• The GL-10 is currently in the design and testing phase. The initial thought was to develop a 20-foot wingspan (6.1 meters) aircraft powered by hybrid diesel/electric engines, but the team started with smaller versions for testing, built by rapid prototyping.
  • During a recent spring day the engineers took the GL-10 to test its wings at a military base about two hours away from NASA Langley. The remotely piloted plane has a 10-foot wingspan (3.05 meters), eight electric motors on the wings, two electric motors on the tail and weighs a maximum of 62 pounds (28.1 kilograms) at take off.
  • It had already passed hover tests -- flying like a helicopter -- with flying colors. But now was the big hurdle -- the transition from vertical to forward "wing-borne" flight. As engineers who have designed full-scale vertical take off and landing tiltrotors such as the V-22 Osprey will tell you -- that is no easy task because of the challenging flight aerodynamics.

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