueling.”