OT--the opposite of a hand-held edged weapon

Very interesting. I don't know that I'll live to see it but I'm pretty sure the day is going to come when commercial flights will be piloted by robots.
 
I don't like the idea of unmanned attack aircraft one bit. The only jam-proof way of communicating is with a cable (like a wire-guided missle), these things obviously won't be wire-guided. The only way to get around this would be for a computer to do the actual flying, that is what's really scary. A computer that can take a life... I don't like it one bit.
 
who was the scientist to be killed in Terminator to prevent an awful future. But only Bruise and a search engine would know that.
 
It obviously didn't work as there is a third film in the works.

What if someone spills coffee on the keyboard? Will the plane crash or just the computer? :confused:
 
A computer that can take a life... I don't like it one bit.
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Computer aided aiming devices on the M1 Tank enable it to kill enemies up to 5000 meters. ICBM's, Cruise Missiles, and god knows what else has them. JDAMs can be programmed to hit their targets after they are dropped from the weapons system carrying them.

This is only the next step, except they are programmed like cruise missiles that return to base to refuel (or aerial refuel) and reload.

I will be commissioned in the Air Force as of December 2003, and I am all for taking pilots out of the cockpit to save their lives. It is only logical with the increased risk of new and improved enemy defenses. Along with increased flexibility along the full breadth of operations.

One thing that has always been taught is to always innovate, never stand still, always keep moving and keep thinking. Every stationary target is a sure hit. The Air Force will always be at the forefront of technology or the US will lose our ability to project our influence upon the world.

The Air Force I am joining is not my father's Air Force, and when I leave it will be completely different from when I entered it. It has always been this way, and I hope it always will.

Yes, Armageddon has been close several times in the past, I have read the history and I have seen the movies. Pardon me for mixing Doctrine with Belief but I believe there is a Plan, and I believe you cannot avoid Fate. So in the meantime I am going to protect my country and our way of life.

Sorry to come off as being harsh, but I dont have a problem with new technology. New toys are always welcome at home or work.
 
When I filled in, doing some communications work at the then General Dynamic F-16 plant in FortWorth, was..."the day will come when aerial combat will be fought with joy sticks and video screens by two guys thousands of miles away from each other. The limiting factor in the F16 right now is not physics---it's physical...the human being which we have to put in the plane. The Air Force Leadership Team INSISTS on putting someone in there, because THEY were in there. Functionally, it makes no sense."

But humans ...

Good luck to you Dave...much success and long life. I hope you live to see the end of this type of human behavior--I won't.
 
Chenault.

But then my flying was in a ragwing taildragger. ( Cessna 140 ) What else would you expect of someone who ate his dad's CAA ticket, or so I'm told.
 
"God Is My Co-Pilot" by Gen. Robert L. Scott Jr., who flew as a guest of Claire Chennault, is some of my all time favorite reading.
Regards,
Greg
 
It was a different time when perhaps men made more difference than machines. When an 8 year old boy hears and reads of the exploits of the Flying Tigers that's exactly what you want to do and be. But it was not my karma. I came within a hair's breadth of becoming a carrier pilot which would have put me in Nam as a senior pilot, probably to be shot down and I'd already made the decision that I would never be taken alive. And here I am, almost 70, and working for a bunch of kamis. Karma.
 
Maybe part of me not liking the no-pilot thing is the fact that a worship those fighter pilots of WW2. Guenther Rall is the third highest scoring fighter pilot in history. He shot down 275 Russians, crashed a few times, broke his back, had a thumb shot off... I could rattle off the names and exploits of so many like him. I think that it's a shame that there are no dogfighting or shivalry, we haven't even had an ace pilot since Vietnam.
What I meant by the computer taking a life thing was that I wouldn't like a computer to pick out a target. Those pilotless ground attack planes would be picking out specific targets to attack. That's not an ICBM being programed to hit a coordinate (city) by someone on the ground. I suppose that it is the way things will soon be, I just hope that the infantry is not replaced with a bunch of red-eyed Terminators.
 
Maybe they'll name the computer the "Red Baron".

For you Cash fans remember the Legend of John Henry?
 
Originally posted by Skeletor I think that it's a shame that there are no dogfighting or shivalry, we haven't even had an ace pilot since Vietnam.
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Sorry, but this really bugged me. Chivalry never existed in air combat, even back to its origins in WWI. Basic rules of combat are to attack from behind or out of the sun, or any way that allowed you to kill the enemy as quickly as possible - preferably before he even knew you were there.

I don't think it's ever a good idea to romanticize war. I'm never going to think that it's "a shame" that people aren't killing or getting killed enough.
 
It was considered bad form to fire at a pilot in his parachute, downed pilots often soluted the pilot who shot them down, Adolf Galland (in charge of Luftwaffe fighter command, 104 air victories) invited captured Allied fighter pilots (Douglas Bader among others) to dinner and let them sit in the cockpit of his personal fighter. I think all of this is demonstrated shivalry and the respect among fellow pilots.
 
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