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Frontiers September 2015 Issue

people, yet the curtain is getting lifted more and more these days. When it’s not a matter of national security or competitive sensitivities, products are being shared publicly and celebrated. The X-51A WaveRider, which was developed to test technology needed for hypersonic flight, is an example. In 2013, the WaveRider broke the record for duration of hypersonic flight. It was no secret. Within two days of that flight, a YouTube video of the accomplishment was posted. “That was a first; I had never seen that in my career,” said Orias, the chief engineer for Advanced Network & Space Systems in Huntington Beach. “It was so wonderful to pull up the video and show my family, ‘Here’s what I do.’ Great things used to come out of a quiet organization. We’re now a lot more public in what we’re doing.” n da niel.w.ral ey@boeing.com September 2015 31 launch from the air, sea or ground. When dropping out of an aircraft, Dominator will unfold from a compact configuration and fly off to perform a mission. Built from existing weapons and unmanned aircraft hardware and software, Dominator will have an endurance many times greater than smaller competing air-launched unmanned aircraft, Gettinger said. It is capable of carrying small weapons and has a potential for multiple uses and fates. “Once we’ve demonstrated the air launch technologies maturity, it opens up just about anything you want to do with it,” Gettinger said. Tracey Espero heads a 35-person team in Huntington Beach that is responsible for software for the Vision-based, Electro-optical Sensor Tracking Assembly (VESTA), which will autonomously guide Boeing’s new CST-100 spacecraft into the docking ring of the International Space Station. She holds up a thick black part that will hold a camera used during operation. “I love when you get to build things and you go from PowerPoint to production and you actually see it fly,” Espero said. “Usually it’s cutting-edge and brand-new. It’s exhilarating to see something work like that.” Phantom Works, for all of its high-security facilities and measures, might remain a mystery to a lot of Photos: (Left) Members of Phantom Works Ventures, part of the organization’s strategy team in St. Louis, discuss future growth opportunities that go outside Boeing’s current portfolio. (Below) Tracey Espero, Autonomous Space Capabilities manager, displays an animated image of the CST-100 preparing to dock with the International Space Station. Bob ferguson | boeing


Frontiers September 2015 Issue
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