Roudy
Diamond Member
- Mar 16, 2012
- 59,493
- 17,804
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Welcome to the new Air Force:
Supersonic Drones Can Outmaneuver Humans. So Why Do We Still Need Pilots? - Businessweek
The F-16 is familiar to airplane enthusiasts as the nimble American jet fighter, in service since the 1970s, with a nose like a heron with a severe underbite. Last week saw the maiden flight of the QF-16, which is just an F-16 with one modification: no pilot inside.
Drones are everywhere these days, from battlefields to toy stores and music videos, but most are slow, relatively underpowered, and valuable only because they can stay in the air for long periods of time or because they’re cheap. This QF-16, on the other hand, is a drone with an afterburner that can fly at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound. In its first test flight from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, the plane executed a barrel roll as well as a “split S”—a (very fun-sounding) move in which the plane flips over onto its back and then does half a loop so it ends up headed, right-way-up, in the opposite direction—before executing a perfect landing back at the base.
Six formerly mothballed F-16’s have been retrofitted into QF-16’s, according to Boeing (BA) spokesperson Michelle Shelhamer, and next week they’ll be flown—by actual pilots sitting inside them—to their new home at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
The US Navy is giving up on fighter pilots and turning to drones
The US Navy is planning to stop using crewed fighter jets in the coming years, according to Navy secretary Ray Mabus, turning instead to uncrewed aerial vehicles and drones to perform missions at sea, on land, and in the air. Speaking at the Sea-Air-Space 2015 conference on Wednesday, Mabus said that the currently used F-35 Lightning fighter "should be, and almost certainly will be, the last [crewed] strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly."
By moving away from crewed aircraft, Mabus said the Navy could develop new fighting craft without needing to factor in the pilot's safety, a process that extended the time and cost of projects. "Removing a human from the machine can open up room to experiment with more risk, improve systems faster, and get them to the fleet quicker." To push the drone agenda, Mabus said he planned to create a new office for uncrewed technology in the Navy and appoint a deputy assistant director to champion the technology.
Supersonic Drones Can Outmaneuver Humans. So Why Do We Still Need Pilots? - Businessweek
The F-16 is familiar to airplane enthusiasts as the nimble American jet fighter, in service since the 1970s, with a nose like a heron with a severe underbite. Last week saw the maiden flight of the QF-16, which is just an F-16 with one modification: no pilot inside.
Drones are everywhere these days, from battlefields to toy stores and music videos, but most are slow, relatively underpowered, and valuable only because they can stay in the air for long periods of time or because they’re cheap. This QF-16, on the other hand, is a drone with an afterburner that can fly at one-and-a-half times the speed of sound. In its first test flight from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, the plane executed a barrel roll as well as a “split S”—a (very fun-sounding) move in which the plane flips over onto its back and then does half a loop so it ends up headed, right-way-up, in the opposite direction—before executing a perfect landing back at the base.
Six formerly mothballed F-16’s have been retrofitted into QF-16’s, according to Boeing (BA) spokesperson Michelle Shelhamer, and next week they’ll be flown—by actual pilots sitting inside them—to their new home at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
The US Navy is giving up on fighter pilots and turning to drones
The US Navy is planning to stop using crewed fighter jets in the coming years, according to Navy secretary Ray Mabus, turning instead to uncrewed aerial vehicles and drones to perform missions at sea, on land, and in the air. Speaking at the Sea-Air-Space 2015 conference on Wednesday, Mabus said that the currently used F-35 Lightning fighter "should be, and almost certainly will be, the last [crewed] strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly."
By moving away from crewed aircraft, Mabus said the Navy could develop new fighting craft without needing to factor in the pilot's safety, a process that extended the time and cost of projects. "Removing a human from the machine can open up room to experiment with more risk, improve systems faster, and get them to the fleet quicker." To push the drone agenda, Mabus said he planned to create a new office for uncrewed technology in the Navy and appoint a deputy assistant director to champion the technology.