Boeing’s Vulture could serve as a pseudo-satellite system.

International aerospace company Boeing has been awarded a $3.8 million (£1.9m) contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to help develop a new category of ultra-long-endurance aircraft.

The deal is part of DARPA’s Vulture air vehicle initiative to create an aircraft that can stay aloft for several years and serve as a pseudo-satellite system.

If successful, it will carry a 1,000-pound, 5-kilowatt payload and have a 99% probability of maintaining its on-station position.

Under the deal, Boeing is to provide conceptual system definition, formal reliability and mission success analysis, concluding with a System Requirements Review, as well as conceptual designs for sub- and full-scale demonstrators.

The company will work in conjunction with UK-based QinetiQ whose role will be to leverage the technologies it developed for its Zephyr ultra-light aircraft.

Pat O’Neil, Programme Manager, Boeing High Altitude Long Endurance Systems, said: “Boeing has worked closely with DARPA on a number of innovative programs in the past and we welcome this important opportunity to again team with them to define a new air vehicle system with unprecedented reliability and endurance that significantly extends current aircraft and spacecraft capabilities.”

Currently, the only systems capable of providing multiple years of coverage over a fixed area are geosynchronous satellites orbiting 22,233 miles above Earth.

O’Neil added: “Such a ‘pseudo-satellite’ system, like Vulture, could provide compelling operational advantages in terms of persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications.”

By Natasha Piscitelli