Prepare for flight

Raptor was unique as a UAV because it was optionally manned. The first of two Raptor aircraft had the pilot riding on the outside – straddling it like he would a motorcycle. The onboard pilot can be seen in one of the photos. The other airborne photo shows Raptor flying without the pilot. The remote pilot, Dan Kreigh, is flying Raptor at this point situated in a ground control station.

Optionally Manned UAV

Raptor in Flight over Mojave Desert

The Raptor Demonstrator high altitude long endurance UAV program began with a contract award from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Scaled Composites on June 5, 1992. In order to satisfy rigorous performance criteria of flight up to 65,000 ft and 48-hr plus endurance, a high fuel fraction and light weight composite structure were necessary.

The structure used for the Raptor is the same type of construction that was used on the record setting around-the-world Voyager aircraft. The wings and fuselage are oven cured prepreg graphite tape with Nomex honeycomb core. In order to minimize tooling costs, the fuselage is a simple slab sided shape cut from flat honeycomb and graphite panels.

Raptor was initially designed to carry small rockets with the intent of knocking out SCUD missiles during their boost phase. The intent was to have Raptor loiter way overhead in enemy territory waiting for a SCUD missile to launch. Later, the Raptor project was turned over to NASA where it became a high altitude research vehicle. But before the autopilot and three stage turbo reciprocating engine design could be matured, the Raptor program was canceled. Raptor had made over 50 flights with the longest duration flight being about 36 hours. Two crew shifts were required for this project.