Wraps Off Northrop's Fan-in-Wing MUVR

Wraps Off Northrop's Fan-in-Wing MUVR: At the Quad-A UAS show in Washington today, Northrop Grumman has taken the wraps off the MUVR fan-in wing high-speed VTOL ship-to-shore cargo resupply unmanned aircraft it has been working on with the Office of Naval Research.


Photo: Mike Hirschberg, AHS

I am not at the show, so no details, I'm afraid. But you can see MUVR has a pair of ducted fans in the wing. They may be tip- or shaft-driven - or electric-driven depending on the vehicle's size. Some reports have suggested a payload of up to 10,000lb, which would make it pretty big. Speed is around 200kt.

The twin-boom "Bronco" tail is reminscent of Northrop's Scaled Composites-designed Firebird MALE UAS demonstrator, and that looks like a cargo pod slung under the engine. MUVR harks back to the Ryan XV-5 Vertifan, an experimental V/STOL aircraft of the 1960s that had two gas-driven fans in the wing and one in the nose.