Forget drones - F-16 makes unmanned flight

[baronbeeza]

www.3news.co.nz/Forget-drones---F-16-makes-unmanned-flight/tabid/412/articleID/314739/Default.aspx

The US Air Force has test flown an F-16 fighter jet without a pilot on board for the first time, in the latest sign of the military's increasing reliance on drones.

The robotic F-16 flew for 55 minutes with an empty cockpit from a base in Florida last week, as part of a program that will see the converted fighter jet used as a target for pilots in training, manufacturer Boeing said.

Read more: www.3news.co.nz/Forget-drones---F-16-makes-unmanned-flight/tabid/412/articleID/314739/Default.aspx#ixzz2fxDPtFNH

See what happen when you leave the engine running while you nip in to buy the paper..

Perhaps I should have posted this in the model thread, or even the experimental aircraft one.
Anyway I think we can all see where this programme is headed, interesting times ahead...

[nuuumannn]

This is not anything new; the military forces have been converting combat aircraft for use as targets for years; look at the de Havilland Queen Bee; essentially a remotely controlled Tiger Moth. The US Navy has had F9F Panthers, F6F Hellcats and all manner of things as drones, The British converted Fireflies and Meatboxes as missile targets and the USAF still use F-4s for that role.

[baronbeeza]

For sure but I was thinking this is going to end up being much more than a drone. An unmanned aircraft is likely to be able to pull substantially more 'g' forces or possibly manoeuvre a little beyond the limits of the human limit.
I haven't been following the programme but could it be that this is the 'plug and play' interface that converts a conventional fighter into something a little more dispensable or perhaps even more capable.

An aircraft is just the weapons platform. The pilot could be getting to the point where he just drives it to the target (and home again).

I can recall studying the systems on the Jaguar and the latest in electronics weapon delivery then, Inertial Nav and TV Martel and the likes.
Hardly an accurate method compared with the pinpoint accuracy achievable these days.

I am sure we are going to see a rapid evolution into unmanned fighting vehicles. It is not my field of interest these days mind you..

[nuuumannn]

I agree Baron, things are certainly heading that way. Although the F-16s are going to be used as aerial targets to be shot down and not as development for unmanned fighters, although such programmes have been underway for some years.

The Jaguar's Ferranti INAS was a sophisticated piece of kit when it was first developed, originally for the Hawker P.1154 supersonic Harrier and was also fitted to the Harrier GR.1s to 3s. I used to know some of the guys who designed it. At East Fortune they had a ground test rig for the INAS complete with moving map display. Complex electronics for the early 1960s.

[Dave Homewood]

This is sad because it means they must have almost run out of their F-4 Phantoms which they have been blowing out of the sky one by one. The F-16's are replacing them.