Noah Shachtman
Security

When Pork Flies

It only took 20 years and $63 million. But infamous DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft finally made its first flight the other day — "for a total of about 90 seconds," the San Diego Union Tribune reports. By the way, that’s two 45-second flights, not one minute-and-a-halfer, for the aeronautically-challenged plane that’s been repeatedly pushed on […]

Dp2It only took 20 years and $63 million. But infamous DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft finally made its first flight the other day -- "for a total of about 90 seconds," the San Diego Union Tribune reports.

By the way, that's two 45-second flights, not one minute-and-a-halfer, for the aeronautically-challenged plane that's been repeatedly pushed on the armed services by Congresscritters. The pair of takeoffs did not particularly impress the DP-2's legion of critics.

*“What the video of the test flights on Sunday shows is the aircraft flying in extraordinarily ideal conditions with no blowing dust and no indication of any wind,” John Eney, a former head of the aircraft conceptual design group at the Naval Air Systems Command.,said. “The airplane that he's promoting for taking troops would have to be able to take people into the desert.
If you blast that with your jet engines, you can bury yourself in a dust storm.” *

At an earlier hearing, "Eney warned that the DP-2's system, which directs hot jet exhaust toward the ground, could burn troops who were rappelling out of the aircraft, which is one of its intended uses."

Check out Jason Vest's definitive history of the pork plane, here and here.