NGC and Team N-UCAS have successfully tested navigation and control systems to be used in the tailless UAV’s carrier variant using an FA-18D from NAS Patuxent River:
“What we saw here today is cutting edge technology for integrating digital control of autonomous carrier aircraft operations, and most importantly, the capability to automatically land an unmanned air system aboard an aircraft carrier,” said Capt. Jaime Engdahl, N-UCAS Program Manager. “Successfully landing and launching a surrogate aircraft allows us to look forward to demonstrating that a tailless, strike-fighter- sized unmanned system can operate safely in the carrier environment.”
Demonstrating the UCAS-D system with a proven carrier aircraft, the F/A-18D, significantly reduces risk of landing an unmanned system aboard the ship for the first time. The F/A-18 surrogate aircraft, provided by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, is controlled with actual avionics and software that are being incorporated on X-47B UCAS-D aircraft.
“Surrogate testing allows us to evaluate ship systems, avionics systems, and early versions of the unmanned vehicle software with a pilot in the loop for safety,” said Glenn Colby, team lead for UCAS-D Aviation/Ship Integration. “With this we can verify our interfaces and functionality while minimizing the risk to an unmanned vehicle.”
Pretty cool.
So who gets the cut-pass grade from the LSO?
And did the pilot have his hands firmly clenched on the ejection ring?
I wonder…..does the pilot have to switch over to ‘manned a/c computer flight laws’ if he’s required to take control, and if so, how long does the changeover take?
Hmmm, somebody used his head for something more than hanging a baseball cap backwards.
Unusual. Management will doubtless crush him/her soon enough. Bad attitude. Next thing she/he’ll be saying competence is important, “diversity” by fiat and sub-rosa quotas are counter productive.
Can’t have that.
So will these UCAS pilots still demand crew rest, wear flight suits, talk with their hands, get flight pay, and act like general pains in the a**?
Will Top Gun 2043 be a convention of RC pilots who do zany, madcap stunts like switch pocket protectors and steal mechanical pencils? In place of Mav’s sunglasses, will they wear BCGs with tape on one temple? Zip around on mopeds? Will they be more Napoleon Dynamite than Pete Mitchell?
Only time will tell. But they will survive the crash.
More importantly…..will they know Dead Bug???
Or wear overly large and complicated watches?
They will follow in the footsteps of their tacticool fathers. http://tacticalol.com/tactical-uploads
I wonder what the pilot thought about his contribution to the effort of “minimizing the risk to an unmanned vehicle?”
In case he ever wanted an answer to the nagging question of what he’s fighting for. Didn’t we used to do just the opposite?
– Max
How many fighter pilots have been lost during the wars of the last 10 years? What advantage other than the elimination of the risk of the life of the pilot (and crew) does pilotless operation give you? What are the risks of removing the pilot to the success of the mission the plane is flying?
I think a lot of the ‘fog of war’ aspects could be ameliorated when the ‘pilot’ isn’t as worried about an immediate and direct threat to life and limb. Taking out a SAM battery while they’re shooting at you can be pretty disturbing I’m sure.
The only thing missing was the letters ” JAFO ” painted across the pilot’s helmet……
As long as the Pilot doesn’t replicate the enclosed line from the movie, Blue Thunder:
Frank Murphy: Grab your ankles and kiss your ass goodbye Jafo. We’re going down.
JAFO – stands for ” Just Another F^&king Observer “
RE: JAFO. Didn’t Chuck Yeager refer to the astronauts as “spam-in-a-can” SK1? LOL.
When Chuck Yeager was speaking at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum about 10 years ago someone asked him the obligatory “Why weren’t you in the space program?”
“Because I didn’t want to scrape the monkey poo off the seat before strapping in!”
In general, test pilots looked down on the space program. “Spam in a can,” was the colloquial expression used to describe an Astronaut. The earliest of the mercury capsules required the capsule be brought up on deck and sailors would get out the wrenches to let the Astronaut out. The hatch literally was bolted down and could not be opened from the inside.
What happens when the fleet goes to total EMCON? It would appear that “optionally piloted” AS would have to stand down unless they are autonomous.
Risk reduction, or risk diversion? It seems not everyone is a fan of UASs:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/al-qaeda-aerovironment-drone-monrovia.html
How quickly the cutting edge becomes the front line.
Even being a pilot, I can see the advantages of having a number of unmanned vehicles available to supplement the manned force. If the design/control problems could be figured out in an elegant way, who wouldn’t want say, a ‘wingman’ that could pull 20 Gs and could literally turn up its own a-hole in maneuvering. Might help the protoplasmic Flight Lead survive to fight another day.
However, it seems that deploying a vehicle that can be ‘optionally manned’ might be a bit counter productive. Haven’t we already seen what happens when you try to make a single aircraft do too many missions? Let manned aircraft be designed to be manned…..let UAVs be designed and flown like the name would suggest….unmanned to take advantage of not having to protect a human pilot.
I fear we’ve just outsmarted ourselves in writing that code and getting it to work publicly. Better to let it seem like it couldna be done for a bit longer. Now a major barrier to any nation learning carrier ops, manned or not, is less.
Begun the drone wars have… no longer does a nation have to raise their best and brightest to think for themselves in the dark and unforgiving arts of naval aviation. They just have to choose the most loyal to push buttons.
A digital challenge to the ferocity of unequaled free men. How’s this movie turn out?