A Boeing A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter crashed on July 28 at the company’s Victorville, Calif., test site. Boeing says the aircraft autorotated to the ground 1.5 mi. from its planned landing point and rolled onto its side.

The mishap occurred at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time inside the airport traffic area at Victorville. The aircraft, serial A007, is owned by the U.S. Army’s Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) and was being used for tests of the A160T’s optimum-speed rotor.

A160Ts were grounded for three months after one crashed in December 2007 at Victorville. That incident was traced to a flight-control sensor malfunction. Boeing says it is too early to say whether the latest incident will affect flight operations.

AATD’s aircraft was one of 10 A160Ts in operation. One is owned by the program’s original sponsor, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), and eight are owned by Special Operations Command.

The crash is not expected to affect the combatant command’s deployment of two A160s to Latin America for operational assessment in the counternarcotics mission. These aircraft, now in transit, are equipped with the Darpa-developed Forester foliage-penetration radar.

In March, Boeing launched company-funded production of the A160T at its Mesa, Ariz., helicopter plant, with plans to build an initial 21 aircraft in anticipation of customer orders. The first of these is scheduled to be completed by year’s end.

Photo: Boeing