RARE
Q4
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk
Global Hawk
“Thirty hours aloft and nobody on board.”
Northrop Grumman · drone
NO PHOTO
Length
47 ft 7 in
Wingspan
130 ft 9 in
Max speed
340 kts
Range
12,300 nmi
Ceiling
60,000 ft
Engines
1x Rolls-Royce F137 turbofan
Crew
0
Built
45+
The RQ-4 Global Hawk has a bigger wingspan than a 737 and no cockpit at all. It climbs to 60,000 feet and watches half a continent at a time while its crew works in shifts on the ground.
Fun fact
In 2001 a Global Hawk flew from California to Australia non-stop — the first uncrewed aircraft to cross the Pacific.
How to spot one
Enormous straight wings, a whale-shaped nose hump, and a V-tail. If you see one low, it's landing at a base like Beale or Grand Forks.
Sounds like
A single muffled turbofan — but at 60,000 feet you will never hear it
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the Global Hawk from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook. Coming to iOS and Android.
Get Bogey