When I wrote with some skepticism about the BattleHog attack drone last week, American Dynamics — the enigmatic makers of the unmanned combat aerial vehicle, or UCAV — responded with a huffy comment, a link to their website, and an invitation to visit. After e-mailing and calling them, the drone-builders still remain as mysterious as before.
The question remains: can an unknown outfit really come up with a world-beating UCAV? You don’t have to be Boeing or Lockheed, of course, to dream up a brilliant design, or to build an advanced aircraft. But you have to be more than a mom-and-pop outfit, too.
In their comments, “Mark K.” from American Dynamics says the company is more substantial than it might initially appear. The fact that the phone company lists the business as a “home security and technology services consultancy” — that’s Verizon’s description, not Mark & Co.’s. Further, the company has signed an agreement to buy Eagle’s Nest airport in April. The airport continues to serve Atlantic City and Long beach Island, but part of it is now used as a flight testing area for American Dynamics aircraft. This was apparently the site of the BattleHog’s debut flight – but we have not seen any photos yet.
The company web site mentions American Dynamics’ previous work on high-speed hull suspension systems for boats, as well as the BattleHog 100X drone and the WorkHog, a civil version for anyone wanting a 3,000 lb spy plane.
But there’s more: an “advanced hybrid power platform” for ground vehicles, and an even more ambitious drone, the S1K UAS – “a large payload, deep strike Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle.” Given that the larger BattleHog 350Xis a stealthy attack craft carrying 10,000 lb internally, the S1K must be a real monster.
Even the sky is not the limit for American Dynamics. Since 2001 they have been working on a Single Stage Orbital Vehicle, inteded to repalce the multi-stage rockets used for putting satellites into orbit today. You couldn’t accuse them of failing to think big.
They have a down-to-earth side, too — with “Integrated Smart Home Systems” which will
help make your home into an active partner in managing your busy lifestyle through the use of automated lighting controls, environmental controls, auxiliary device controls, home theater controls, home security controls, home computer networking, and more.
It’s quite a portfolio for a small and obscure company, but little of it has actually made it to the production stage. The only actual product is the suspension system, as far as we know, and the space rockets and stealth planes remain on the drawing board.
As for BattleHog – we’re still waiting to see the evidence. Over to you, American Dynamics…
UPDATE 1:40 PM: Thanks to Todd in the comments for digging up the pic.
photo: http://static.flickr.com/71/229561336_65c6e1213e_b.jpg
SK1 or TB2? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Thunderbird2.jpg
The Battlehog 350X appears to be somewhat like the larger delta BWB “area 51″ aircraft envisioned by Popular Science artists. Its the 1st picture in the photo gallery at:
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/ 95e16f096bd8d010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
This envisions using two or more lift fans from the F-35 VTOL program – one in each wing and is even larger. It however is larger and I believe manned.
Good Morning Folks,
Yes, a small unkown company can compete with the Boeings and the like. Look no farther then General Atomic.
General Atomic most of it’s life had been a paper mill, that was bought and sold to several owners, the largest being Gulf Oil in the 70’s.
They were involved in thinhs like Medical Imaging, auditing nuclear power plants, and oil services before they came up with “Predator”, now they are a manufacturing company that employ thousands and lease millions of square feet of buildings.
Other examples are SAIC, who went public last Friday and Titan, bought out not long ago by L3, both by the way were started by former General Atomic employees, Bobert Byster, of SAIC and Gene Ray, of Titan.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
It explains the UFO phenom at hanger 51?
Dig a little deeper, and you will discover that your skepticism is very well founded. You can start by looking into the suspension system which you say made it to the production stage. Yes, it has been patented. But $1,000,000 goes to the first person to find it in existence outside of the patent office and the American Dynamics website.
Yep, mystery drones are good. I foresee the day when the newly built World Trade Centre will be struck by one of these hi-tech military aircraft, and crumble again to the ground. But it will not be another of Osama’s terrorist schemes: it will, rather, be the fault of a military aeroplane pilot under the influence of a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, and stressed because his middle-Eastern girlfriend was arrested under suspicion of terrorism. Oh well.
Notice that since this article came out, all references to Single-Stage-To-Orbit-Vehicles, Smart Home Systems and all their other earth-shattering revolutionary products except for the BattleHog have been removed from the American Dynamics website (sometime before 11/25/06).
An online article suggests that a company is probably a bunch of swindlers because its product portfolio strains all credulity. That company then quickly removes every mention of 75% of its products from its website. Does that sound legit to you?
Has anyone found their Hull Suspension Technology yet? Seen a boat with it? A picture of a boat with it? (Even the boat in the picture on the American Dynamics website does not have it!) Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?? Anybody????
I remember reading about a guy who patented a laser pointer as a “cat exercise device.” Laugh if you will — at least it works….