Posts Tagged ‘Air Force’

The next step to unmanned aircraft

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Northrup-Grumman shows off its big Navy UAV. It can do in-air refueling and carrier landings and takeoffs. It has a 62 foot wing span and weighs over 20 tons at takeoff. It will be flying next year and the carrier exercises begin in 2011.

I have previously posted about this topic here and here and this is interesting. Unfortunately, Falcon-Blackswift seems to have been cancelled. I don’t know if this means the Democrats are going to gut new technology or it had reached a dead end in the program.

The Air Force is losing out

Monday, June 9th, 2008

I have previously posted about the future of flight and the role of UAVs. The recent shake-up in the Air Force apparently, has a connection to the UAV issue. The F 22 was a terrible waste of resources on a plane that will never have a role. It is so expensive that we cannot afford it and there is no enemy for which we need it. The future lies with unmanned flight and the Air Force is losing its role as CIA and Army controllers assume larger and larger roles flying UAVs. In fact, the Air Force Academy turns out more potential pilots than the service has cockpits for. The fighter mafia that has run the Air Force since the SAC bomber lost its role cannot seem to accept this.