Pentagon Selects Companies To Build Flying Humvees

longacre sends in a quote from Popular Mechanics: "The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX — a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron Systems, are currently in negotiations with DARPA for the first stage of the Transformer project, several industry sources told Popular Mechanics at a robotics conference here in Denver." The picture included with the linked article says it all, really.

Comments

That's not a Transformer

[0xdeadbeef]

That is clearly a M.A.S.K. vehicle.

they already have this ... helicopters

[Dan667]

Military spending is out of control, this program should be killed.

Where am I?

[Andrewkov]

Did I accidentally get redirected to The Onion?

One word:

[Pojut]

Armor.

What kind of armor can a flying Humvee really have? Military-spec Humvees are already heavier than a fat chick at an all you can eat buffet with a bag of holding...how do they expect to make them take off quickly at any given time?

Re:One word:

[Toze]

Bags of holding are not as heavy as their contents; ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_of_holding ) depending on the edition and type of bag, she's only going to be about another 15-60 pounds on top of her regular 300. While Humvees are indeed heavier than this (5200-5900 pounds, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humvee), fat chicks with bags of holding are not an appropriate standard of weight class for military vehicles. I suggest using Huge ( http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Huge_Animated_Object ) or Gargantuan ( http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Gargantuan_Animated_Object ) animated objects.

/pedant

DARPA

[AtomicOrange]

DARPA is out there to look at the strategic techonologies that might be required in the future battlescape. Just because it starts out as a design concept that doesn't necessarily seem the best of ideas it's there to further flesh out and seek out innovation from industry/private sector. So many are quick to chastise DOD research, yet there is so much out there that wouldn't be possible without DARPA and other Military/Goverment funded research. Healthcare (ie Trauma response) is always a huge beneficiary to this research. Across the board it pushes technology and innovation in fields which may not have had the funding to be researching such.