Gremlins demonstrator makes maiden flight

Dynetics, Inc. flew its X-61A Gremlins demonstrator for the first time in late 2019, it was announced on 17 January.

Screenshot of the X-61A Gremlins demonstrator making its maiden flight in November 2019. While the test was reported to be successful, the vehicle was lost when the parachute meant to recover it failed to deploy. (Dynetics, Inc.)

A video of the maiden flight released by the company showed the Gremlins Air Vehicle (GAV) separate from a Lockheed Martin C-130A Hercules ‘mother-ship’ over Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, before flying for 1 hr 41 mins.

As noted by Dynetics, during this first flight the GAV demonstrated wing deployment, a cold engine start, and a transition to stable powered flight. The company was also able to verify air and ground-based command and control systems, including data link performance and handovers between air and ground control, as well as deploying the GAV docking arm and demonstrating flight termination and ground (parachute) recovery. Despite the success of the flight, Dynetics noted that the GAV was ultimately lost as the parachute failed to deploy at the end of the test.

Gremlins is a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project to develop an ‘aircraft carrier in the sky’. In April 2018 the Dynetics-led team, which includes Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, Inc., was selected over a rival offering led by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to proceed with the final phase of the effort to launch groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from multiple types of military aircraft.