Notably in the identical week {that a} Chinese language ekranoplan design emerged, DARPA introduced the cancellation of its Liberty Lifter floor impact seaplane program.
First reported by Aviation Week on Jul. 7, 2025, then corroborated by Protection Information on Jul.9, the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company, generally often known as DARPA, referred to as time on the Liberty Lifter undertaking in June. Whereas this system concluded that such a design can be possible to provide, extra work is required to bridge the gaps between the aviation and maritime regulatory and operational frameworks that ekranoplans sit in.
New: DARPA has ended the Liberty Lifter program to construct an experimental seaplane demonstrator.
— Brian Everstine (@beverstine) July 7, 2025
As we reported in our article concerning the new Chinese language design, an ekranoplan makes use of the aerodynamic idea of floor impact to journey at excessive speeds simply above the floor of water (or, much less generally, land). Ekranoplans are often constructed as seaplanes to permit the car to soundly function on the waters’ floor when under minimal floor impact speeds. We delve into the historical past of ekranoplans additional in that article. We delve into the historical past of ekranoplans additional in that article, and we famous that fashionable applied sciences may probably assist ekranoplans overcome a few of their prior disadvantages:
With earlier ekranoplan improvement, a serious drawback has been the matter of flight management and security. As they’re fully reliant on floor impact whereas travelling at pace, any small interruption to the pocket of air created under the craft induced both by pilot error – trying to journey at too excessive an altitude, or an incorrect angle of assault, for instance – or surprising interruptions within the floor under might be disastrous.
Fashionable simulation expertise, together with large developments in autopilot capabilities, might permit for this drawback to be sufficiently mitigated to permit for routine service. Ekranoplans have even now been proposed as an electric-powered various to civilian ferry companies, which might require security ranges effectively above and past these thought-about acceptable for navy craft.
DARPA’s accomplice in growing the Liberty Lifter was Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of Boeing. Aurora’s idea resembled a standard flying boat, that includes massive wings and eight turboprop engines. In contrast to most ekranoplan designs, Liberty Lifter was meant to each function in floor impact in addition to at larger altitudes as much as 10,000 ft – the latter at the price of effectivity.
The demonstrator would have roughly matched the cargo capability of a C-130 Hercules, with the potential to scale as much as a bigger C-17 equal design sooner or later. Liberty Lifter would have mixed the strategic and tactical airlift and logistics features of those plane with the independence of not being reliant on runways. Such an idea would have in depth utility within the Pacific theatre, notably if confronted with a battle that positioned airfields at excessive danger of assault.
Try our new video! Aurora’s Liberty Lifter seaplane idea for @DARPA maximizes effectivity by flying in floor impact and offers quick, heavy-lift transport that doesn’t require an airstrip or transport port. pic.twitter.com/YNMFh2Ol22
— Aurora Flight Sciences (@AuroraFlightSci) September 24, 2024
Talking to Protection Information, a consultant from Aurora Flight Sciences stated: “By the Liberty Lifter program, we had been in a position to present the viability of the design and the feasibility of novel manufacturing strategies. Aurora is pleased with the technical developments we made by means of the preliminary design of Liberty Lifter, and we anticipate to use these learnings to future packages.”
The reference to future packages suggests this is not going to be the tip for U.S. floor impact designs, even when Liberty Lifter itself will go no additional. There may be clearly a want for amphibious transport plane throughout the U.S. navy, with the proposed however now paused C-130 floatplane improvement being a key instance.
U.S. forces have undertaken numerous coaching sorties alongside the ShinMaywa US-2 seaplane constructed and operated by Japan, noting its potential for a variety of maritime-focused roles. Nonetheless, as an plane primarily designed for search and rescue duties, the US-2 lacks a rear cargo ramp which is a crucial function for the transport position. The Liberty Lifter, for instance, was envisaged to have the ability to carry and shortly load/offload armored automobiles in addition to standardized transport containers.
