Lockheed confirms P-175 Polecat UAV crash

Posted on: Mar. 19th, 2007 || Source: Flight Global | E-mail Article | Print Article

Lockheed Martin has confirmed that its P-175 Polecat unmanned air vehicle crashed in December on the Nevada test range after the unintentional activation of its flight termination system.

The Skunk Works-built private-venture high-altitude UAV demonstrator, first flown in secret in 2005 and unveiled at last year’s Farnborough air show, had only recently returned to flight.

The tailless flying-wing UAV was “damaged beyond repair due a failure of the flight-termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft’s fail-safe flight termination mode to activate”, says Lockheed, adding that the automatic fail-safe system was “designed to irreversibly terminate flight” so that the UAV did not leave the range.

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