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Jan. 27--SANTA CLARITA -- The Boeing Co. is testing an unmanned aircraft that could eventually be used to take a long look at earth from more than 12 miles above its surface.
The Phantom Eye plane has a 150-foot wingspan and is powered by a pair of Ford Motor Co. turbo-charged 2.3 liter four-cylinder engines that have been modified to run on liquid hydrogen.
They power 16-foot diameter propellers that generate enough thrust to take the Phantom Eye to 65,000 feet, where it will cruise for four days at a time at speeds up to 230 mph. The plane will controlled via remote from the ground.
At this point in the testing process, Boeing engineers have attached the power plant and a propeller to a test bed they call an iron wing.
"It allows us all to run the engine as if it were sitting on the wing of the airplane," said Bill Norby, hydrogen systems manager for the Phantom Eye program.
The current version will be used to evaluate the Phantom Eye's technical proficiency. If everything checks out and there is a customer base, a version with a 250-foot wing span and 10-day duration will be produced.
It will use the same power system but be able to stay in the air for 10 days at a time, Norby said.
Boeing is developing the Phantom for both military and commercial customers.
"It's got a number of applications. We obviously see it as something that would be very desirable from a military stand point but there are
lots of other applications," he said.
For example, it could be used to monitor weather systems and forest areas or to to help with communications in times of natural disasters.
"With a system like this it could provide a big cell phone tower in the sky and emergency communications," Norby said.
The plane is a product of Boeing's Phantom Works unit based in St. Louis, Mo. It will be shipped to the Dryden Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley for flight tests this summer.
Engines like the ones on the Phantom Eye are used in Ford's Ranger and Fusion vehicles. The company began working on hydrogen fuel cells about the middle of last decade.
Ford didn't have much to say about the Boeing program or its role in pushing the envelope of aviation.
"We provided the engines to Boeing and they did the did the modifications," said company spokesman Richard Truett.
