Authored by Chris Young via Interesting Engineering,
Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences has begun installing the wings on the X-65, an experimental drone developed under DARPA's Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program.
Technicians mounting the wings onto the X-65 experimental drone.Aurora Flight Sciences / XThe installation brings DARPA and Aurora a step closer to flying the unconventional uncrewed aircraft, which was designed to test flight control using only bursts of pressurized air instead of conventional moving surfaces.
The X-65's active flow controlThe X-65's key innovation lies in its active flow control (AFC) system. Fourteen AFC effectors embedded across the aircraft's lifting surfaces use jets of high-pressure air to manage roll, pitch, and yaw.
This will either replace or supplement traditional flaps and rudders. The X-65 incorporates both systems to establish performance baselines before transitioning to AFC-only operation. Essentially, it will allow researchers to flight test the technology while minimizing risk.
"The X-65 conventional surfaces are like training wheels to help us understand how AFC can be used in place of traditional flaps and rudders," Dr. Richard Wlezien, former CRANE program manager at DARPA, said in a 2024 press statement. Sensors will compare the two approaches to evaluate potential benefits.
Aurora Flight Sciences announced the wing's arrival on social media, noting that the components were built at its West Virginia facility. Integration is underway in Virginia, with the first flight now targeted for 2027.
Novel effectors to enhance survivabilityThe X-65 features a co-planar joined wing configuration with triangular wing sections on each side that merge at the tips, plus small extensions for a total wingspan of 30 feet.
The triangular wings support testing across multiple sweep angles and feature modular, swappable sections for future AFC configurations.
The aircraft also includes a twin vertical tail, a chin air intake, and a single exhaust. The uncrewed aircraft has a gross weight of approximately 7,000 lbs.
DARPA kick-started the CRANE program in 2020. Though Aurora has advanced to the detailed design and fabrication phases, the program has encountered delays and cost overruns, as reported by The War Zone.
Original flight plans for 2025 slipped after higher-than-expected prototype costs and supply chain issues. Pentagon funding for the effort since fiscal year 2024 has reached nearly $63 million.
Eliminating moving control surfaces could yield multiple advantages. Removing moving parts could result in improved aerodynamics and efficiency, particularly at high altitudes. Reduced mechanical complexity also offers potential weight savings, lower maintenance demands, and greater reliability. For military applications, such systems could have enhanced survivability against battle damage.
The technology holds particular promise for stealth aircraft. Traditional control surfaces create gaps and protrusions that increase radar cross-section and require constant adjustments in fly-by-wire systems. AFC effectors embedded flush with the airframe could help maintain smoother external contours and lower observability.
An artist’s render of the X-65 drone. Source: Aurora Flight Sciences / X Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 17:20With rate-hikes increasingly back 'on the table' fort Fed Chair Warsh's 'regime change' last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that cutting interest rates won't necessarily lead to a weaker dollar - arguing that "you can have a strong dollar when rates are being cut" because if the fed is cutting because inflation is falling, while the economy stays strong - capital keeps flowing in and the dollar holds. Of course, that all depends on why the fed is cutting...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the Economic Club of New York, on June 23. Photographer: Krisanne Johnson/BloombergSpeaking on CNBC's Squawk Box on Wednesday, Bessent said the U.S. can return to 3% growth this year, that inflation will fall back to the Federal Reserve's target now that the Iran conflict has eased, and that artificial intelligence is on track to at least double productivity - the recipe for maintaining a strong dollar while cutting rates. He also defended the administration's emerging Iran deal and its handling of frozen Iranian assets.
The comments followed a Tuesday night speech at the Economic Club of New York's America 250 gala, where Bessent set out a five-part framework he calls economic statecraft, which he defined as the use of American economic power "in service of our sovereignty."
Citing Hamilton's view that a nation "ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply," he argued that decades of chasing the lowest cost had left the U.S. dependent in areas that matter: semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, shipbuilding, critical minerals and pharmaceuticals. A supply chain, he said, can no longer be judged on price alone, but on whether it survives a crisis, withstands coercion and keeps running through a pandemic or a cyberattack.
On the eve of America’s 250th anniversary, the most fitting way to honor those who founded this great nation is to meet the pressing challenges of our own time with the same resolve that they brought to theirs.
