The Lockheed Martin Polecat (company designation P-175) was an unmanned aerial vehicle by Lockheed Martin. It was developed by the company's Advanced Development Programs division in Palmdale, California.
Design and development Designated P-175, the Polecat was funded internally by Lockheed Martin (as opposed to using United States Government funds) at the beginning of 2005. The prototype was unveiled at the 2006 Farnborough Airshow."Farnborough picture: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works releases picture of secret Polecat UAV." Flight International. July 19, 2006. Retrieved July 12, 2013"Aviation Week ShowNews Farnborough Day 4 E-zine ." Aviation Week & Space Technology. July 20, 2006. It was developed over a period of 18 months.Butler, A. "Lockheed Unveils Secret Polecat UAV Design." Aviation Week & Space Technology. July 19, 2006.
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."Trimble, S. "What Killed the Polecat?." Flightglobal.com. July, 2007.
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