Global Hawk Spy Plane Offers Glimpse of Future Robotics at Xconomy 6X6 Event on December 1

Think of it as a flying beluga whale. At least, that’s the way Xconomy’s San Diego editor Bruce Bigelow, once described the Global Hawk robot spy plane. And I have to say, I am personally very excited that this reconnaissance craft extraordinaire will be one of the featured presentations at our 6X6: Six Cities, Six Big Tech Ideas conference in downtown Boston on December 1.

Get your tickets here—the saver rate ends on Thursday.

Built by Northrop Grumman, the Global Hawk was conceived in San Diego as the modern, robotic manifestation of Lockheed’s famous U-2 spy plane. Under development for well over a decade, it has a bulbed-out nose, a ‘V’-shaped tail, and long, thin wings that span 130.9 feet to be exact. But the important part is that it is built to fly autonomously for 35-40 hours at 65,000 feet-packing more than a ton of surveillance equipment from infrared and electro-optical sensors to synthetic aperture radar.

We are pumped that Bill Walker, chief of Global Hawk business development, will be one of our speakers. Walker reports he is bringing some cool video of the Global Hawk in action to share with our audience. “Global Hawk is a peek into the future of autonomous aircraft that can provide rapid access to remote areas of the world,” he says. Among the potential missions, for war and peace:

—track ground forces over a large area, and identify/locate small targets

—monitor shipping and maritime domain access for protection and threat assessment

—observe/assess large disaster areas to support relief operations

—collect scientific information about weather and climate, including hurricanes

—provide a communications gateway in the sky to connect military troops on the ground and in the air, or to connect first responders in a disaster area

Walker’s presentation and videos should be fascinating, but they are just one part of 6X6, which features one potentially game-changing tech company from each of Xconomy’s six cities—not to mention a special opening keynote from Xconomist Stephen Wolfram, the visionary founder and CEO of Wolfram Research and creator of Mathematica and the Wolfram|Alpha search engine.

You can see the rest of the lineup and get tickets here. We are looking forward to seeing you on Dec. 1.

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.