Anyone out there see a second UFO, I mean shrink-wrapped Northop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D) being shipped across the country via flatbed truck this past week?
Remember how a small town in Kansas had a little UFO freak out in December as the first shrink-wrapped X-47B passed through it on its way from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland? Well, small towns across America just had another opportunity to mistake the second X-47B for a flying saucer as it made its way from Edwards to Maryland this week, arriving at Pax River this morning (shown above).
That’s because X-47B number two just completed its flight tests out at Edwards, ending the first major phase of stealthy jet’s flight testing — dubbed air worthiness testing — meant to ensure the plane will fly as designed.
Both X-47Bs are now taking baby steps toward landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier, starting with flying carrier-like landing approaches, then landing on the outline of a carrier flight deck painted on one of PAX River’s runways and finally landing on a carrier in 2013 using a version of this technology. Oh, and in 2014, it will perform air-to-air refueling using this tech.
Click through the jump to watch the video of Kansans reacting to the first X-47B going through their town.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Wasn't just the small hick towns that freaked out.
Yesterday, Washington DC freaked out. http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/18785637/beltway-ufo…
Imagine when they are seen in the air !
DT got an honorable mention
Meant to add that DefenseTech is mentioned in the fox news link above. This site is becoming famous.
Imagine if one bumped into the Washington Monument. Anyone get this? Anyone?
Ah, I see what you did there…
Yup. It went through Pittsburg, Kansas a couple days ago on Highway 126. Looked damn cool.
Would have been great to have a few big black Gov't looking trucks, with various biohazard signs, rolling in convoy with the craft.
Could have been "accidentally" dropping alien paraphenalia just for lol's. Ah, but there's no humor in the Gov't anymore… Well… Other than all the cynical stuff you could point out. But you get my point, smarta$$. :]
UAV's are the future of aircraft.
Cant wait to see the Naval version land on carriers. Not for UAVs to replace fighters but the flight test should be awesome to watch.
Why not replace fighters? I understand these UAV's cannot replace them… But what if we could design a UAV that met or exceeded current fighter designs?
I think they could, so long as real pilots were operating them from base. Your thoughts?
Then you come face first with the same problem with current drones… ie: latency.
for drones task right now, the latency is acceptable…
but for fighter combat duty where reaction time may well shrink to seconds or less, this latency becomes a serious issue
The only real way of reducing this latency is to shrink the distance between the control unit to the drone, but given the way things work in real combat, the nearest base may well be hundreds of miles from the combat drone.
Aside of the latency issue, the risk of loss of control either due to enemy action (jamming or otherwise) or due to malfunction increases drastically the further away you are from the drone.
There are some viable solution to them, like housing the pilot in AWACS or specially designed command aircraft that can fly closer to the field and the drone, but each comes with it's own downside.
Autonomy solves latency and jamming. You just have to be comfortable with squadrons of US hunter drones scanning the skies looking for 'enemies'…
Impossible because as the military have mentioned before, they will NEVER allow the drone to release the weapon themselves, that and other critical decision must be done by an operator relayed to the drone, and they obviously were adamant to maintain that stance for obvious reason.
and unfortunately we are NOWHERE near the level where we can construct an AI capable of actually performing actual combat on comparable level to a human given the limited capacity of current AI.
That is of course assuming we can somehow quantify combat procedure into processable parameters that the autonomous system can handle and adapt.
As long as we restrict this to predicted action and parameters… sure, might be possible to get an AI to do a simple task and not be shot.
Only problem is actual war is chaos.
Ya i saw it pass through Farwell Tx
Remember, many years ago our Moms & Dads told us that there are no jobs out in the world that required computer game skills. Looks like they are increasingly wrong. In a few years even pilots will be able to work form home.
Hah! I know, right? Thankfully I've put in all those Ace Combat hours. I can see it now….
"Honey! Grab me a drink from the fridge, please! I'm about to bomb this terrorist dude. He doesn't even know I can see him, Lol!"
It's only a total joke if you don't see this is where the future of air is going. :]
LOL, seems like it would make more sense to fly it to Pax River instead of by truck. Then it could really be a UFO. Hard to be afraid of Unidentified Trailer Objects.
From what I've been told by people in the know, the FAA isn't really keen on the idea of unmanned aircraft flying over heavily populated areas. They're pretty restricted as to where they can fly right now.
I saw it on Interstate 44 around Rolla, Mo last Friday.
It's funny how this UAV resembles "Max" from the movie Flight of the Navigator. Looks almost exactly like the spaceship.
to bad it didn't go threw my town here in kansas.
Well we finally have a stealth drone. Looks like the terrorists should beware
Suddenly that truck transforms and reveals it was Optimus Prime in disguise!
I love to see it. My neice wrote the contract for it!