First Successful Unmanned Drone Landing On an Aircraft Carrier 176
redletterdave writes "Salty Dog 502 flew from the Patuxent River Naval Station in Maryland to the USS George H.W. Bush operating off the Virginian coast, but unlike other drones, Salty Dog was piloted entirely by computer without a human operator. The unmanned operation is considered one of the most difficult operations due to navigating the air and a moving ship, and many have said it's a major milestone in the development of drone warfare. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus described the event as witnessing the future and compared it to the first manned aircraft landed on a carrier in 1911."
Re:just wait... (Score:5, Informative)
landed on a perfect clear day. wonder what happens when the seas are rough, the deck is pitching, and MOVLAS is rigged......
The first manned aircraft landing on a ship was also done on a perfect clear day after several weather driven delays.
Dumbass title is dumbass (Score:0, Informative)
"unmanned" != "unpiloted"
Remotely piloted vehicles are unmanned (technically may be, but there could be passengers).
Computer-controlled vehicles also may be manned (e.g. Google self-driving vehicle shenanigans).
Re:The claim of first drone landing is incorrect ! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:And true democracy, around the world, cries (Score:0, Informative)
Of course not. You'd much prefer if YOU were the hegemons. We know your dirty little secrets, Europe - you just don't like playing second fiddle. You lot had no qualms invading Libya when it suited you, for vague "oh it's for stability democracy the people!"
Fuck off.
Re:The claim of first drone landing is incorrect ! (Score:0, Informative)
1. Bush isn't a drone but an ape.
2. It was his pilot who landed, he was just baggage.
1.4 Billion and off to retirement (Score:4, Informative)
The Salty Dog is one of two X-47B aircraft built by Northrop Grumman to experiment with incorporating drones onto aircraft carriers. It has a 2,000-mile range and can carry two guided bombs, though it is primarly designed for around-the-clock surveillance. The Salty Dog cost $1.4 billion.
The drones probably won’t see any combat. After a minimum of three landings on a carrier in the next week, they will be retired to flight museums in Florida and Maryland.
Instead, the Navy’s UCLASS program will design and build drones for aircraft carriers over the next three to six years. These drones will be used for both reconnaissance and strike missions. According to Reuters, they could be valuable as a counter to missiles in China and Iran designed to limit the range of the U.S. Navy.
They could have proven out the guidance systems with less expensive hardware. I'm sure some portion of those Billions was directly related to the effort but a significant amount was also dumped into the plane itself as labor and not recoverable.
Re:guiding system (Score:5, Informative)
Just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if it used stereoscopic vision to assess in figuring out the Z-plane and not just the X,Y. From there, it can infer the geometry and angle of approach of the carrier it's about to land on.
Furthermore, a carrier deck has markings and lights at precisely known locations. Just by tracking any three of these points, plus the GAIL (glide angle indicator light), the vision system should have enough information to nail the landing. This landing is a notable achievement, but I don't think the vision system was the hard part.
Re:Dumbass title is dumbass (Score:5, Informative)
Re:a peaceful dream (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The claim of first drone landing is incorrect ! (Score:4, Informative)
You are forgetting his biggest achievements:
- Invaded sovereign nation that did not threaten USA - the supreme war crime under Nurenberg statues. This war resulted in million+ excess deaths of Iraq populac, according to the Johns Hopkins Unuiversity study
- Established secret torture GULAG
- Declared habeas corpus void for "terorism" suspects
- Launched the total survelliance programs that Snowden now revealed
- Given away trillions of public money to corrupt and bankrupt Wall Street bankers
Re:just wait... (Score:4, Informative)