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Autonomous Blackhawk


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Yes, we have Test Pilots. Warrant officers and Commissioned officers. They go to the Navy run rotary test pilot school.

 

We call them "Experimental Test Pilots". Every troop/company will have a few Maintenance Test Pilots.

Edited by akscott60
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Yes, we have Test Pilots. Warrant officers and Commissioned officers. They go to the Navy run rotary test pilot school.

 

We call them "Experimental Test Pilots". Every troop/company will have a few Maintenance Test Pilots.

 

Kind of correct... the Army actually runs the Rotary Wing Test school at Pax River.. but it is on the Navy's dime... small technicality ;)

 

Most of the ETP's are in Virginia at AATD.

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Im Stationed at Pax River as a Master At Arms in the Navy (but I am applying to Army WOFT) I have been inside the test pilot school a few times, from what I can tell the chain of command/Staff is a mix of both Army and Navy. The CW4 I got in touch with here to help with my packet and LORs is finishing up there next week and wants me to meet the XO who is a Ltcol with the Army.

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Or just fly 58s. We still have to fly the aircraft ;-)

 

Oh, not so fast. I flew with Maj in Afghanistan who is an XP. His next orders were to California (same place as video) to develope an autonomous OH-58. Said it will use FLIR and radar to fly itself and will even be able to fly in formation by itself. All of our days are numbered.

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FIFY

 

 

 

 

Yeah. Sure it will.

 

The technology is already here. NASA has demonstrated autonomous formation flying with F-18s for a while now. Sykorsky has already announced it's unmanned Black Hawk should enter service in 2015 and will be supplementing manned aircraft. It's already demonstrated a complete brownout landing as well. UAVs have already undergone tests for sling load resupply in areas that would be too hot for manned aircraft. This UH-60 isn't the only one out there demonstrating autonomous flight either. There's a Hughes 500 video on YouTube recently that shows it landing on board ships and oil platforms. I'm not here to rain on your parade but the time is approaching where unmanned is pushing us out. Believe me it's not something I want. I'm sure if they can perfect it they'd love to replace us in EMS with a computer. I'll be out of a job if that happens.

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I think UAV's orbiting overhead are different from passenger flights. Will any soldiers of the next twenty years want to be flown around by a computer? I just can't see military passenger flights being run by computer until it's already more than routine in the civilian world, and we know how long that will take.

 

I could see the Apache getting replaced earlier than all the others (and maybe the Kiowa), but aircraft with passengers aboard?

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I think UAV's orbiting overhead are different from passenger flights. Will any soldiers of the next twenty years want to be flown around by a computer? I just can't see military passenger flights being run by computer until it's already more than routine in the civilian world, and we know how long that will take.

 

I could see the Apache getting replaced earlier than all the others (and maybe the Kiowa), but aircraft with passengers aboard?

 

Realistically I see a future where manned are supplemented by unmanned platforms. I think unmanned will go into areas that would be too hot to send a crew into. Or it could be a routine sling load delivering supplies to some COP. Think about all the times we can't support the ground units because we can't get in due to wx. No need to worry about wx with unmanned. I'd like to think the technology will never become soo good it removes the pilot out of a passenger carrying aircraft. I think pilots will be up front to monitor the computers and intervene only if there's a problem.

 

The majority if all aviation accidents are human error. Look at how many wx related accidents we have every year. Look at brownout landings where aircraft are flipped over because of spatial disorientation. It you could have computer doing the flying you'd pretty much be eliminating the human error segment. Look at EMS. Although our record has improved, historically we exceed all other forms of Part 135 in fatal accudents. Just think of what an aircraft can do for our safety record if it can land at a scene site autonomously. It won't get disoriented on the way to the hospital if it runs into bad weather either.

