BAE Systems Taranis

[Thorvic]

BAE Systems have today unveiled their latest UCAv building upon the development of previous Raven, Mantis, etc progams to create their latest Technology demonstrator - Taranis

http://www.baesystems.com/Sites/Taranis/index.htm

[Green Dragon]

Radio control planes don't really float my boat, prefer to have a real pilot with full situational awareness pulling the trigger instead of someone playing a video game with a toy plane and real bombs.

Paul Harrison

[GTX]

Radio control planes don't really float my boat, prefer to have a real pilot with full situational awareness pulling the trigger instead of someone playing a video game with a toy plane and real bombs.

Paul Harrison

Bah!



Regards,

Greg

[anthonyp]

Oh, look, another attempt by my company to pitch an over priced project.

[Jschmus]

It's probably just the red panel inside the intake, but it has a sinister look to it.

[Fulcrum]

Did anyone watched "Stealth"(that movie that bombed so hard at the box office that it is the second-biggest failure after "Battlefield Earth")?

Probably not, but I did

The story is focused on a unmanned UCAV named EDI.

Apparently, some of these Aerospace companies are trying to make with these UAV/UCAV's.

[pyro-manic]

I'm sure it will do very well, but it's just yet another grey triangle. Not exactly exciting....

[NARSES2]

It's probably just the red panel inside the intake, but it has a sinister look to it.

Agreed, all part of the marketing.

[GTX]

Did anyone watched "Stealth"(that movie that bombed so hard at the box office that it is the second-biggest failure after "Battlefield Earth")?

Probably not, but I did

The story is focused on a unmanned UCAV named EDI.

Apparently, some of these Aerospace companies are trying to make with these UAV/UCAV's.

Shockingly bad movie!!!  As for developing UCAVs - already happening for years now:  Just look up X-45, X-47, UCAV etc in Google.  In fact early UCAVs (at least in the form we think of them now - ignoring the decades of uninhabited aircraft use) in form of Predator/Reaper have been in operational service for years now.

Regards,

Greg

[rickshaw]

Shockingly bad movie?  Not completely.  It had Jessica Biel in it.  In a bikini, no less. 

It had some nice "what-if" fighters as well and they even demonstrated how to "drop one's knickers" when being pursued by a fighter over water at low level, as the Buccaneer drivers claimed they could.

Of course the storyline was crap with the usual Hollywood attempt at a "cautionary tale" of how technology must be bad, but can ultimately redeem itself by assuming human-like aspects.  Yeah, sure.

Oh, and BTW, Skynet appears to be that much closer with Taranis.   

[rickshaw]

Radio control planes don't really float my boat, prefer to have a real pilot with full situational awareness pulling the trigger instead of someone playing a video game with a toy plane and real bombs.

Interestingly the USAF which insists that its UAV drivers must be qualified and commissioned pilots has been reported to have a substantially higher accident rate than the US Army which uses NCOs who aren't pilots. 

[Mossie]

Very interesting that.  I remember an article on UAV's in their early development & the author (Mike Spick IIRC) mentioned a pilot he knew who was routinely beaten on online simulators by games enthusiasts.  He went on to say that assuming the simulator was realistic, he thought pilots should continue to be in the fold because battle was a place for warriors.

He can have his warriors, I'll take the video game geeks & win.  History is littered with examples of combatants losing because they failed to adapt to new methods of waging war.

[ChernayaAkula]

Radio control planes don't really float my boat, prefer to have a real pilot with full situational awareness pulling the trigger instead of someone playing a video game with a toy plane and real bombs.

I reckon that in the not-too-distant future, we'll see these things combined. Once they work out the bandwidth problems, you could have a pilot in a simulator fly the aircraft remotely, with better, 360° visibility and the ability to zoom in on selected areas, without the strain of sitting in an aircraft for hours. The aircraft could even be more manoeuvrable as it won't have to limit g-forces to keep the pilot from blacking out. Also, the weight and aerodynamic drag that comes with a cockpit and and life-support systems can be deleted, although the antennae for remotely piloting the thing have to be factored in as well.

[rickshaw]

Radio control planes don't really float my boat, prefer to have a real pilot with full situational awareness pulling the trigger instead of someone playing a video game with a toy plane and real bombs.

I reckon that in the not-too-distant future, we'll see these things combined. Once they work out the bandwidth problems, you could have a pilot in a simulator fly the aircraft remotely, with better, 360° visibility and the ability to zoom in on selected areas, without the strain of sitting in an aircraft for hours. The aircraft could even be more manoeuvrable as it won't have to limit g-forces to keep the pilot from blacking out. Also, the weight and aerodynamic drag that comes with a cockpit and and life-support systems can be deleted, although the antennae for remotely piloting the thing have to be factored in as well.

Ryan Firebee drones were demonstrating that back in the 1970s.  They routinely beat USN pilots when the exercise limits were relaxed to allow them to manoeuvre at their maximum limits as against what was imposed on them to simulate manned aircraft.   Remember though, this was done with 1960s-70s technology.  I would expect that with 21st century technology they would be nigh on unbeatable in manoeuvre combat.

[KJ_Lesnick]

Were the firebees completely autonomous or remote controlled?