Dornier/Lockheed X-55A Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA)
While composite use in aircraft construction dates to the late 1970s, aircraft manufacturers are constantly looking for more advanced ways to produce aircraft faster and cheaper using composites. The USAF was particularly interested in seeing if such construction techniques could be used in producing cargo aircraft.
With this in mind, it issued a requirement for a single test aircraft around 2007, termed the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA). Lockheed Martin won the contract in 2008, partnered with Fairchild-Dornier; the ACCA would use the Dornier 328JET as a basis. Speed was part of the ACCA concept, so the Lockheed/Dornier aircraft was designed in five months, then built in less than two years. Designated X-55A by the USAF in 2009, it first flew in June of that year.
Only the nose and wings of the aircraft comes from the original Dornier 328JET--the rest is a new aircraft, with the entire tail section constructed as one piece, and the fuselage in two pieces, all of advanced composites. The result was a longer and wider aircraft than the original. Built quicker and half as expensive as a conventional transport aircraft of the same size, the X-55 proved the ACCA concept. Since it was always intended as a testbed, the X-55 was never placed into production, and once the research period was finished in 2014, the aircraft was retired and donated to the Joe Davies Airpark at Palmdale, California, next door to the Plant 42 facility (the legendary "Skunk Works") where the aircraft was designed and built.
I admit the existence of this aircraft was news to me; I knew it was a Dornier 328, but that was about it. Most of the markings have been preserved, but it looks like the X-55 had a Skunk Works Flower skunk on the tail, along with the badge of USAF Systems Command. It was an interesting and curious sight. I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but the Joe Davies Airpark is on very restricted hours due to coronavirus, and we arrived there after the park had closed.
EDIT (June 2023): I was able to get a better picture on the return trip in 2023, one without barbed wire in the shot.
Dornier/Lockheed X-55A Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA)
While composite use in aircraft construction dates to the late 1970s, aircraft manufacturers are constantly looking for more advanced ways to produce aircraft faster and cheaper using composites. The USAF was particularly interested in seeing if such construction techniques could be used in producing cargo aircraft.
With this in mind, it issued a requirement for a single test aircraft around 2007, termed the Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA). Lockheed Martin won the contract in 2008, partnered with Fairchild-Dornier; the ACCA would use the Dornier 328JET as a basis. Speed was part of the ACCA concept, so the Lockheed/Dornier aircraft was designed in five months, then built in less than two years. Designated X-55A by the USAF in 2009, it first flew in June of that year.
Only the nose and wings of the aircraft comes from the original Dornier 328JET--the rest is a new aircraft, with the entire tail section constructed as one piece, and the fuselage in two pieces, all of advanced composites. The result was a longer and wider aircraft than the original. Built quicker and half as expensive as a conventional transport aircraft of the same size, the X-55 proved the ACCA concept. Since it was always intended as a testbed, the X-55 was never placed into production, and once the research period was finished in 2014, the aircraft was retired and donated to the Joe Davies Airpark at Palmdale, California, next door to the Plant 42 facility (the legendary "Skunk Works") where the aircraft was designed and built.
I admit the existence of this aircraft was news to me; I knew it was a Dornier 328, but that was about it. Most of the markings have been preserved, but it looks like the X-55 had a Skunk Works Flower skunk on the tail, along with the badge of USAF Systems Command. It was an interesting and curious sight. I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but the Joe Davies Airpark is on very restricted hours due to coronavirus, and we arrived there after the park had closed.
EDIT (June 2023): I was able to get a better picture on the return trip in 2023, one without barbed wire in the shot.