 

I'm about as anti-UAV as they come. They're all over the place on the battlefield. I would have loved to have stuck my M-9 out the window and shoot one down in Afghanistan. When ever I read of UAV crashes in Flight Fax I smiled; another win for manned flight. The fact is Generals love these things. If it can be done safer and at lower cost they want it. I think it would be foolish to put humans in the loop if it's proven that a computer can do it cheaper and safer. I don't think the technology will ever be fault free so I believe we'll always have pilots up front on passenger flights. I'm sure someday I'll become a systems monitor and not a pilot. How far off is anyone's guess.

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You are too optimistic about the DoD acquisition system.

 

Lol. No I agree it sucks. Whoever has been in charge of Army Aviation acquisitions in recent years should be fired. RAH-66, ARH-70 and the C-27 all failures. Instead we keep piling new technology into old designs. We need new, off the shelf aircraft.

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Realistically I see a future where manned are supplemented by unmanned platforms. I think unmanned will go into areas that would be too hot to send a crew into. Or it could be a routine sling load delivering supplies to some COP. Think about all the times we can't support the ground units because we can't get in due to wx. No need to worry about wx with unmanned. I'd like to think the technology will never become soo good it removes the pilot out of a passenger carrying aircraft. I think pilots will be up front to monitor the computers and intervene only if there's a problem.

 

Now you're speaking outside of your profession.

 

A: The Marines and Army hardly, if ever, send an aircraft intentionally into a hot "anything" and if it has the potential to go hot then there are procedures that mitigate exposure to it. I highly doubt an unmanned attack helicopter is going to have the situational awareness to build a 3D picture in time and space of whats going on around his objective area to deliver effective fires on the enemy - at least for the next 10-15 years. You have also have to understand that these systems are going to have to talk to other systems in order to be effective.

 

and

 

B: Weather is an issue not so much for the aircraft and crew (it is, but it is a manageable issue) than it is for our sensors and weapon systems. Hard to shoot a person you can't see, and yes, thats also a UAS issue too, not a manned or unmanned issue.

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It seems like most of the opinions in this thread are polarized between manned/unmanned.

Until UAS/UAV has a proven track record over a period of time, I think it'll be tough for the military or commercial aviation to fully commit. Even trains, which are mostly autonomous, still have conductors onboard.

 

Look at the airlines, which used to fly around with multiple pilots, radio operators, navigators, and flight engineers onboard -- they have been able to reduce a flight crew to two pilots through the advent of reliable technological advances. The trend would suggest crews getting slashed in half, and pilots becoming merely systems managers.

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Now you're speaking outside of your profession.

 

A: The Marines and Army hardly, if ever, send an aircraft intentionally into a hot "anything" and if it has the potential to go hot then there are procedures that mitigate exposure to it. I highly doubt an unmanned attack helicopter is going to have the situational awareness to build a 3D picture in time and space of whats going on around his objective area to deliver effective fires on the enemy - at least for the next 10-15 years. You have also have to understand that these systems are going to have to talk to other systems in order to be effective.

 

and

 

B: Weather is an issue not so much for the aircraft and crew (it is, but it is a manageable issue) than it is for our sensors and weapon systems. Hard to shoot a person you can't see, and yes, thats also a UAS issue too, not a manned or unmanned issue.

 

Since my profession was landing in hot LZs I don't think I'm speaking outside of it. Maybe the Marines don't but in the Army we do. Just because the LZ is classified hot doesn't automatically mean we're not going in. Had several friends get shot up going into hot LZs. Witnessed an Air Force crew first hand during Op Strong Eagle pulling wounded out while being shot at. It happens.

 

What I'm getting at is resupply in bad wx or hot LZ. If an aircraft can do it fully autonomous look at the benefit in that. Load it up with "speed balls" in the back and send it off. Don't have to worry about a crew getting shotdown or plowing into the mountainside.

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What I'm getting at is resupply in bad wx or hot LZ. If an aircraft can do it fully autonomous look at the benefit in that. Load it up with "speed balls" in the back and send it off. Don't have to worry about a crew getting shotdown or plowing into the mountainside.

 

Fair enough. I just don't think it's going to happen in 1 or 2 years. Well, at least fast enough to make a significant difference in Afghanistan.

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