PLANES TO BE TESTED AT EDWARDS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Boeing's Phantom Works will build two unmanned combat aircraft that will be flight tested at Edwards Air Force Base as part of an effort to develop new war machines for the 21st century.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force selected Boeing over Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to build two aircraft for the $131 million, 42-month Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle program. The goal of the program is to prove it is possible to use unmanned aircraft to destroy enemy air defenses.

Flight tests will be conducted at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. The flight test work will be supported by a cadre of Phantom Works employees at Palmdale, said Phantom Works spokesman Dave Phillips.

``The program is proposed for Dryden. We're waiting for government concurrence,'' Phillips said.

Although the Phantom Works has facilities at Palmdale's Air Force Plant 42, the company will assemble the aircraft in St. Louis. Boeing officials in Seattle will be responsible for the mission control system and overall program management.

Boeing's unmanned vehicle will be a tailless, stealthy aircraft that will carry precision-guided weapons. Although the aircraft will not carry a pilot, a human operator will remotely release the aircraft's weapons.

The aircraft will each weigh about 8,000 pounds and be capable of carrying 2,000 pounds of weapons.

At the end of the program, the Air Force will make a decision as to whether to buy and field an operational force of unmanned combat aircraft by 2010.