One Small Step for Drones

Posted on: Feb. 7th, 2006 || Source: online.wsj.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

One Small Step for Drones

PALMDALE, Calif. -- For decades, Lockheed Martin Corp. has pioneered innovative warplanes -- the kind that take pilots higher, faster and more stealthily into enemy airspace. Now, the defense giant is diving into a sizzling market that it previously ceded to rivals, one that will keep pilots on the ground.

As unmanned aircraft prove to be essential to modern warfare in Iraq and elsewhere, Lockheed is shedding its ambivalence and busily developing concepts for newfangled drones. One drone would be launched from, and retrieved by, submarines; another would fly at nine times the speed of sound. A third, which is off the drawing board but not quite airborne, has wings designed to fold in flight so that it could rapidly turn from slow-speed spy plane to quick-strike bomber.

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