Last night at @EconClubNY, I made clear that under @POTUS’… pic.twitter.com/uNWTAwVcsU
Bessent said market access is now conditional, carrying "non-negotiable obligations" for partners that want U.S. capital and the dollar's plumbing while keeping their own markets closed. He also argued that whoever writes the standards for digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized finance will shape the century, and that those rules should be written in Washington. On financial leadership, he said there is "nothing accidental about the dollar's place in the world," calling reserve-currency status both an advantage and an obligation to police the system. The fifth principle was that the payoff is supposed to reach households, not only trading floors.
Wednesday morning, Bessent leaned on AI as the driver - citing the late Alan Greenspan's read of the 1990s and suggesting the current buildout, with hyperscalers such as Meta and Google set to spend on the order of $750 billion, could at least double productivity again. He credited financial deregulation with unlocking roughly $3 trillion in lending capacity, and said the deficit-to-GDP ratio could also carry "a three in front of it" by the end of President Trump's term, though he would not commit to progress this year.
On the Fed, Bessent said he is confident in Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and praised the move away from rigid forward guidance and dot-plot projections. He said the president understands that "the bond market has taken out more governments than howitzers," a warning that if inflation runs hot and the Fed hesitates, the bond market will tighten on its own.
The newest item was on Iran. Once Tehran's frozen assets are released under the interim deal, Bessent said, the Treasury will oversee them, probably through an escrow account run out of Doha, and "recycle" a large share into U.S. food and medicine, including corn, wheat, soybeans and pharmaceuticals. The arrangement turns a concession critics dislike into a farm-state selling point.
He also tied housing affordability to lower rates and more supply, blaming COVID-era mortgage lock-in for low turnover. The timing fit: Trump was set to sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act the same day.
Dollar Dominance 'Essential'According to Bessent, the dominance of the US dollar is "essential," telling CNBC: "if you look, the new Venezuela... the dollar is going to be the centerpiece of their trade... We're seeing in the Iranian negotiations, the Iranians will be invoicing in dollars. Everything we are doing is pushing the dollar back... we're reinforcing it."
.@SecScottBessent: "Dollar dominance is essential, and everything @POTUS is doing here — if you look, the new Venezuela... the dollar is going to be the centerpiece of their trade... We're seeing in the Iranian negotiations, the Iranians will be invoicing in dollars. Everything… pic.twitter.com/5IsPYo8aSh
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 24, 2026The latest move in the dollar came after the Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.5% to 3.75%, dropped its bias toward future cuts and signaled that a hike this year is possible, causing two-year yields to jump to their highest in more than a year.
Let's see if Bessent's prediction of - "Now that we're on the other side of it, prices come down" pans out. Energy shocks have a history of feeding into wages, services and expectations before they fade. The word transitory did real damage in 2021 and 2022 because it was obvious bullshit to cover for the fact that Biden-era policies amplified the damage from so much liquidity during Covid. Bessent may be right that the Iran spike proves temporary. The risk is that he is right about gasoline and wrong about the stickier core that tends to follow it.
Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 17:00Authored by Cory Franklin via RealClearWire,
Did Anthony Fauci manipulate the intelligence community (IC) investigation of the origin of COVID as outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claims?
Gabbard recently released previously unseen documents and communications during the COVID pandemic between the IC and the key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Anthony Fauci. She claims they show that Fauci and the IC coordinated the investigation of the origin of the COVID to suggest it was a natural occurrence rather than a laboratory leak. She further charges that the documents reveal Fauci's direct role in influencing and manipulating IC assessments in an attempt to discourage the lab-leak hypothesis.
It is not clear that the released information shows this, and a careful reading suggests a more complicated scenario. But what the messages do show is that an undue emphasis on Fauci's actions risks missing a more important point - the hidden connection between public health officials and the IC during the pandemic.
The two theories on where COVID originated are that the virus evolved naturally from bats to man via an intermediate animal host; or that the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The first was more widely accepted by scientists and most of the international press early in the pandemic, but the intermediate host has never been discovered so the theory remains speculative. The second theory, which has gained significant traction since initially being disparaged as conspiracy, is only circumstantial since no definitive proof exists. The answer as to how COVID originated remains unknown.
Where does Dr. Fauci, the government's point man in the pandemic, fit in? He acknowledges the possibility of a lab leak, but initially came down firmly on the side of natural origin - aggressively so. He and his colleagues, notably his boss NIH director Francis Collins, attempted to publicly silence proponents of the lab leak theory. The rub is that Fauci was tangentially involved in "gain of function" viral manipulation research done in Wuhan and clearly misled Congress about this involvement.
