Defense News: DARPA’s X-76 passes key design review, moving runway-free aircraft closer to reality

 DARPA’s X-76 passes key design review, moving runway-free aircraft closer to reality

DARPA's X-76 aircraft, designed in cooperation with USSOCOM to break the trade-off between speed and agility, is set to move into the next production phase with Bell Textron.

By James Genn, Jerusalem Post, March 10, 2026

https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-889449

Artist’s concept for the SPRINT X-76, a proof-of-concept technology demonstrator that aims to demonstrate technologies

and concepts needed for runway-independent, high-speed flight. (photo credit: DARPA | Colie Wertz)

The X-76, an experimental aircraft developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has completed its Critical Design Review (CDR), the agency announced on Monday.

The X-76 will now enter the next production phase with Bell Textron, Inc., DARPA confirmed.

During this upcoming phase, a demonstrator X-76 will be constructed in order to review the manufacturing, integration, assembly, and ground testing processes.

The demonstrator aircraft will “mature technologies necessary for a transformational combination” of three capabilities, according to DARPA, namely to “achieve cruise at speeds exceeding 400 knots, hover in austere environments, and operate from unprepared surfaces.”

The X-76 program is a proof-of-concept technology demonstrator, with its flight test program seeking to “validate enabling technologies and integrated concepts that can be scaled to different-sized military aircraft,” DARPA announced previously.

The aircraft was developed under DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program, a DARPA-US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) cooperation.

SPRINT aims to “advance technologies that could break the long-standing military trade-off between the high speed of fixed-wing aircraft and the agile, runway-independent operations of vertical takeoff and landing platforms,” according to DARPA.

Artist’s concept for a future operational aircraft based on SPRINT X-76 technology. In this rendering, an optionally piloted aircraft cruising at speeds up to 450 knots. (credit: DARPA | Colie Wertz)

Runway-independent, vertical-lift, jet-like cruise 

The X-76 will “drive innovative, runway-independent, vertical-lift capability with jet-like cruise performance” and “inform future needs” of the Pentagon, DARPA stated.

SPRINT program manager US Navy Cmdr. Ian Higgins commented on the program, saying, “For too long, the runway has been both an enabler and a tether, granting speed but creating a critical vulnerability.”

“With SPRINT, we're not just building an X-plane; we're building options. We're working to deliver the option of surprise, the option of rapid reinforcement, and the option of life-saving speed, anywhere on the globe, without needing any runway,” Higgins said.

The aircraft started phase two testing in May 2025, DARPA noted, stating that phase three is slated to begin in early 2028.

Bell Textron, Inc. was awarded the contract for phases two and three in June 2025.

DARPA is an independent research and development agency within the US Department of Defense.

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