EADS Barracuda

The EADS Barracuda was a jet powered unmanned aerial vehicle built as a technology demonstrator by the European aerospace company EADS, the predecessor of Airbus. Development formally began in 2003 with Germany and Spain as the main supporting nations, and the aircraft was kept secret until it was shown at the 2006 International Aerospace Exhibition, where it was described as the largest unmanned aircraft yet produced in Europe. Its fuselage was made entirely of carbon fibre, it carried a single Pratt and Whitney JT15D turbofan and a long payload bay for reconnaissance sensors, and it used no hydraulics apart from the landing gear. The first prototype crashed at Mar Menor in Spain on 23 September 2006; a second prototype was completed in November 2008, and test campaigns included flights at Goose Bay in Canada in 2009. The aircraft was retired after six test campaigns, and its technologies were later reused on the Eurodrone and the Future Combat Air System.