Read "World's Worst Aircraft" for a great study of bad and amateur aircraft design. This is not the first egg that engineers have laid. The Osprey works on a much more basic principle and isn't even approaching acceptable. Those engines must overheat instantly.

Congress isn't capable of deciding whether an aircraft design is acceptable - but neither is the news media. The news media has destroyed a number of important military research projects just to get readers. So why should I believe you now?

Congress isn't capable of deciding whether an aircraft design is acceptable - but neither is the news media. The news media has destroyed a number of important military research projects just to get readers. So why should I believe you now?

Posted by: John Kantor

What a tool. The news media doesn't destroy military research. It exposes the massive fraud and waste that is 'built in' to the research process. The US taxpayers are wasting their hard earned money on this contraption.

Thank you Brian Ross for bringing this to light. How can I help the cause? I'd like to get both sides of the story, and 'takeoff' from there (unlike the Hovercraft it appears).

Well, lessee:

"...military analysts have consistently rejected the craft since 1986 as technically flawed."

"...did not stop Congress from continuing to pour money into the program, under prodding from San Diego-area congressmen, including Duncan Hunter"

"Hunter has received at least $36,000 from DuPont..."

"Hunter for President bumper stickers can be seen on cars parked in the DuPont Aerospace parking lot..."

"Hunter also denies the campaign contributions have any connection with his continued support of the aircraft."

Hm. Politics as usual. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along...

Of course politics chooses military weapons. It has been that way ever since the first GW got sent out on a shoestring at Valley Forge!

If you want a hoot ask the question, "Why are there O rings in the shuttle solid rocket motors? The external tank doesn't have them"

How does the Navy expert determine the DP2 can't fly when the company is apparently required to keep it tethered to the ground? To my mind, $63 million over 2 decades is vastly cheaper that what has been spent on certain pet projects of the Pentagon which crash repeatedly and kill people. If there is a short take off and landing plane that can work it will save lives. Why not allow a test pilot to actually test the plane rather than indulging in sound bites? This was a real "when did you stop beating your wife?" story. Why not research the technology and do a story on that rather than on who donates what? Just asking.

Is Cox a Rep.or Dem.? They make a point to say that Hunter is a Rep.

How can it fly if it's tied to the ground?

the story did not bother to mention this project was cancelled last year and effectively shut the company down, almost all employees were laid off, it was tried, it kinda worked, it ended. There is more to this story than was told, IE lies by omission

If you want to know why ths piece of c*^p is still alive, read the book "Wild Blue Yonder: the Story of the B-1 Bomber" ... it will show you the "MO" for a dozen OTHER usless 'systems' and/or 'weapons'

A 'msut read' book.

Contact my 2 Senators, Kay Hutchison and John Cornyn and my Rep, Kenny Marchant of Texas. Ask what they think.
I'd say that someone or someones in Congress have stock in the Dupont Company. Maybe even President Bush.

Dave wrote: If you want a hoot ask the question, "Why are there O rings in the shuttle solid rocket motors? The external tank doesn't have them" --- SOLID rocket motors and external TANK. The tank holds liquid fuel for the Shuttle's main engines. The solid rocket motors are rocket motors with internal solid fuel. Two totally different things. It's like comparing a bottle rocket to the gas tank on a car. Bottle rockets don't have seals, but gas tanks do.

Google the "Bell X-14" VTOL aircraft and compare descriptions and photos. Also, google Dupont and DuPont Areospace. The DP-2 is not on either website. I wonder why?

Is it time to remove some elected representatives mid-term?

As a native ex San Diegan, let me take this opportunity to bash the Republicans over this Duncan Hunter pet project. After trying to get the military to take over the city of San Diego, which they succeeded in accomplishing, now the Republican cognocenti believe they want to run Hunter up the flagpole?
Let me tell you here folks, you dont want anyone from the San Diego Republican party running ANYTHING! They have turned the city from a fine place, into America's Worst City.
As far as aircraft and General Dynamics, congress should leave experimental aircraft up to Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites. I know, I worked for both aerospace companies. Gen Dynamics was a war machine for the oil industry, and based their contracting on what was best for the military industrial complex, and Scaled Composites built one after another experimental aircraft which proved themselves airworthy, sometimes before they ever left the Mojave hangar!
The Congress of the United States is guilty of the worst debacle in the history of the world in allowing the military to infiltrate every dark corner of contracting. No citizenship in the history of the planet has wasted as much money as the United States Armed Forces. If not for them, we might actually have a country worth defending.
And before you start calling me a traitor, let me clarify. This Americans bloodlines go back 150 years before the Stars and Stripes were ever sewn into existance. So take it and run that up your flagpole.

