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And to a new-ish company like Anduril, too! Palmer Lucky and Co founded it in 2017 which is baby years for a lead defense contractor on a major project like this.

IIUC this is the Wingman program for the F22 and F35 so these aren't "slow" drones like predators, these are going to be high performance jets. This is a serious contract!



The Fury program being sold here was developed by Blue Force Technologies (founded in 2010), which Anduril purchased last year.


Their website says .95 Mach and 9Gs… in simulation. It’s definitely going to be high powered.


What kind of airframe materials will they need for 9Gs? That sounds like too much for even aerospace Titanium.


F22 rated load is 9g continuous (~13g burst) and it's made with mostly Ti64, thermoset composites, and aluminum [1].

It's much lower than it can be because there's no point in investing in a stronger airframe when the sustained acceleration would kill any pilot. These unmanned drones can easily be designed to withstand much more.

[1] https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-2...


9G shouldn't be a problem at all, from a material standpoint. Missiles go to 100G, and F1 engine pistons withstand 8.600G (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force).


To clarify, that's 8600g, not 8.6g.

Also in that table: Acceleration of a nematocyst: the fastest recorded acceleration from any biological entity. 5,410,000 g!


Ah the list sorts alphabetically and not numerically, looks like.


The major failure point in a 9G-capable airframe is the meatbag that is traditionally placed inside.


The F-16 avionics are limited to 9G, but the fuselage is able to handle much more when not carrying a full load of fuel. 9Gs is standard for a fighter.




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