Fighter aircraft design is at a crossroads. Pilotless aircraft (drones, RPV)have been state-of-the-art technology for several years. Why not push this technology some and design pilotless fighter aircraft? All of the major components are in place – GPS technology, autopilots, and completely autonomous aircraft operation from landing to take off and everything in between.
So, what then is the hold up?
The advantage of pilotless fighter aircraft are obvious. They immediately become lighter, potentially smaller, much less expensive to manufacture and operate, and capable of performance that would incapacitate a human pilot, longer range and dwell time, to say nothing of not risking a pilot’s life on every mission. The list goes on.
Transitions such as this are nothing new. World War II naval battles were largely decided by aircraft against ships, specifically aircraft carrier to aircraft carrier, where the opposing ships never had sight of one another.
Battleships had once been state-of-the-art naval warfare technology, and certainly had a presence during World War II and were the largest ships produced during that time, with displacements of over 70,000 tons, referring to the Yamato-class, mounting 18 inch guns. Without any doubt, this monster would have been able to destroy any battleship the United States cared to put up against it. The battle never took place, as the Yamato succumbed to torpedoes and bombs originating from carrier-based aircraft. And, oddly enough, the Yamato was on a suicide mission when it was sunk. So, why was it built in the first place?
At least in part, for the same reason that the Iowa-class battleships were built by the United States Navy. The decision-makers grew up with battleships, and were not yet ready to admit that these huge technical marvels had been superseded by aircraft capable of being launched at sea. They still had their purposes, such as night battles and shore bombardments, but seldom was gun range and ship displacement the only deciding factors in the outcome of a battle.
Aircraft technology transitions from wood and fabric to metal, and piston to jet engines were monumental evolutions in technology and performance, to name just a few. One design oddity out of World War II was that the outer wing panels for the F4U Corsair were fabric-covered.
The current state-of-the-art, sort of, is the F 35 joint strike fighter, which is not yet operational. I can’t really call this aircraft state-of-the-art because none have been fielded. How much reduction in complexity, weight reduction, cost, etc. would be possible if this aircraft were controlled by automated, onboard and ground-based systems rather than a human pilot?
Norman T. Neher, P.E.
Analytical Engineering Services, Inc.
Elko New Market, MN
www.aesmn.org