Another case for completely eliminating earmarks! Unfortunately, ABC has chosen to focus on the political nature of the story (Rep vs Dem) instead of the irresponsible use of our tax dollars. The fact is EVERY Congressional district is riddled with "pet projects" that are just as wasteful as this and funded through the same mechanism. As long as Congress is in charge of policing Congress and people care more about voting for American Idol than their leaders then the corruption will continue.

Has anyone tried to put wheels on the dang aircraft, and may be try and use it as an amusement park ride?? Now that is an idea worthy of congressional funding!!

"If you want a hoot ask the question, 'Why are there O rings in the shuttle solid rocket motors? The external tank doesn't have them'"

The original solid rocket motor design that won the original contract was NOT segmented and did not have o-rings. The boosters would be made near enough to the launch centers to not need to fit on rail cars (yes, in that day both Canaveral & Vandenberg were going to launch shuttles). But the Senator from the Great State of Utah that was in charge of a key committee did not like the fact that Hercules, based in Utah, did not win the contract. So he forced the contract to require that the solid boosters be segmented under the guise that they had to be transported on railroad cars (from Utah). The Parker O-Ring company would not approve that the Hercules design was safe. As a matter of fact, they put in writing that the design violated accepted design principles for using o-rings. That document came to light during the Challenger investigation.

But once again, politics championed Science & Engineering.

By the way. The Dupont design can be fully simulated by any modern aeronautics student. It’s flaws are not a matter of debate.

And for the guy with the tether question, you ALWAYS test new hovering aircraft with a tether. If it can’t hover a few feet off the ground safely and in a stable manner, it can’t take off & land safely. Any pile of junk can fly if it is already at 10,000 feet. For safety, you do the very first test tethered. If you can't do that, its junk.

Hi all,
If the French Company Renault failed to develop their electric car since 1903, 21 years of development by DuPont for the DP2 does not sound that bad.

And what's 63 million compared to what they spent at NASA? In the end, if the DP2 ever gets off the ground and moves forward, will it help in any way to eliminate poverty and homelessness? We ought to prepare for peace, not war.

I don't fault DuPont for taking $63 million in contracts from the government, I fault 20+ years of inbred "leadership" for enabling this sort of behavior. Earmarks should be eliminated to rid our system of this "good ole boy" nonsense.

Instead, each side is simply attempting to pin responsibility/accountability on the other side of the isle for the press coverage. We've been through Democrat and Republican Administrations and Congresses, so neither side can cast the full blame. All enabled this stuff to continue.

It's a pity that it always boils down to partisan nonsense. I Wonder if term limits in Congress woll seem like crooks to me.

Al

Would we be hearing about this if Duncan Hunter (R) weren't a candidate for President?

Would we be hearing about it if DuPont had given matching contributions to Brad Miller (D) (the Chairman of the committee raising the charges) over the years?

Likely not in either case. I say we toss them all out!

The DP2 sounds like the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. Yet, Ted Stevens, the "honorable" Senator from Alaska responsible for that misuse of tax revenue, is still fat, dumb, and happily sitting in office.

No different than Hunter and Cox in this case! Why can't they ALL be prosecuted like Cunningham, Delay, or Jefferson? Feinstein, too, for giving government contracts to her husband!

Hunter belongs in jail. But so does most of the California delegation, very few of whom should not be laughed at.
Who can say if its the fruits, fresh vegetables, forest fires or all that sunshine, but no other American climate seems more conduive to bribery.

The denial of science that is now the hallmark of the republican party and the USA military industrial complex leads the way to rampant cronyism and corruption in all contracts, conduct of war, and failures of enormous consequences. But hey, we are the USA and we have the media well tethered...

If that tiny version can't fly I don't see how it will ever carry 50 troops.

The wings are far too small and it looks nose heavy. They should put wings on it like the space shuttle's..

Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid, and Universal Healthcare dont work either? What's the big deal.

Take the MONEY spent out of CONGRESSMENS PAYCHECKS. Then we'll see WHAT WILL FLY!!!!

I don't see reference to the name of this aircraft. What is is called?

You guys missed Scott Gossard's post.

"Google the "Bell X-14" VTOL aircraft and compare descriptions and photos. Also, google Dupont and DuPont Areospace. The DP-2 is not on either website. I wonder why?

Is it time to remove some elected representatives mid-term?

Posted by: Scot Gossard | Jun 11, 2007 8:28:31 PM"

Now, go Google "Bell X-14" The X-14 Project ended in 1981 the DP2 started in 1986. Go look at a picture of the Bell X-14. The DP2 is a direct rip off.

