Scaled Composites Model 355 Old School

The Scaled Composites Model 355 Old School is an optionally piloted, full-scale proof-of-concept demonstrator that Scaled Composites designed and built, originally as the Firebird Demonstrator for Northrop Grumman, and that works as a medium-altitude long-endurance payload testbed. It has a twin-boom, bronco-tail, pusher layout with the wing and booms set far aft so that sensors under the fuselage have wide fields of regard, and planned seams let it be taken apart and shipped in a 40-foot container. It is 34.2 feet long with a 65-foot wingspan, an empty weight of 3,600 pounds and a maximum takeoff weight of 5,000 pounds. It was meant to be an uncrewed aircraft but was flown with a pilot to speed up testing, reaching first flight on 9 February 2010, eleven months after contract signature. Autonomous flights with a safety pilot aboard followed in January 2011, and it has flown many payload configurations. Scaled Composites owns and operates it.