[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 3, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE DRAGONFLY PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. J.D. HAYWORTH

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 3, 1997

  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Young for the 
opportunity to engage in a colloquy earlier today about the Dragonfly 
program.
  Dragonfly, also called the Canard Rotor/Wing technology program or 
CRW is a revolutionary concept helicopter aviation. It uses a stopped 
rotor, high-speed vertical take off and landing or VTOL platform that 
has the performance characteristics of a helicopter take-off and fixed-
wing aircraft flight.
  Dragonfly has seen a tremendous base of support develop in the U.S. 
Marine Corps, and Navy. By the end of this fiscal year, McDonnell 
Douglas will have an R&D investment of about $9 million and Navy 
investment of $1 million. It can fill critical, future joint 
requirements for VTOL operations from all air capable ships, Navy and 
Marine Corps requirements for a joint replacement aircraft, as well as 
serve as a continuation of the Cobra and Huey helicopter programs.
  Dragonfly will demonstrate the revolutionary flight potential of the 
high speed CRW concept using an autonomous unmanned air vehicle. The 
CRW concept uses a rotating wing for VTOL operations, and stops the 
rotor wing for high speed, fixed wing flight. The planned demonstration 
program will test and validate the new technology, characteristics and 
capabilities.
  The Dragonfly concept represents a new performance capability for 
small deck ships in both manned and unmanned applications. The manned 
CRW concept can be applied to a number of joint missions: attack, armed 
reconnaissance, escort, close air support, combat search and rescue, 
and utility/transport. Since the Dragonfly is compact in size and needs 
no launch or recovery system, a CRW unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV can 
deliver battle damage assessments and beyond the horizon survivable 
armed reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition capability to 
every surface combatant in the fleet. In addition, a CRW UAV would have 
over triple the speed and altitude capability of current tactical UAVs 
and a flight envelope that significantly exceeds other UAV systems 
currently in production or in the planning stages.
  Dragonfly promises to be a strong candidate for providing hovering 
and high-speed capability in an attack platform needed for a variety of 
future Marine Corps missions such as V-22 tilt-rotor escort, ground 
attack, and combat search and rescue. The program's near term 
transition sponsor office is the Program Executive Office for Cruise 
Vehicles and Unmanned Vehicles. This office has committed to take the 
proven CRW technology to its next state of development following a 
successful demonstration of the Dragonfly capabilities.
  I commend the innovative engineering and design teams at McDonnell 
Douglas, located in my district in Mesa, AZ, for their work on CRW and 
Dragonfly. The Department of Defense plans to pursue this technology 
and include it in its budget for fiscal year 1999. The contractor is 
also committed to continued shared funding of the program.
  Mr. Speaker, funding for the Dragonfly Program in the Fiscal Year 
1998 Defense appropriations bill is critical to transition this 
important technology to the future.

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