Posted on 11/03/2025 4:43:53 AM PST by Red Badger
AVIATION Ping!.....................
“”This is a new age of air power; there is no operator with a stick and throttle flying the aircraft behind the scenes.””
I have no idea what this means but it’s a beautiful plane..Not piloted - help me out here, please. Thanks...
No pilot aircraft controls, no ‘dashboard’, no seats, no oxygen system, no pressurization system, none of those things necessary for a human pilot. Saves a ton of weight and cost. More room for weapons payload.................
To me, that's not the biggie. Human pilots have G-force limits drones do not. The planes we have been able to make for nearly 40 years can tolerate turns so tight that blood rushing from one side of the head to the other would kill said pilot. Hence, aircraft equipped with this type of system will be able to out-maneuver any piloted aircraft.
Where this kind of plane should go is to the X-29 wing style.
It may not be stealthy, but nothing would touch it.
Thanks - had to look up General Atomics...had not heard of it before. Interesting to find it in San Diego. Many members of my husband’s family (him included) were retirees from aerospace in L. A., and San Diego..My husband wasn’t a retiree but after college he did work at Aerojet in Sacramento - many long years ago. I can remember the NOISE from the testing of rocket engines..usually at night!
Do I have this straight - a drone carrying weapons? It’s so beautiful...
So, it is a flying Cyber cab? No steering wheel or pedals
No human accessible controls... Unnecessary............
The head of this company was on Rogan a few weeks ago. He was an interesting guy. It was worth dragging through Rogans usual BS.
One of the things he tries to do is build his products using machinery and materials that could be used in any major manufacturing facility. He pointed to how GM and Ford changed their manufacturing from cars to war material in WWII. This would be critical in any kind of longer conflict where we are not just burning through inventory.
I am pretty sure he wasn’t referring to THESE drones…but to the mid level arms that his company makes.
“Do I have this straight - a drone carrying weapons?”
Exactly, only it’s FULL SIZE.............
“It may not be stealthy, but nothing would touch it.”
Lasers................
Whatever idiot designed that plane put the cockpit where the engine is supposed to go and vise versa. How did no one see that?
Not only that, the pilot’s facing the wrong way.
He has to ‘cause the stupid thing flies backwards!
LOL, it was to make room for the avionics. As I was told, it had four computer systems that would "vote" among themselves in executing a maneuver. It was that unstable. The guy who did the FEA for those wings for the team at JPL was a professor of mine as an undergrad.
Mirrors. Pretty tough to heat a spot if you can't keep the beam on it. Resolution, precision, and response time all become problematic.
No pilot aircraft controls, no ‘dashboard’, no seats, no oxygen system, no pressurization system, none of those things necessary for a human pilot. Saves a ton of weight and cost. More room for weapons payload.................
Revelations 📖✖️
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They put a lot of “X” into it besides just the wings. The canards, the center of balance, some other stuff. They made a flight simulator for PC sometime in the 90’s that included it. I don’t know how accurately they did the flight model but it seemed very maneuverable.
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