The United States military is working to transform the Avengers' flying Helicarrier from movie fiction to real world fact. They plan on building a helicarrier of their own to launch armies of drones.

The US military recently invited contractors to submit ideas for future flying aircraft carriers. Looking to the future, they hope the flying fortresses will someday carry, launch and recover multiple swarms of drones from anywhere in the world.

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DARPA, the Pentagon's advanced military technology research agency, recently said military air operations typically rely on large, manned, robust aircraft. Some of these missions, however, are too risky for pilots and aircraf.

While small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can reduce or eliminate these risks, they sorely lack the speed, range and the endurance of larger aircraft.

That's why DARPA believes the solution lies in the pages of comic books, specifically, the Avengers' helicarrier. They plan on using the Avengers-style platform to rapidly carry drones wherever needed.

'We want to find ways to make smaller aircraft more effective, and one promising idea is enabling existing large aircraft, with minimal modification, to become 'aircraft carriers in the sky',' said Dan Patt, DARPA project manager.

He adds they envision an innovative launch and recovery concept for new UAS designs that will couple with recent advances in small payload design and collaborative technologies.

They have called the new project the "Distributed Airborne Capabilities." It's likely to use a plane similar to a B-52 Stratofortress, a B-1B Lancer or a C-130 Hercules cargo plane.

Apart from the Helicarrier project, DARPA is also developing something called the Hydra Project. This project aims to develop a network of undersea motherships capable of deploying both underwater and aerial drones.

TagsDARPA, Avengers Helicarrier, Distributed Airborne Capabilities, Hydra Project