The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working with four companies to design an experimental vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that will be faster than the V-22 Osprey. The collaborative project, known as SPRINT (Speed and Runway Independent Technologies), awarded contracts to Aurora Flight Sciences, Bell Textron, Northrop Grumman, and Piasecki Aircraft Corp in November 2023. DARPA wants one of these companies to complete the aircraft design, prototyping, and first flight by spring 2027.
The aircraft being designed must reach impressive speeds of 400-450 knots (460-520 mph) and be capable of stable hovering, transitioning between hovering and forward flight, and have a distributed power system. The precise design and capabilities are open to the companies, which may opt for crewed or uncrewed, autonomous or semi-autonomous operations.
The potential uses for high-speed vertical lift aircraft are vast and could include special operations forces, mobility and logistics operations, personnel recovery, medical transport, and evacuation missions. DARPA openly acknowledges that the project may not result in any specific developments, but aims to see what the current state of the art is.
