F16 Drone video, what next?

[britfrog 180]

http://video.boeing.com/services/player/bcpid1173939806001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAAAukPAlqE~%2coAVq1qtdRjwBrIkHYj2MSytJiEK9s5fy&bclid=0&bctid=2684464741001

[ddavid 149]

Good catch, Nigel - Wonder if the screens in the remote control room go dark red when the drone pulls 7G...

"What next?" - good question. Drones shooting drones down?" Kama-Kazi" attack drones? Crew-less Ryan Air style cheap flights?

I'll stop there before my mind explodes...

Cheers - Dai.

[J G 927]

"What next?" - good question......... Crew-less Ryan Air style cheap flights?

 

 

You can see it cant you..  "In case of an emergency, oxygen masks will droop down and crew members will abandon you to your fate as they contact their lawyers..."

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

I feel there will be a time when there will be no need for a man in the cockpit at all on military operations. With converted aircraft and new build UCAVs the next war will be fought purely from keyboards! After that there will be no need even for the aircraft at all. Western pilots will pitch their skills against enemy pilots in a virtual world, such as a highly sophisticated CFS. the scores would go up on a board and after a certain amount of time whoever has the most points is the winner! War over!  Re airliners, the idea of an unpiloted aircraft has already been mooted. However it was realised that passengers would feel a bit more relieved to know that there was a real person up front, even if he was busy screwing the flight attendant whilst a computer flew the plane!

In the 1970s experiments were made with uncrewed ships, they were sent out from japan to a variety of ports steered only bt gps and computers. the way it worked was that a live crew would unmoor the ship , take it out of harbour and set it on it's way. The crew would then be taken off by launch. when the ship was near it's destination then a local crew would embark and bring the ship into port. Several were tried, the first part went ok, but none of the ships were ever seen again!

In many countries now there are driverless trains operating, in Britain the Docklands Light Railway is one such system. These of course are easier to control that a free ranging vehicle.

Driverless cars and trucks are also being tested and eventually the need to learn to drive or even know where to go will be largely redundant!.......which is why your Sat Nav will sometimes try to drive you off a cliff or through a river, it wants to eliminate you!

[allardjd 1,853]

This is more of a continuation of an old program than anything new. They've been doing this for some time with older types. I saw a QF-4 Phantom II at an airshow recently and they said they were doing a dozen QF-4s a year. I heard recently that the F-4 airframes that are suitable candidates are pretty much exhausted and that may explain why they've moved on to F-16s. They retain pilot controls so the Q-birds can be flown by a human as well as remotely. I expect the technology is pretty well settled and only needs to be adapted a bit to go from one type to another.

 

John

[Andrew Godden 945]

This is more of a continuation of an old program than anything new. They've been doing this for some time with older types. I saw a QF-4 Phantom II at an airshow recently and they said they were doing a dozen QF-4s a year. I heard recently that the F-4 airframes that are suitable candidates are pretty much exhausted and that may explain why they've moved on to F-16s. They retain pilot controls so the Q-birds can be flown by a human as well as remotely. I expect the technology is pretty well settled and only needs to be adapted a bit to go from one type to another.

John

 

Very true, John, definitely not new.  The US Navy were using remotely piloted Grumman F6F-5K 'Hellcat' drones flying from the USS Boxer (CV-21) in 1952, during the Korean War.  They were actually used in combat missions in a ground attack role.

 

Cheers

Andrew

[PCAviator 30]

 

This is more of a continuation of an old program than anything new. They've been doing this for some time with older types. I saw a QF-4 Phantom II at an airshow recently and they said they were doing a dozen QF-4s a year. I heard recently that the F-4 airframes that are suitable candidates are pretty much exhausted and that may explain why they've moved on to F-16s. They retain pilot controls so the Q-birds can be flown by a human as well as remotely. I expect the technology is pretty well settled and only needs to be adapted a bit to go from one type to another.

John

 

Very true, John, definitely not new.  The US Navy were using remotely piloted Grumman F6F-5K 'Hellcat' drones flying from the USS Boxer (CV-21) in 1952, during the Korean War.  They were actually used in combat missions in a ground attack role.

 

Cheers

Andrew

 

 

Didn't know that.... Very interesting!

[allardjd 1,853]

A supervisor I worked for early in my career was in the US Army Air Corps post-WWII but before it became the USAF in 1947.  He was stationed on a Pacific island and serviced remote piloted B-17s that were outfitted to fly through the plume from the early nuclear tests at Bikini, sampling radiation levels and collecting samples of airborne particulate. 

 

He said there was an early television camera in the cockpit, focused mainly on the instrument panel, so that the remote pilot could read the primary flight instruments.  None of the instrument data was transmitted, just a television image of the steam gauges on the panel.  I guess the flight controls must have been equally primitive.  That's really a pretty innovative way to do it, given the time and the state of the technology.

 

John

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Don't forget we were using unmanned aircraft even before that, the DeHavilland Queen Bee was a pilotless Tiger Moth used as a target in WW2

[britfrog 180]

Don't forget we were using unmanned aircraft even before that, the DeHavilland Queen Bee was a pilotless Tiger Moth used as a target in WW2

 

yes but if that crashed into someones house it may have dislodged a roof tile

[Andrew Godden 945]

 

Don't forget we were using unmanned aircraft even before that, the DeHavilland Queen Bee was a pilotless Tiger Moth used as a target in WW2

 

yes but if that crashed into someones house it may have dislodged a roof tile

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

The Aphrodite project in WWII, in which JFK's brother Joseph lost his life involved full size drone bombers loaded with explosives.  They were flown by crews who then bailed out and the AC was controlled remotely from another AC from that point on. 

 

John