The Dragonfly program was founded with the primary goal of validating the Canard Rotor/Wing concept; this entails converting from rotary-wing flight to fixed-wing flight and back to rotary-wing. In 1996, the Canard Rotor/Wing was selected, but never funded, by the Navy for an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program. Over the course of 1997, DARPA became aware of the CRW concept and its potential and agreed to fund a technology demonstration program jointly with the Boeing Corporation in May 1998.