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The 'Lockheed Martin Polecat' is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs division in Palmdale, California. "Polecat" is a colloquialism for a skunk, in an apparent reference to the popular "Skunk Works" nickname for the Advanced Development Programs division.
The Polecat, designated 'P-175', was funded internally by Lockheed Martin (as opposed to using United States Government funds) at the beginning of 2005, and was unveiled at the 2006 Farnborough Air Show.^[1][2] It was developed over a period of 18 months.^{[3] [4]} On December 18, 2006, the aircraft crashed due to an "irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate," cited by Lockheed Martin (though it wasn't until late March that the company acknowledged it publicly).

Contents

Specifications

References

Specifications

References

1. "Farnborough picture: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works releases picture of secret Polecat UAV." ''Flight International''. July 19, 2006.
2. "Aviation Week ShowNews Farnborough Day 4 E-zine." ''Aviation Week & Space Technology''. July 20, 2006.
3. "Skunk Works unveils secret Polecat UAV." Cook, N. and Sweetman, B. ''Jane's International Defense Review''. July 19, 2006.
4. "Lockheed Unveils Secret Polecat UAV Design." Butler, A. ''Aviation Week & Space Technology''. July 19, 2006.