We may be out of work soon

[yt]BSHgu_WeBHo[/yt]

edit: We = Navy

It looks like it has already mastered the Navy-style of landing.

I actually got considered for to fly this thing for part of its testing. NGC is was so desperate for pilots i got pass a few recruiters, but it didn't happen. Now I'm in the Bay Area flying the Farmers Insurance Zepplin to build some time for a UAV new project. Drones are coming fast!!!

The tribe of USAF pilots has all ready started the plan to make ourselves obsolete by stiff-arming the UAV/RPA monster off to another career field. Big, big mistake. Good thing that conflict will happen well after I'm gone, and I can reminisce with my grandkids about what it was like 'back in the day' when they actually had a pilot in combat aircraft.

Yeah seriously...

at least they will never completely replace humans in the airlines...

At least I am safe in glider towing... Oh wait, I heard some rumor about replacing us with a winch

These UAV's may be all well and good when the enemy has no ground to air and absolutely no air force of their own, but how well does a UAV hold up against a MiG, Su, F-14 or SAM?

RPA is a methodology of controlling an aircraft. It's not a type of iron.

So, while currently-fielded RPAs don't stand a chance in any kind of denied/non-permissive environment, it's certain that future RPAs will be as combat capable as any of the current fighter/bomber iron.

Welp, just like with space vehicles, I would expect there to be a lot of decisions made to accommodate humans on board. For example, the shuttle weighs more than the vehicle alone requires to lift stuff to orbit because of an engineering decision keep things statistically safe for the humans on board. It also takes a depressed launch trajectory (reducing the useful load) to minimize exposure to high g-loads during an abort.

So, it seems like similar decisions would be made when a vehicle is being designed to carry people. Specifically, that an on-board human crew in some form is a layer of safety. So that leaves cargo flights, and I guess that's a decision for the insurance companies.

However, of all the ways for us psychotic apes to send ourselves screaming around faster than our muscles alone can do, air travel is the one that is most amenable to automation. There will never be a school bus stalled-out on an airway intersection or idiot teenagers racing along in the terminal area.

We are talking about building a winch. Winches are very limited in what they can do. But we figured it might be good for like 9am-12 for students to do pattern work till the good thermals come out. They only use one quart of gas for each launch so pattern tows would be much cheaper with a winch.

At least I know as the glider pilot I wont be replaced because automated them would make no sense. Not that it cant be done, but we fly because we love it, not because we have to.