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DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) of the United States made a selection of teams from companies to work on the Liberty Lifter project.
The agency will finance the development of a seaplane large, managing to operate in all effects, like an ecranoplane.
According to the DARPA statement, this is still the first phase of this program, which will last about 18 months, including six months of work on a conceptual project, and nine months for the project to mature.
Then there will be more than three months for manufacturing planning and further test/demo planning review. The two teams that participated presented a different concept responding to the DARPA application.
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The most exotic design was that of General Atomics and Maritime Applied Physics Corporation, who designed the seaplane with: two fuselages, medium wing, 12 engines, turboshaft in pusher configurations, also aiming at optimizing stability and navigation, with the retractable nose of an aircraft that has horizontal and vertical stabilizers.
What happened to the giant seaplanes?
In this way, the project that was presented by Aurora Flight Sciences with the companies Gibbs & Cox and ReconCraft is also not far behind in terms of uniqueness, even having the appearance of “more conservative”.
This model has a single fuselage with T-tail, equipped with about eight turboprops that will be mounted on a large high wing, with the tips facing downwards.
Even though the designs are quite different from each other, the companies meet DARPA's goals. The Liberty Lifter demonstrator will also be a large flying boat, with a similarity in size and capacity to the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, which, according to the US Air Force, can carry more than 77 tons.
“We are excited to begin this program and look forward to working closely with both teams as they mature their design concepts from point of departure through Phase 1,” says program manager Christoper Kent. "The two teams have taken distinct design approaches that will allow us to explore relatively large design space during Phase 1."
As scheduled, Phase 1 will fully transition to Phase 2 in mid-2024, with ongoing detailed design, fabrication and also demonstration of a full-scale experimental aircraft.
DARPA also provides for a partnership with one or more armed forces and international partners for the various activities and development of the Liberty Lifter concepts.
Even if this project continues, the designs are quite exotic and still draw a lot of attention to the ekranoplanes of the Soviet Union, the oldest being the Hughes H-4 Hercules. The so-called Spruce Goose, which is an airplane developed in the mid-1940s, was once considered the largest in the world, although it flew only once.
