Boeing’s Phantom Ray uninhabited aircraft test bed last month successfully completed low-speed taxi tests in St. Louis, according to company officials. They are now preparing to ferry the aircraft to Edwards AFB, Calif., for more taxi tests before entering a six-month flight-test program. “Phantom Ray did exactly what it was supposed to do,” said Craig Brown, Boeing’s Phantom Ray program manager, of the low-speed taxi tests, in the company’s release. These tests were the first for the Phantom Ray following its rollout in May. Phantom Ray is Boeing’s name for the completed X-45C prototype that the company developed under Defense Department sponsorship during the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System program. It will travel to Edwards on top of one of NASA’s modified Boeing 747s that ferry space shuttles. At Edwards, Phantom Ray will undergo high-speed taxi tests before making its first flight.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…