$3M a year to research something... hmmm. is that alot of money? Lets see there are 300M people in the US. Somewhere around 50M businesses and another 50M importers that are taxed... and we are up in arms about the little plane that couldn't? Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

Meanwhile in other news: we are paying upwards of 50 cents A GALLON in gas taxes, we are running deficits not because of a little plane that can't fly but because we think taking off our shoes at the airport is actually helpful. We are fighting a war that by any objective and historical perspective, we have already won. (all of our initial objectives were met long ago) We are watching our natural treasures decay and rot before our very eyes. We are watching our children receive crappy educations... but the little plane that couldn't fly is what makes the news.

Its no wonder the world hates us.

Scot Gossard, Scot Gossard, the Moran bus is here to pick you up. Are you kidding me? Burt Rutan, the same guy who took cheap shots at NASA because he thought space was boring, when it should be fun. Your post sounds nore like a Anti-Conservative rant that belongs on the front page of the READER. I hate to bring this up to you. but Republicans have been running San Diego for the past 27 years. The Military has a large Population in this FINE City. If you forgot, the Military tested a plane here in the 80's. Maybe you remember, that certain BOMBER that is in use today. As for the DP2, the testing has come along a lot further than this article expresses. Scot, I think I know why you are an EX-San Diegan. I would live in Florida too, If I were you. I don't Question you as a TRAITOR. I question your Competence.

Is this fake news? I don't believe there's actually an aircraft built named the DP-2.

Seems like a fraud.

Great. A $63 million, pig-nosed cessna. My tax dollars hard at work.

"The good news is that when it crashes, it only crashed from a foot or two off the ground."
- Congressman Brad Miller.
That's because it hasn't achieved more than a few feet of height, Congressman.
Go back to sleep.

Things that don't work/fly/etc = tilt.
"To my mind, $63 million over 2 decades is vastly cheaper that what has been spent..."
Change to: Things that don't work/fly/etc = drip, drip...
That reminds me; they indeed tested this thing, which by its appearance could not possibly fly (wings are too small).

It looks like another Howard Huges story, we need more people that on the inside to be inside of Jail, like mr. congressman cunningham

dan horn

Wow, great writing. Its almost, but not quite impossible to even know the name of the aircraft. Its in a link, not in the story itself. Makes it a wee bit hard to connect the dots to something else you might have read in the past.

But, hey, I've got a new name for 'the craft'. Lets call it 'the turkey'. Turkey's have trouble getting more than a few feet off the ground too.

How about we take the congress-critters who insisted on spending this money, put them on a desert island, and only give them a prototype of 'the turkey' to use to get off the island?

Reminds me of Steve Martin in that B movie remake of Sargent Bilko, and the hover tank. Well folks what do you expect from a bunch of village idiots elected to congress, I guess those $20K toilet seats purchased a few years back would sit nicely in the crew compartment of this abortion. One thing is true you can make brick fly if you spend enough money. OY!

Here we have the media doing what they do best. Reporting only what they want, a portion of the story. How many planes have they scratch built in their garage?Seems to me some individual came up with an idea to magnatize a metal plate and using graphite or some other metal powder made a reproduction of some document. It became the primary operating system for copiers world wide. NO BODY WANTED TO PURSUE IT INTIALLY! AND, some other idiot decided that it would be good to remove the hands from a watch and use numbers that clicked over digitally on a small screen. WOW, digital watches, clocks and just about everything else uses this technology today. NOBODY WANTED IT!
So, look around, so many products are available to you today because of these Ear marks, Programs or projects. Don't be so quick to Judge.

The money spent on this pursuit is rather small compared to the amount of money it takes to fuel our equipment our Army uses in Iraq. A pursuit for a cheaper more efficient form of travel is a noble one in this day & age.

$65 million, big deal, the defense department spends that much flying generals to play golf! Besides, the tether is too tight. The Harrier had such clumsy moments, for a similar scene, may I refer you to Gov. Schwartzeneger as actor taking off in True Lies--yeah, I know it was a faked flight, but the scene depicts someone unpracticed and unsteady at starting a flight. So this has lifted off, what 4 times on a tight tether, big deal.

WTF?? We already HAVE a mach 2,stealthy, v/stol aircraft in production! It's the F-35. This looks like a hoax to me. Hell , it looks like a 1962 Studabaker with wings.

I thought it was going OK there, they just need to undo those ropes.

Talk about pork! The thing actually looks like a pig's snout, LOL!

How can this even be considered a military aircraft...with inlets that big and close to the ground it would fod out the moment it landed in the field. 63 million down the drain

The program was no different than most other aircraft development programs, except a lot less money spent and less talent. Most of the technicians were better than the engineers. The good engineers were over tasked. Expert engineers and technicians quit due to lack of respect for their knowledge. Too much time was spent on things that could wait until the aircraft achieved hover test. Too bad an important aircraft is going to be developed by some other company one day.

Nice work too all workers