Because gain-of-function research could have been responsible for the development of the virus in the Wuhan lab, this means Fauci has a conflict of interest on the COVID source: He could bear some responsibility for the entire affair if this was indeed a lab leak. So he has reason other than scientific inquiry to support the animal host theory. He is aware of that and has written in the past about the necessity and the attendant danger of doing gain-of-function research. He now strenuously denies it had anything to do with COVID.
Enter the IC and Gabbard's document release.
There is uncertainty over whether Fauci frequented CIA offices early in the pandemic, something he was less than forthright about in his 2024 congressional testimony. It is unclear whether or how many times he was there, in part because a whistleblower claims the requirement to sign in was waived for Dr. Fauci. What is not in doubt are his contacts with the CIA after President Biden charged the IC with investigating the origin of COVID.
The CIA asked Fauci to provide recommendations for experts to consult in their investigation of the COVID origin; the extent of his influence on the agency's investigation is unclear. At the time, some officials, aware of the potential conflict of interest, questioned in the documents whether relying on recommendations from someone deeply involved in coronavirus research could create the perception of improper influence regarding their findings. Nevertheless, the IC employed the experts Fauci recommended, who were never publicly identified. Their names have been redacted in communications and the information they provided has never been released.
The lack of transparency by the public health community and the CIA caused Republicans, led by Dr. Rand Paul, to suspect Fauci selected his CIA consultants based on their opposition to the lab-leak theory. Further, Paul proposed there was a self-justifying loop of information in which the medical experts put their thumbs on the scale of the IC report supporting natural origin. Public health officials (and some politicians who saw the lab-leak theory as a potential scandal) then turned around and used the "doctored" IC report to support the conclusions they provided to the public.
Neither of these accusations is supported or refuted by the released communications.
Again, despite Gabbard's claims, there is no smoking gun in the released documents, and the IC did not reach a consensus on the origin of COVID. The larger point, however, is one the public knew little about: the incestuous connection between high-level public health officials and the IC during the pandemic. Making Fauci the bête noire does little to advance our knowledge of what actually happened or how to go forward.
This hardly exonerates Fauci: His actions bear scrutiny because of his disturbing pattern of behavior. (Criminal charges may be a bridge too far, and in any event he has a blanket presidential pardon). Besides misleading Congress about his involvement with gain-of-function research and his attempt to suppress the views of lab leak proponents, he obscured his connection with the IC investigation. When asked, he mocked it with a snide deflection as "a conspiracy that I parachuted in like Jason Bourne." In addition, and almost forgotten today, he confessed to deliberately lying to the American public in the New York Times about "herd immunity" to COVID. This was not, as some claim, the result of incomplete information; he admitted consciously dissembling.
There is still much to be learned about Fauci's IC connection. At the same time, the released documents reveal that the IC responded with its traditional "business as usual" secrecy, the pattern they have used since the JFK assassination and before. There is absolutely no national security or legal reason to withhold the names of the expert consultants referred by Fauci, those names which are still redacted today. Those consultants are not spies, their lives are not in danger, and the public deserves to know who they are and what opinions they shared with the CIA - it is, in the final analysis, a public health question.
Also, why has there been no disapproval registered by the public health community about secret engagements with the CIA? Do they approve of this secretive collusion rather than demanding transparency? After all, the larger point here isn't to spread blame for COVID. It's to better intercept the next pandemic.
This furtive cooperation, and not Fauci, is the crux of the issue generated by the released documents. The public has a right to know about clandestine meetings between public health officials and the CIA. And if true, it is not out of the realm of possibility that there was self-serving connivance between Fauci and the agency, or that a self-justifying information loop kept the American public at bay. What would the public reaction be to that? Especially if the COVID origin turned out to be a preventable occurrence.
To paraphrase Hillary Clinton's provocative question, "At this late date, what does it matter?" The origin of COVID is still uncertain. Yet what these documents reinforce is that, despite the fact COVID killed 1.2 million Americans and caused untold economic, physical, and emotional damage, there has still been no official national reckoning. Doesn't the public deserve better? It is inconceivable that there has been no national fact-finding commission on the order of the Warren Commission (where both the CIA and FBI did lie to investigators), the Challenger Commission, and the 9/11 Commission. Why have the medical community, the press, and leading politicians stopped asking questions about the most significant event of the first quarter of the 21st century, including the nexus between public health and the IC? This is a national embarrassment.
The Roman statesman Cicero explained it best when he said, "To be ignorant of what came before is to remain a child."
And when it comes to COVID, we have been treated like children.
Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive care physician and the author of "The COVID Diaries 2020-2024: Anatomy of a Contagion as It Happened."
Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 16:40