Now this is interesting, courtesy of occasional reader Tom:
A jet airliner was flown over south-west England recently with no pilot in the cockpit, to test technology that might one day be used to control swarms of unpiloted aircraft from a single fighter jet.
The two-hour flight, conducted by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and UK defence firm Qinetiq on 30 October 2006, was designed to assess whether a fighter pilot could someday control several uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs) from their own plane.
“The big burning question at the MoD is how to operate UAVs in attack missions in the future,” says Kevin Williams, project manager at Qinetiq. “We wanted to see if a fast-jet pilot, flying a Tornado perhaps, could control a pack of four UAVs in deep, target attack situations while still doing his own job.”
Of course, it’s no great leap from a skilled airborne operator flinging his UAVs into the fight in order to tunnel a safe passage through an integrated air defense system to having the same guy do it from a computer monitor the ground.
At the end of the day, it may be that the only justification for manned strike fighters in the out-years is the fact that in a close air support environment, with friendlies and hostiles in close proximity, the folks calling for support are going to want actual eyeballs on the battle area and a voice they can associate with a flight path rather than the same combination looking at a two-dimensional monitor somewhere safely in the rear.
Sometimes I can’t escape the feeling that I got it while the getting was good. Still, as we say, even these are somebody’s future good old days.
Shipmates,
Well, looking outside the box, perhaps there’s a market for being able to control an airliner, or other large A/C from another airborne platform.
Seeing’s how pretty much all modern airliners are fly-by-wire anyway, it wouldn’t take much at all to add a remote control system that would allow another aircraft to take over control inflight and land it, in the event the aircrew was disabled for some reason… such as a birdstrike, or, say, perhaps a highjacking attempt.
Be pretty awkward for a highjacking crew to take over the controls only to find themselves frozen out of any actual physical control of the aircraft, you know?
Just thinking out loud.
Respects
Commercial (passanger) airplane with out a pilot on board? Ain’t gonna happen any time soon. You gonna fly in a commercial airplane that doesn’t have a manned flight deck? Me either. We have systems now that do all the above with someone that knows what to do sitting there in the event of a failure. There may be applicatons of UAVs for the military, but commercial aviation…not.
I’m thinking you’re right on for CAS. You’d want eyeballs looking for smoke before pickling time.
Cap’n,
Maybe something there for Fedex/DHL/UPS, not so much for the birds with peoples in the back. As for CAS, I prefer mine with real live Naval Ayveeaytors on board, or even a Zoomie in a pinch…
AW1,
What happens when they hijack the box not the plane?
Least the old fashioned way they die in the attempt.
Just shows that original aviation invention is still strong in Britain. Frank Whittle and Sidney Camm would approve.
The Brits invent the concept, the Americans make it commercially viable. That’s been the pattern in the past–wonder if history will repeat itself, or a new dynamic will play out.
“What happens when they hijack the box not the plane?”
With all the dopes writing viruses and spyware, and more wireless knowledge, and with national support (ah, I didn’t say someone like a nation like Iran), talk about having to have a really secure data link to keep the technology from being turned to RTB and drop the ordnance just as flaring for landing…..
“EGADS! It makes the ganglia twitch!” – Dr. Emilio Lazardo