DARPA considers 6 new designs for uncrewed VTOL aircraft that carry weapons payloads — with test flights set for 2026

The U.S. military could soon have new uncrewed aircraft that carry weapons and take off and land vertically. The vehicles could undergo test flights as early as 2026.

"X-plane" is a classifier used by the U.S. Department of Defense for experimental aircraft. Past X-planes include the Bell X-1 — the first crewed vehicle to break the sound barrier in conventional flight — and the X-15, which broke records in aerospace such as previously unachievable airspeeds and the successful use of novel propulsion techniques.

The defense and aerospace contractors bidding for the project are AeroVironment, Griffon Aerospace, Karem Aircraft, Method Aeronautics, Northrop Grumman and the Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky. VTOL can be achieved in a number of different ways. For example, Sikorsky’s battery-powered design props itself on its tail while on the ground and takes off like a helicopter, with the propellers facing upward, then tilts forward to fly through the air horizontally like a plane.

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