The Predator UAV is a reconassiance craft with an ability to use Hellfire missiles, right? Is it powered by a jet engine?
Interesting. In the movie Transformers (I dunno if any of you have seen it or are even the slightest bit interested in it) the Predator had a jet engine. Why are actual Predators powered by props & pistons? Jets would make them faster. Okay, so call me a geek if I've watched Transformers.
The great thing about movies is that they do not need to obey any laws of physics (or indeed reality), so you are able to: Travel faster than light Destroy entire planets Shoot infinite numbers of bullets without reloading (This list could start a whole new thread...) To Hollywood, jets are cool, so give their predator a jet. In the real world, a Predator is a large, very cool, radio controlled aircraft which is a lot easier to run, and maintain, on a piston engine
the job of the drone is to loiter in an area and observe, that's a bit hard to do at 300 mph with a jet engine! FNG
As other have pointed out the Predator has a different role thus a jet engine wouldn't be desirable. When they want very high altitude, long range and long loiter time there is the Global Hawk.
There have been jet UAVs - the most common being the Ryan Firebee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Firebee
GENERATION II :bang: 'Reaper' moniker given to MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle 9/14/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Air Force chief of staff announced "Reaper" has been chosen as the name for the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle. The Air Force is the Department of Defense's executive agent for designating and naming military aerospace vehicles. In the case of the Reaper, Gen. T. Michael Moseley made the final decision after an extensive nomination and review process, coordinated with the other services. "The name Reaper is one of the suggestions that came from our Airmen in the field. It's fitting as it captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system," General Moseley said. The MQ-9 Reaper is the Air Force's first hunter-killer UAV. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and destroy or disable those targets with 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles. "The Reaper represents a significant evolution in UAV technology and employment," General Moseley said. "We've moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper." General Moseley stressed the key advantage is not keeping manned aircraft and pilots out of harm's way, but the persistence UAVs can inherently provide. The Reaper can stay airborne for up to 14 hours fully loaded. A 900-horsepower turbo-prop engine, compared to the 119-horsepower Predator engine, powers the aircraft. It has a 64-foot wingspan and carries more than 15 times the ordnance of the Predator, flying almost three times the Predator's cruise speed. The Air Force has seven MQ-9 Reapers in its inventory, with a full-rate production decision expected in 2009. The Air Force is the global leader in UAV innovation, General Moseley said. "Today, the Air Force can launch a UAV from a remote field on the other side of the globe, then pilot that aircraft from a base in the United States. These systems and the Airmen who operate them offer unprecedented flexibility to combatant commanders worldwide," he said.
Oh there will still be fighter pilots. Except that it will be a "desk job"... Wife to husband in a Californian suburb, 2011: "Are you going to be in time for dinner honey?" "I dunno babe... might be a long night. There's been some noise over Tehran again. Leave it in the microwave!"
How do the pilots deal with the time lag for information from the UAV to get to the ground station (assuming its via satellite, it will be roughly 0.25 seconds) and then for their response to get back to the UAV (same time) That 1/2 second lag would seem to be important in combat situations -- think latency in on-line games!
I got into a discussion about this with some real-life fighter jocks last year on another forum. They were NOT looking forward to the day, but all agreed that at the moment (they hope!), and for the foreseeable future, situational awareness in an RPV is rubbish for air-air combat. (Think how much vision you have around you in a flight sim compared to real life - no peripheral vision). Mud-moving, recce, ground attack on fixed targets are viable, hitting mobile formations and air combat just can't be done remotely...
Ossian , I think they deal with the ping rate by confirming the validity of the target it's locked on and giving the green light , the UAV can do the shooting on it's own , if it's for real time targeting and third party shooting then only static or predictable trajectory objects can be designated wife to husband in a californian suburb come down to dinner honey " O.K give me five , I'll put the birds in loiter and acquisition mode " .
