АНУ-ын Калифорни муж улсын Лонг-Бич хотын нисэх онгоцны буудалд өнгөрсөн пүрэв гарагийн орой ажиглагдсан үл мэдэгдэх нисэх төхөөрөмж нь сансарт ачаа тээвэрлэх зориулалттай RAVN X загварын дрон болох нь тодорхой болжээ.
Нисэх онгоцны гэрэл зурагчин Рики Шолын дүрсэлснээр, тус онгоц нь бүхээггүй, өвөрмөц хийцтэй бөгөөд анх харахад F-117 Nighthawk сөнөөгч онгоцтой төстэй харагдсан байна. Алабама мужийн Хантсвилл хотод байрладаг Aevum Aerospace компанийн бүтээсэн энэхүү хоёр шатлалт пуужингийн “эх онгоц” нь 1,000 гаруй фунт ачаа тээвэрлэх хүчин чадалтай гэж үздэг. Тус онгоц нь 80 фут урт, 60 фут далавчны урттай бөгөөд хэмжээний хувьд A-5 Vigilante онгоцтой ойролцоо юм.
Гэсэн хэдий ч тус онгоц нь бодит нислэгийн загвар бус, зөвхөн үзүүлэнгийн загвар байж болзошгүй гэсэн таамаг байна. 2021 онд анх олон нийтэд танилцуулагдахдаа уг төслийн хүрээнд богино хугацаанд нислэгийн гэрчилгээ авч, Флорида муж улсын Сесил сансрын буудлаас хөөргөх туршилт хийхээр төлөвлөж байсан ч өнөөг хүртэл тодорхой ахиц дэвшил гарсан эсэх нь тодорхойгүй байна.
Сүүлийн үеийн мэдээллээр, 2024 оны наймдугаар сарын байдлаар тус төслийн үйл ажиллагаа зогссон байж болзошгүй гэх дүгнэлтийг сансрын хөөргөлтийн хяналтын сайтууд хийжээ. Хэдийгээр тус нисэх онгоцонд FAA-аас олгосон N567RX дугаар бүртгэлтэй байгаа ч тухайн үдшийн туршилтын зорилго болон хөтөлбөрийн ирээдүйн талаар албан ёсны мэдээлэл гараагүй байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
A handful of aviation photographers got a suprise eyeful of a very sleek and large aircraft silhouette on Thursday night at Long Beach Airport. One of them was Ricky Schol, who saw the mysterious airframe emerge from a hangar, prompting a double take. It was the first time in his 16 years of aviation photography at the historic airport he’d ever seen anything like it.
“I was driving home past my local airport Thursday evening here in Southern California when I saw a bright light coming from a hangar I haven’t seen open in a long time, so I doubled back to check it out,” Schol told us. “I was blown away when I pulled over and saw the future in front of my eyes. I had no clue what I was looking at. I jumped out of my vehicle and started taking pictures immediately.”
“At first glance I thought it was an F-117 Nighthawk when driving by,” said Schol, a plumber by trade. “That’s why I doubled back to see. And to my surprise I saw something I’ve never seen before, having no cockpit. It left me with a very curious feeling.”
Schol said he did some asking around and learned more details. He would soon learn that the mysterious aircraft design was the RAVN X, an aircraft meant to launch payloads into space, made by Aevum Aerospace of Huntsville, Alabama. Schol was kind enough to share some of the photos he took of the aircraft, which he said he saw from about 100 feet in the distance. You can find his work on Instagram at @aggressoraviation_.
As you can see from the images below, the aircraft bears the FAA N Number N567RX, which has been reserved by Aevum to an address at the airport, but it appears to be a mockup — one we have likely seen before.
A mockup of the drone was introduced online with great fanfare in 2021 and described at the time by company CEO Jay Skylus as the “mothership” for a two-stage rocket able to carry a payload of just over 1,000 pounds.
From our story when the RAVN X was unveiled: “The twin-engine Ravn X drone — described by the company as the first stage of the system — reportedly weighs 55,000 pounds, is 80 feet long, and has a wingspan of 60 feet — roughly the size of an A-5 Vigilante. The sleek drone… has seemingly been tailored for speed.”
During the mockup roll-out, the company described what we noted back then was a “very ambitious, if not almost bizarre timeline” for getting Ravn X into the air. The plan was to start with “vehicle-level testing” to obtain the required airworthiness certification and launch licensing for operations, a process that should take 18 months, Skylus claimed. From there, Aevum planned to secure airworthiness certification for the first-stage drone from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Following that, the next step was to commence orbital launch tests from Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, by late 2021.
It is unclear whether AEVUM achieved any of its goals. There are no details on the company website and the most recent information about RAVN X is from Gunter’s Space Page, a website that tracks launches.
“In December 2020 Aevum rolled out a mock-up of the Ravn-X carrier plane (although claimed to be a real prototype), but no further activities have been noticed so far,” noted Gunter’s Space Page. “It is doubtful, that any real hardware has been produced so far. By August 2024, all activities seem to have stopped.”
We reached out to Skylus and Aevum for more details.
Given that RAVN X has all but disappeared from public notice, Schol and a few other photographers at the airport caught a rare glimpse.
“I was there from the time they pulled it out to the time they pulled it in,” he told us. “They lined it up on the runway. It moved a little bit, but not much.”
Schol said he didn’t hear the engines or see any exhaust.
“I don’t know exactly what they were testing or trying to accomplish that night,” he proffered.
Mockups can be modified for limited ground tests and other important work, which could be the case here. Regardless, RAVN X does appear to be still alive as a program.
If we find out any details, we will pass them along.
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
The post Mysterious Black Jet That Emerged At Long Beach Airport Identified appeared first on TWZ.
