Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Maybe Popular Mechanics could try publishing without an editor. I mean, if they are so keen on removing the pilot from the cockpit, why not the editor from the publication loop?
Seriously, considering the state of journalism today, would anyone really notice?
Yes, they would, Tim. The quality of reporting would improve.
Seriously, Lex, unmanned aviation parallels the guided missile craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The technology is useful, but has been wildly oversold by people who don’t work in the field. I do work in the field…and can assure you that you can train a TACAIR pilot a lot faster than you can write the software to replace him.
Remember, the human brain is versatile, easily reprogrammable, good at fuzzy logic…and can be manufactured by unskilled labor.
And the “update cycle” on a pilot is a lot faster…when the other guy comes back saying “don’t try that, it darn near killed me!” The CM…well, they don’t come home much.
Regarding that unskilled labor, If I’m not mistaken, those manufacturers were often manufactured in trailer parks. Mike, that there is funny.
I do work in the field also, figuratively and literally. Even the advocates don’t realize its full capabilities. We’re in the explosive tech growth phase of UAVs, or UxVs for that matter. We’re flying the Sopwith Camels of UAVs right now. The human interfaces are like running Windows 1.0b on a 33 KHz 8086 machine right now, manufacturing quality can be Yugo-ish, TTPs only use 20% of what they are capable of (Pred porn) and yet they are absolute game changers. The unblinking eye splits the difference between snapshots and humint.
Vertrep, logistics support, force pro, 24/7 ISR over mom; these are all ripe for UAV action.
The human brain gets tired, makes random errors, is frail, passes out in the break, has a maximum bandwidth of processing and min response time, etc.
If it is dull, dirty, or dangerous, UAVs will be doing it.
“”Only the spirit of attack, born in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.” (Galland)
They are still manned, just remotely.
Yup. People forget the remote operation part. One advantage that UAVs have in spades is that you can size the crew to the mission, not the airframe. A big issue for ISR.
Mike, “…can be manufactured by unskilled labor.” is a great description. LOL
Ron,
yup… simple assembly instructions, too. Tab “A” into slot “B”, some adjustment may be required… heh…..
Mike! You owe me a keyboard! Mind if I steal that last line?
Lex, wouldn’t you like to be in your theater chair, beer on one side, chips and salsa on the other, your virtual reality suit on, seeing through cameras slaved to the movements of your helmeted head, flying into real combat in the safety of your virtual cockpit?
Feel free. I stole it myself.
Lessee: #3 Next Step is to take the pilot out. #9 Next Step is to put the pilot in. Are they paying attention?
When is the next generation fighter? At least 20 years out? So it seems logical that then, or sometime in the reactively near future, the pilot will be out. Not necessarily because of the skill factor, but cost and the non-ability to take 20 plus Gs.
PS Skill might be a factor. A computer beat maybe the best chess player who ever lived almost 10 years ago. Aerial fighting is complicated, but child’s play to a computer.
“…but child’s play to a computer.”
Obviously you didn’t read Mike M’s comments, above…
Oh, didn’t know it was gospel
I wonder if PopMech read the article about our brethren in blue losing control of a Reaper and having to shoot it down with a manned jet?
Pickin’ nits, here. But the decade ends on December 31st of next year. The Gregorian Calendar starts with the Year One A.D., not zero.
Oh, don’t get me going here…..
I was just having that same conversation with a fellow, trying to explain how the whole “decade” thing worked.
Of course, it’s all really skewed anyway, since Jesus was likely born between 4 & 6 BC….. In April, probably.
Being an 21 Aug baby, this always amused me:
http://www.jesusonian.org/index.cfm?linkID=793
It makes sense to me.
“”Only the spirit of attack, born in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.” (Galland)
He must be rolling in his grave.
The Infantry?…
Indeed. I can see a day where a FAC on the ground can control a UAV that has been “pitched” over to him from afar, dutifully and mindlessly hanging out waiting for its call to glory. There’s your customer support. If it crashes, no CSAR required. Just toss another one down range. The technology is there now, and with things like Rover we are inching our way in that direction.
…where will those with unchecked egos go to learn lessons in humility…
Put ‘em in the Huey II sim with me for an hour.
I’ve heard F-16 drivers scream like the designated victims in a zombie apocalypse…
Fighter pilots are obsolete as the US doesn’t actually go to WAR anymore. The future or US aviation is to put lawyers in the cockpit and drop miranda warnings on our enemies.
Heh.
Lawyers dropping Miranda warnings. I like that.
No, we’re going to hang the lawyers on the wings, and have them hand-deliver the Miranda warnings.
If we launch Lawyers using Sidewinders, I’d certainly go for that. They could even choose to where helmets or not. We’d let those who ride decide.
…where will those with unchecked egos go to learn lessons in humility…
Better question: where will the blame go when something goes wrong?
Failing to properly clean the console and joystick of Cheeto’s crumbs, resulting in stuck command key inputs and eventual loss of vehicle to include mission failure.
Either that, or the “Pepsi Syndrome” where the can of soda is inadvertently knocked over, spilling it’s contents onto the keyboard. See “China Syndrome” for a similar idea…
Cherry Koolaid is hard on keyboards as well. I found out in Engineering School that you will need to replace the keyboard soon after the incident.
Haven’t you heard? We don’t actually need fighter pilots or fighters anymore – why, we haven’t even had to use the F-22 in Afghanistan or Iraq!
(Why the USAF in it’s typical brilliance didn’t deploy a squadron over there just to say they did… I don’t know)