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Boeing

Phantom flyers to conjure up spectres of the future

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Why you can trust SCMP
David Wilson

The magic words Phantom Works suggest an occult organisation devoted to conjuring up ghosts. Granted, just about every product biotechnology wizards make these days glows in the dark.

Eyesores that spring to mind range from the genetically modified rabbit known as Alba, TK-1 - the Frankenstein fish designed by Taiwan's Taikong Corporation - and, doubtless coming soon from some outfit even more whacked out than the Raelians, Starchild, the world's first bioluminescent human.

Technology has, however, yet to achieve that degree of sophistication. Unless you count vaporware (promised software that may or may not eventually emerge), concocting ghosts appears beyond the capabilities of science's leading lights - probably because your average ghost is not technically alive.

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So what might the Phantom Works, which with Ethernet vies for the title of the spookiest term in the electronic field, actually be?

The answer of course is the whiz-bang headquarters of a huge company famous for its jumbo jets, whose very name is an anagram of 'big one', and which certainly does not need any free publicity even if it is in a steep nosedive. We are talking about Boeing, of course.

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The counterpart to Lockheed-Martin's Skunk Works, the Phantom Works, was founded in 1986 and is responsible for some of the most commanding machines ever to take to the skies. The Phantom Works website (www.boeing.com/phantom) boasts particularly about an invention which comes across as the best since the Wright brothers launched a glider from North Carolina's Kill Devil Hills in 1900: the Pelican ULTRA large transport aircraft.

The choice of name may seem peculiar since the bird in question is noted for its marine plunge-dive manoeuvre. That said, the craft does reflect another of the creature's attributes which, if more is more, ranks as positive: its size. Designed to carry 1,400 tonnes over 16,000 kilometres, the Pelican will be longer than a football field with a wingspan of about 500 feet (150 metres). The wing-surface area will cover more than an acre (exceeding 4,000 square metres).

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