The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

Well, yeah, but modern governments- particularly of certain nations who shall remain nameless- are pretty damn trigger-happy as it is, even with the current (admittedly small) risk to the lives of aircrew. Remove the risk of losing aircrew and the accompanying risk of upsetting voters and you remove the last significant barrier between them and the indiscriminate use of airpower as their go-to instrument of foreign policy.

Simple maxim time again.

Planes cannot take or hold ground.

They may control the airspace above it, but this is also nothing you can take for granted.

Oh our government is indeed trigger happy with drones, planes, anything that can loft ordinance.

Well, they still are expensive pieces of high technology you wouldn't want in enemy hands...

Interesting analysis, there. Haven't finished reading, but it looks good so far.

So what IS the justification for so much drone fascination? Just new toys?

Because using drones, no matter what they cost, (and I think the author of the article referred to went a bit overboard) means you do not risk one or more human crew in an operation that you want to keep quiet about, especially when there is a risk that things will end up in what Clint Eastwood's character in Heartbreak Ridge memorably called a "clusterfuck". Downed air men are a propagandist's wet dream and an intelligence gold-mine. Because almost all men and women have a point at which torture will work on them. It isn't foolproof, but pretty reliable if you need quick and dirty information.

Good Day for Flight Related Articles

New Large Military Drones Flight Test

Sky Diver Set to Break Jump Record and Sound Barrier later this summer

Drones being used to help police

Interesting. I think that skydiver wanting to break the record set by Kittinger is a bit nuts, but that is nothing new for him.

You know the next step of course. Someone will want to copy Kirk and co from the reboot of Star Trek and do it from a sub-orbital vehicle.

The drone thing for LE Os is a bit disturbing. Not much different from surveillance carried out by police helicopters in practice, but a helluva lot more covert.

I think that is the point. Not only are they more quiet, they are harder to spot and target with blinding lasers, lower maintenance, less fuel use, and have a few extra hard points.

There was an article last week about how some of the police want them armed. A lot of people went fuck no.

The drones will likely get the same treatment as being spotted by a police helicopter. If your outside you have no expectation to privacy.

And an interesting article: The 140-Mph Chase Cars Of The U.S. Air Force.

Wow, there is just so much that can go wrong with the uncontrolled interfaces between plane and car, or as laymen like me should call them, crashes. Those drivers and pilots must have a huge amount of guts.

Tam: they have giant brass balls they keep in the trunk of the car.

And now the BBC Breakfast Show has a bearded professor and artificial intelligence "expert" on talking about the US drone strikes and how low level the targets are. How quaint. I couldn't catch his name but he will be back on later, his type usually are.

Manchester Airport runs out of aviation fuel

Ouch. They will find someone to blame for that, they always do. The BBC ceefax thingy on freeview says that the problem has now been fixed, though.

I wasn't expecting to see that happen. At least it's been apparently resolved. It's especially interesting that it's Manchester, since that's the airport I'll be flying out of on sunday when I go to Singapore.

Huh, that's... a bit embarrassing, I'd say.

Anyway, question on the side, should I rather go to Farnborough Airshow or RIAT during summer holidays?

The Wave Rider Mach 5 missile is now in demand in smaller packages by the USAF

Also saw this from the Wikipedia Scram Jet Article.

edited 7th Jun '12 6:26:13 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Hmm. Hypersonic missiles in smaller packages sound nice, but only if they work. According to that article you linked, that isn't always the case. If they do get them working, they will probably end up seeing if they can stick them on Predators.

For an experimental weapon the hypersonic missile is doing pretty well. It is still in the test phases and isn't ready for prime time just yet. I agree the smaller version needs to be effective and they have several challenges yet to over come with the big one before they can get to the small one.