Form was 281 Proteus and Model 401 Sierra on a fixed show at the Nellis Air Force for Aviation Nation 2025 base.
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, hosted the Aviation Nation 2025 Airshow on April 5-6, 2025. In addition to airline exhibitions, it was a group of aircraft displayed. Among these two unconventional planes, 281 Protests and 401 Series Model from Size vehicles.
“Protos and 401s were working in an incredibly important work for many years, and they will continue today,” said Greg Morris, head of the scary vehicles. “We are lucky to be able to take a short break in flight test schedules to share these aircraft with the audience.”
This was an important event for a plane specifically, as it was the first time Form 401 Sierra It was on the general screen. Our friend Steve Fortuson Among the visitors in the air garbage and taking pictures that you can see in this article were, giving us a closer look at these two exciting planes.
Form 281 Protests
Model 281 Proteus is designed for loiter highly a high altitude, which is achieved using two long -winged set Williams International FJ44-2E engines. Specifically, Proteus is designed to carry loads in the 2000 -pound category at heights that exceed 50,000 feet and stay at the station up to 14 hours.
For this reason, the bound vehicles are describing Protes as the most expensive high -cost research plane in the world. Protein missions include telecommunications, wireless communication, reconnaissance, air research, commercial imaging, and space launch.
The plane is optional, as the company describes as the tried missions and drones. It usually flies with a crew of two, while it can fly almost independent or control from a ground station when it is abnormal.
The 281 model flew for the first time in 1998, as it was flying more than 35 unique loads since then and still continues to have an advantage of the height research community, with more than 1000 trips and 4,500 hours of flight so far. In 2000, Proteus achieved three global records of height, which still list today: the height on the horizontal trip (62385 feet), the height (63,245 feet) and the height with a tonnage of 1000 kg (55,994 feet).
The plane displayed on NilesThe only 281 model that was built at all, and some interesting signs rose on the side. Interestingly, one of them indicated a snake strike during the landing, while another refers to the machine gun in the Proteus fold when the plane was inside.
Form 401 Sierra
The Model 401 Sierra project has been developed as a clean paper design for a low -cost manufacturing protester plane, is transported by one pilot, backed by one Torovan, and works on medium altitudes, with two identical cars. The development took only 24 months from the first concept to the first flight of the first model 401 in October 2017, six months after the second plane.
As a reference to the scaling vehicles earlier Effective support for a graceful response (ARes) Test Jet, the 401s of 401 is also known as “sons of Ares”, which is the god of war in Greek myths. Consequently, the two planes nicknamed the fibos and Demoos, the sons of Ares and the gods of fear and terrorism, were named, respectively. The borrowed names are also reflected in aircraft records, N401XP and N401XD, respectively.
The 401 model, also known as the Sierra by the company, is one of the most currently mysterious aircraft that is currently used to test the flying outside the army. After expanding the initial performance envelope, both planes began to conduct a useful development test for a wide range of customers.
In fact, restricted vehicles mentioned, the plane is able to integrate a variety of beneficial load systems with more than 80 cubic feet of the inner load volume and up to 2000 pounds of useful load weight. Among these may be a Laser -directed power systemAs shown in 2022 with a pods installed under the fuselage, which is characterized by an art that apparently indicates the laser.
We cannot exclude the possibility of testing flights to search for new capabilities to protect a directed energy plane. Let’s not forget that the 401 model was the first aircraft to be monitored with a mirror-like layer two years ago, before the appearance of similar coatings on the F-22S, F-35AS, F-35CS, and F-117S Work with Evaluation and Evaluation Units in the US Air Force.
