[narrator] When disaster happens
real-time information and the ability to communicate
are critical to helping people in need.
Introducing the Phantom Eye.
[Phantom Eye] It's an eye in the sky at 65,000 feet
where it's needed, when it's needed, above any place on Earth.
[The Eye in the Sky]
[Drew Mallow, Phantom Eye Program Manager] Phantom Eye is a hydrogen-powered
unmanned air vehicle that really gives us global reach.
[narrator] The Phantom Eye is a UAV that is built to gather and transmit information
cruising for days in the stratosphere
far above storms, turbulence, or commercial aircraft.
[Mallow] This should be a vehicle you could put up over a disaster area,
or if all communications were lost, you could basically come in
and replace satellite communications.
[narrator] The Phantom Eye offers immense flexibility.
It can be used for emergency relief, search and rescue operations,
port security, border monitoring, and scientific experiments.
[Mallow] On the military side, a lot of the work is geared
towards intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance gathering.
[narrator] To create this aircraft,
Boeing developed an entirely new wing and propulsion system,
both highly efficient.
[Mallow] The wing is one of the critical technologies.
It's 150 feet long.
When it's flying, it actually bows up some
because of carrying the weight of the fuselage.
Inside the fuselage are the two twin hydrogen fuel tanks.
We bring hydrogen into the chamber with oxygen,
and the combustion produces water.
It's about as green as it can get when it's flying.
[narrator] The current experimental Phantom Eye
can carry a 450-pound payload of cameras and other equipment.
The actual production version will have an even bigger wing--
250 feet--and carry a 2,000-pound payload.
[Mallow] The demonstrator we're building will stay up for four days.
Eventually we envision the operational vehicle being a 10-day vehicle.
[narrator] Once an unmanned airborne vehicle can stay aloft for 10 days,
3 or 4 of the aircraft could provide 24/7 coverage all year long
above any point on the globe.
[Mallow] There's a whole host of new technologies being demonstrated,
and this couldn't be pulled off without a team that's coming forward
with the innovation and the solutions to bring this all together.
[♪♪]
[Boeing] [Copyright ©2012 Boeing. All rights reserved]